moonbass

Mark has just taken a bass off my hands. Impeccable buyer; arranged own courier and funds deposited very promptly. Great communications. Hope you enjoy the bass Mark! Andy

You might also consider saving some money to get some lighting. Most gig videos (of smaller gigs to least) tend to suffer due to lack of light make no footage grainy, and what light there is is coloured LEDs which don’t really complement humans. I reckon some cheap DIY shop floods with dispersion gel out the front would probably improve video quality more than several hundred quid of video technology.

I would go portable with a MacBook as he’s probably going to want to record a gig or rehearsal at some point, and lugging an iMac around is not fun. I’d also recommend using a LaCie Rugged external hard drive rather than internal, using the Thunderbolt ports they’re easily quick enough, and it stops Logic falling over on complex projects.

I think it’s reasonable to provide a post-eq, effect-ed sound to the FoH if you have a specific sound in mind. But, and it’s a big but, only if you are willing to change it if it sounds like garbage out front. Notably what your amazing sonic signature sounds like 2 foot from your cab, will often sound like a boomy mess 20foot back in the venue as the bass propogates. Particularly if you’ve scooped all the mid frequency out. The bottom line is you need to work with the FoH sound guy to get the best out of the gig.

I think NS do a ‘traditional’ version of their EUBs that have a higher action and more DB like tone (or they used to anyway) Also, If recording with them (rather than playing live) I once used a small condenser microphone mounted on the end of the fingerboard which gave a much more DB-like sound. For live work, the portability and easy amplification are massive pluses over DB of course, but you’re always going to look a bit geeky with and EUB.

I’d say leave it to the sound guy to decide; if he doesn’t know how to set things then he probably shouldn’t be putting you through the PA. That being said I’d suggest pre-EQ (unless you’re using the effects loop for the GT10), and keep everything except bass and kick (and possibly keys and guitar depending on venue/genre) out of the sub’s. Not sure what you’re driving at with the crossover, but setting it around 80Hz would probably be fine.

I've been doing iPad mixing for a few years and wouldn't go back; the joy of fiddling with levels while buying a pint at the bar, or having a pee is entirely liberating I started using iPad with the Soundcraft Expression 1; good option if you want a traditional desk format with added iPad. Then moved onto Soundcraft Ui16, Behringer XR18 and now X32 core. I reckon best bang for your buck is the XR18 (I wouldn't go for the small XRs as they don't do multichannel recording). But would probably suggest external router for stable connection. As well as freedom for the engineer, they allow musicians to set their own monitor levels. Much easier to do in ear mixes. Loads of effect processing options. The learning curve can be steep, but not too bad if you're used to using DAWs to record music. It is an expensive endeavour, but pros hugely outweigh cons in my mind.

You don’t need a crossover as such, just put a high pass filter on the main outs to your tops (easily done on the Soundcraft.) And a low pass filter on the aux outs to the sub set to the same frequency (probably about 80Hz?)

Just wire the sub from an aux send. There should be an eq on the channel on the Soundcraft. I would only send the kick, bass, and possibly keys to the sub.

Is that Tony previously of Real Time Music in Chesterfield? Bought my first bass and amp from him. Also used to have an awesome preEB Stingray he let me use a few times at his Jam Nights. Probably about 20 years ago... yikes!

Subs are certainly dangerous in the wrong hands, but if used properly can do things a full range top just can't do. I would go as far to say that without having a sound engineer you shouldn't be using subs (unless you really know what you're doing). (But yes, they're a pain in the arse to lug around!) You absolutely only need one decent one for most rooms. I've said it before, but they are a lot easier to control if you have them on an aux/mon out than trying to use with the main outs with a crossover. There is no need for vocals or guitars to get anywhere near them.