Monckyman

Just say no.

Never liked that song. Still dont

I'm sure Bilbo is distracted otherwise the reading lobby would be in effect. I once had a tutor who theorised that the brains visual memory was much more powerful than the audio equivalent and so reading helped transfer all that data to a larger RAM pocket in the brain. Good theory, I always seem to remember some thing more if I write it down, even if I then throw the note away. Personally, I hated reading lessons and felt that for every semi Demi quaver I learned to recognise, a little bit of my musical soul died. This may not of course,be the case with you,and reading is a massive tool. But the point is, learn to trust your EARS. Carry on.

This is an interesting thread and one that dovetails into the "sound man f***ed my sound up" threads that pop up every time someone realises their Bergantino can't be heard by the audience. Most of us use half decent P.As nowadays and simply don't need the grunt we used to. In fact, from a sonic perspective quieter rigs are preferable for a better mix out front. So,what about us and what we hear? I reckon wedge shaped boxes are the way to go,if you have that half decent FOH. I have been working on this theory for the last year by binning the big Ampeg boxes and going with an Ashdown mini 4x8 ,BUT its sat on a keyboard stand so I actually hear a decent direct sound. I tried an angled guitar amp stand and that worked pretty well also. I don't need the sub frequencies, as some of you have started to suss,I believe it actually prevents proper monitoring of your articulation and high frequency detail. I usually have quite a mid range accent in the Ashdown( with an Ampeg PF500) but with the drummers 15"active wedge and the 4 15"s in the FOH there's plenty of low end about anyway. I'm trying to make the transition to a wedge In front of me, rather than a box behind me,which my head knows will be sonically superior all round, but my heart tells me isn't rock and roll. I'm not saying the big rigs aren't sweet, in their place ,but I suspect most of us gig in smaller and more self contained circumstances and that's what we are talking about here. So, in essence, small pokey boxes aimed at your ears should provide all you need on a gig rather than that 4x10 SVT blowing through your knees and taking out a few fillings in the audience. Waffle over.

Be damned then

Just turned up at rehearsal and nobody there. Called on phone and no answer. Now that's a cowards way of telling you to f*** off. I still polish the van with their shirt.

[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1373022864' post='2132855'] Ah. Now I understand your earlier post a bit better. Don't take it personally man - I'm sure you are a great engineer and that bands love to work with you, but many of us have experiences that suggest that you are unusual in that respect! [/quote] I was crap when I was younger and didn't know my arse from my EQ. I'm not taking this personally but I do find it annoying when people slag engineers off without trying to understand what the engineer is up to. Basically, if you aren't paying your own guy, you can't expect anything other than the most basic of sounds.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1373019975' post='2132815'] No I've only done a couple of such things but in both cases the conversation with the engineer was "hey, you got a DI on your amp" "yes" "cheers". It beats me why anyone would prefer to take a raw instrument feed that needs EQing and compressing when they can just take the amp feed. Whatever next, are they going to take a midi out from the keyboard because they want them to all sound the same - it just defies all logic. [/quote] No professional engineer wants to rely on your amp and cable if he doesn't have to. No professional engineer wants your cab EQ through his rig also. You may be using a 2x10 and he has a 20k rig. A nice analogy would be you EQing your amp for your 2x10 then using that amp with a 4x12 and leaving the EQ the same. It would almost certainly not suit the different cab. Well that's what the house engineer faces when you walk in to a club and insist on "your sound". Get over it, your sound is probably like a million others anyway >>>>>>>>>>>runs

Seems to me,( and I have my own f***witted engineer stories also,)that most bassists like to be in control of technical matters, and consequently don't like complete strangers delivering their sound to an audience. Yes, engineers spend lots more time on drums than bass. There are usually however, between 5 and 13 microphones on a drum kit, with loads of rattly out of tune drums that may need gating and individually EQing etc. The drummer will then insist on Floydian monitor levels of kick drum in his wedge causing several more problems to deal with. The bass on the other hand has a D.I and possibly a Mic.,usually sits in the same spectrum as everybody else's bass and can be EQd,compressed and out there in less than ten minutes. If it takes longer the engineer is an idiot. Which is what you think anyway so... My wedding band rarely gets engineered by anyone but myself, but on three occasions we have played beer fests and a club with its own system. Gig one, big outdoor fest, nice onstage monitors and desk, pro engineer.Who was on the phone during our set and rarely looked up to see if we wanted anything. w***er. Gig two in a club with an "engineer" who clearly couldn't operate the old Yamaha 01 properly, so who didn't actually EQ anything at all. He was out having a smoke when our Backing track d.i went down. He didn't approve of them anyway so they remained inoperative for the whole set. Gig three beer fest in a tent. Another digi desk with the Gaffa Lad mixing. I know he was the company gofer coz they were all out at another much larger fest. He saved our sound check to the desk but didn't take into account the analogue pre amps,so when he recalled, after doing ankther two loud guitar bands all our levels were completely wrong. He refused to accept this and did nothing. Accoustic D.I died during set, he did nothing. By this time I'm gearing up to twatting him with my bass but manage to grit teeth and carry on. There are a lot of young and inexperienced engineers in local clubs,coz they work for peanuts and need the experience. If we are working at that level we just have to try to ensure we are prepared and have as much info for them as possible to get the best gig experience. No point getting upset about it, you aren't paying them, the clubs barely pay them and it will always be like that. My local club often does 6 bands a night and the engineer gets £60 That's a tenner a band for a sound check a changeover and a show. More money working at MacDonalds.

[quote name='thisnameistaken' timestamp='1372953500' post='2132097'] Most* sound guys just want to get the night over with and go home, the last thing they care about is what the bass sounds like, that's why they'll spend an hour EQing the drums and probably under a minute on the bass. Even if you do get a post-EQ signal out to the desk most guys will pull out most of your signal anyway. Sadly most sound guys are rockers, and they're used to the bass sound in rock bands, so they think your role is purely to make the guitar sound bigger. In reality most bands have hopeless plodding bass players anyway so their beliefs are reinforced daily. Good luck getting anything better out of them. * I did say 'most'. [/quote] Utter bollocks.

QOTSA John Grants Pale Green Ghosts,excellent moody electronics by Icelandic producer Gusgus mixed with a band formed from Midlake fronted by a very witty and bitchy gay guy with a bad attitude. Greatest m*****f***er is track of the year so far.

Yeah, you might need to use a power conditioner.

[i]sack the singer[/i]

Might help your tone Indesit in the mix better.

Man. You got funked up. It'll pass. Don't sell yer plectrums.

Thought this might be of interest to the cab versus P.A debate. http://www.prosoundweb.com/article/communication_amongst_aliens_musicians_are_from_jupiter_engineers_are_from_/live/P2/

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1370681858' post='2104263'] Interesting to note that the judge who presided over the whole legal unpleasantness commented that he found Andy to be honest and straightforward....and Morrissey evasive, truculent and to be of only a moderate intelligence! Wow, what a spat. [/quote] And so to the lyric: "Beware I hold more grudges than lonely high court Judges" SOH required for Morrissey content.

Sounds like a quite imminently deaf band to me. Loud is great fun and makes it all nice and exciting,but if its that loud, you're doing it wrong. Hey nonny nonny no.

Have a waft of McVities making Jaffa cakes on me and next time I'm in Mersey square Ill pull my hood closer against the rain and smog and think of you.

I reckon the Bass Doc might be able to help.