Jack

They're Warwick.

Hi Roger, speaker size really has very little to do with the tone. Well actually that's not quite true but the point is that it's just not as simple a question as you're making it out to be. From the two cabinets you mention I'd probably suggest the 210 for you. It's a bit taller to get the sound out better and it'll be narrower on the stairs. Do be aware though that it's 4 ohm, and you won't be able to add another. I think, given your volume requirements, that shouldn't be a problem. Most importantly, welcome to bass and basschat!

Small pub gig for The White Line at The Bluebell in Jesmond. It was a little weird for me, they've only really just started putting bands on so it was the first time I've ever played there but it was a student hangout for 3 years straight. I feel like I know every millimeter of the place. Gig was solid, we played well and were asked back but I felt a little bit of apathy from the crowd to be honest, plenty of people singing along and such but just really sitting in their seats and not really getting involved. Thanks much to the three drunk ladies who at least danced for the encore. "Could have been a jukebox", the occasional curse of the pub band. At this point a rig shot seems redundant but it seems to be expected. The only thing that's changed in the past 3 years or so is that my venerable Samsung SMT800 stopped charging properly after the last gig, so this gig was the first with my brand new Amazon Fire HD10 to control the mixer and it performed flawlessly. Bass was my 2007 EBMM Ray 4, Shure GLXD, HX Stomp. Vocals were a sore throat, Prodipe TT1 Pro, K&M 25600. Foldback was a QSC K12.2 with a lot of vocals and a small amount of bass, high passed at the same 120Hz we do our tops at. Post gig pizza was pepperoni from On The Go Pizza. Is that enough? Can I go now?

I'd imagine that the user error would be roughly the same whether it was a DI or a mic.

What makes you think the PA doesn't get tuned for the room? What makes you think there's a way a bass cab should sound? Do you just want 100% accurate reproduction? What if that doesn't work?

Things like this aren't insurmountable though. You close mic the full range half and then boost the bass on the channel sightly until it sounds vaguely similar. Or just use a mic with some proximity effect to have a bass boosted start. A lot of people seem to think that the point of micing the cab is to perfectly convey some ideal cab sound into the room but I mean, the cab sounds different in every room anyway. To me at least the point of micing the cab is more about chopping some of the harsh edges off of a DI signal and having a slightly more old school starting sound in the PA, but any engineer is still going to modify that sound however they see fit to match the mix, the pa system and the room.

I've never miced my own cabinet on stage but when I was working at a secondary school I got very involved with their live sound and we bought some of the Thomann BD 200 and they are surprisingly good for bass and guitar amps, as well as drums. Not many people have a bad word to say about Thomann's own brand stuff and these are good by any metric and amazing for the money you pay. Maybe check those out if you were just thinking of dipping your toes in. However, my lasting legacy at that school has been removing mics from loud stages and encouraging DI use, so take that for what you will.

Some power supplies (like my excellent Cioks DC7) have a usb built in. For those that don't there's the Rock Stock Bright Switch. I would offer you mine that I don't need any more, but I don't remember where it is...

If you only have occasional dep work on bass does that mean you play other instruments? If so the HX Stomp as mentioned above is the one to go for here. That sounds killer on bass but also anything else with a 1/4" output. If you want the Sansamp but with less boom and more mid then try the Paradriver. Those are actually my two preamps and I couldn't be happier.

Ah but I don't think you've noticed the porting under the speaker, which pumps out those low frequencies.

No photos but there is a dodgy phone camera recording, does that count? The White Line in Newcastle.

As an entitled millennial I can tell you that plenty of people do! Seriously (and rather pathetically if I'm honest) I have often spent ages shopping for something, convincing myself that I really need it, feeling elated when buying it, and then having regrets when it actually turns up. I'm genuinely a little worried about my excessive consumerism and it's something I try and stop myself from doing.

I've posted this before, but unfortunately my setup has settled into something that is exceedingly capable, if a little boring and I just haven't changed anything in years. Either digital or analogue, depending on mood.

It's not even just vintage or rare guitars. In the past 5-6 years I struggled to sell a Bongo HH for £750 and Stingray H 2eq for £700. Both would be almost double now, certainly £500 more.

In fairness to Quincy Jones, he's never heard me.

I couldn't play this, I certainly couldn't sing it. To do both at once?

Those projector screens are amazing, you'd swear there was a real drum kit on the stage.

Plenty of us here build our own, I'm certainly a much better computerer than I am bass player. Stick a post up when you need to.

Yes but the issue with that is that 'sound engineer' can mean 'multiple person crew at a large festival where both the monitor engineer and the foh techs have large format consoles with line and mic inputs' and 'dude with broken 20 year old Mackie who isn't even really paying attention and doesn't know how to work it when he is'.

There are a few inline attenuators that you can get if you don't want to mess about with specific cables. Like this cheaper one or this more expensive one.

Well it occurs to me that the jack cables you were using aren't balanced, so you might be able to replace the cable>di>cable rig with a trs to xlr cable, but I'm not sure what's causing the noise, so I'm not sure if that would fix it. I'd be tempted to try hooking everything up to one power strip that is plugged in to one socket and see if that helps.

Argh, where abouts in Newcastle did you play?