EQ settings with live indie band..

[jmstone]

Hi everyone!

I have been messing with my EQ settings a bit in my new band (which is much more early 90's indie guitar sound than Kitten Cake) and I have found something rather unexpected. I am playing on my 1979 Ibanez Roadster RS800, which has a kind of punchy, but certainly not very HiFi kind of sound..

On the house Ashdown MAG300 4x10, I tried some EQ boosting of low-mids (660Hz+) and it certainly helps with hearing the bass notes in the band setting, but listening to everything playing together, it sounds rather boxy and lacking depth - seems to mask the guitars quite badly too. At our last rehearsal, I just boosted 100hz and 340Hz, cutting mids and treble and it actually sounded much better to my ears - mixing better with the guitars - than the more mid-boost approach that seems to be generally recommended..

So what's going on? Are my ears playing tricks on me? Is this some strange thing to do with my bass/amp setup? Ideas?

[Wil]

If it sounds good, it is good. A band mix tends to require that each instrument occupies it's own space in the frequency spectrum, so if your guitarists are occupying the low mids territory then it may be best to cut back those frequencies and fill things out with low end instead. If you are going to cut your mids a touch of treble can be a good thing in terms of hearing yourself though.

[Lozz196]

As with all recommendations for live sound, as Wil said, each instrument is occupying a specific space, so competing doesn`t help. I`ve always gone with the "everything flat and adjust to what sounds right" approach. I`m not really fussed if it goes completely against theory, as long as it sounds right. And from what you`ve put, it seems that you`ve hit the right sound for your band.

One thing I would point out though - if possible, try moving a good way out front, as what can sound perfect close-up, can really sound horrible out front. At a gig I did with my old band, I set up, great on-stage sound, plenty of lows, crystal clear highs, good mid presence, sorted! Went way out front for sound-check, as was a big venue, and all I could hear was a horrible booming sludge. Rapid re-adjustment to the old boosted mids theory, sounded dreadful on-stage, clanky, with no depth, but out front, was exactly right, fitted in perfectly.

[jmstone]

[quote name='Lozz196' post='1218866' date='May 3 2011, 05:15 PM']As with all recommendations for live sound, as Wil said, each instrument is occupying a specific space, so competing doesn`t help. I`ve always gone with the "everything flat and adjust to what sounds right" approach. I`m not really fussed if it goes completely against theory, as long as it sounds right. And from what you`ve put, it seems that you`ve hit the right sound for your band.

One thing I would point out though - if possible, try moving a good way out front, as what can sound perfect close-up, can really sound horrible out front. At a gig I did with my old band, I set up, great on-stage sound, plenty of lows, crystal clear highs, good mid presence, sorted! Went way out front for sound-check, as was a big venue, and all I could hear was a horrible booming sludge. Rapid re-adjustment to the old boosted mids theory, sounded dreadful on-stage, clanky, with no depth, but out front, was exactly right, fitted in perfectly.[/quote]

Thanks for this.. very good point!

At the moment, it's only been in a (relatively small) rehearsal space - so maybe the EQ needs to be quite significantly different there than at a gig.. I think small rooms can get standing waves so low frequencies are cancelled out??

I can imagine having to carefully tune the EQ depending on the shape of the room we are going to play in live - seems like a bit of a nightmare - but maybe not the main consideration compared to having good songs, playing tight etc..

I did once hear another band playing thru my rig live - it was a really amazing chunky cutting sound, with just a touch of grind.. I was straining to see what EQ settings he had it on - in the end I realised he had disabled the EQ and was just playing straight thru.. Maybe his nice Fender Jazz had something to do with it tho!

J