bass in PA

[mrtcat]

Following on from an interesting thread over last week or so about putting everything through the Pa, can any of the guys who put bass through at small to medium sized gigs offer any eq advice. I saw bill fitzmaurice mention in another thread that he uses a high pass filter at 160hz. This is interesting as I always find bass really gets wallowy in the PA mix and so I'll definitely give his approach a go. Any other suggestions?

[JTUK]

hmmm not sure, I'd have to hear it but it rather defeats the object/concept of bass in the P.A in the 1st place.
As you may know, we don't tend to put full-on instrument signals in anyway so if the filter worked as a limiter
rather than a cut-off, you may use them to protect the tops...
As for the sound being wallowy, some subs we have tried out are inherently flubby and lack focus.
I would use a degree of bass control or roll-off in a sub as the cab is designed to be deep anyway.
As always quality of signal in trumps trying to fix signal out, IMO

Edited September 11, 2014 by JTUK

[Les]

The two items that generally need a bit of eq'ing through the PA are the kick and my bass. Almost everything else is close to flat on the desk.

On my bass I use the desks parametric to find and then cut the "boom" I get, same for the kick but a different frequency. Couldn't tell you the frequency as I use my ears.

But you can certainly eq the "wallowy" sound out.

[Lozz196]

When my old band used to put everything through the PA I generally went pre-eq, and it was left flat on the desk. But we weren`t making things louder, it was only a very small presence in the PA to spread the sound. If I`d knocked off the volume on my amp (I DI`d from my pedal) the reduction in volume the audience heard would have been immense.

[Les]

[quote name='mrtcat' timestamp='1410429676' post='2549297']
I saw bill fitzmaurice mention in another thread that he uses a high pass filter at 160hz. This is interesting as I always find bass really gets wallowy in the PA mix and so I'll definitely give his approach a go. Any other suggestions?
[/quote]

Should have said, our desk has a low cut switch on each channel at 100hz. I engage this on every channel though conventional wisdom seems to be everything but the kick and the bass and bass heavy synth stuff. Makes eliminating the woolyness you mention easier but still leaves bottom end punch.