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Does anyone just use a bass & amp?


The59Sound

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1 hour ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

I'd happily put my bass straight into the desk with a decent monitor wedge pointing back at me. 

I've never done this and always wondered how good the bass comes through on a FOH PA system. You're at the mercy of a) the quality of the PA and b) ditto the sound techie. Unless the venue is huge (and for me that's never the case) then I'd go for pumping through a decent amp which I can control and possibly with a feed out into the desk to give the techie some belief that he's really running the sound. :D

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1 hour ago, claptonite said:

I've never done this and always wondered how good the bass comes through on a FOH PA system. You're at the mercy of a) the quality of the PA and b) ditto the sound techie. Unless the venue is huge (and for me that's never the case) then I'd go for pumping through a decent amp which I can control and possibly with a feed out into the desk to give the techie some belief that he's really running the sound. :D

Even at small venues I go through the pa these days, if the venue is big enough for a sound engineer you should be aiming to keep your amp volume lower than the pa. 

The bigger the venue the quieter the stage :D

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4 minutes ago, stingrayPete1977 said:

The bigger the venue the quieter the stage :D

Tru, dat. Back in the day some engineers would have me turn down to the point where my Ampeg SVT-CL and 8X10 were basically a very large stage monitor. Cracking sound out front, though. :)

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16 hours ago, bazzbass said:

I have heaps of pedals and boards, dunno why, I hardly ever use them lol

If I'm cabbing it to a gig with backline, a gigbag with my polytune will do me.or the polytune clipon.

For gigs where I'm taking the rig, I'll use a board with Polytune, MXR M87 Compressor and my G30 wireless. Not that I move much, but I like to hear the soundcheck whilst walking the room to make sure it's sounding good.

If going into the PA I'll add one of my preamp DIs, the M80 or Ampeg SCR DI or PBDDI. Or just my Radial J48 DI.

 

too many choices, fart oo many

I don't move much either. Unless the invisible bear shows up.

Blue

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At a festival last summer I walked onto the stage with my bass and humble BDI 21 and was up and running, soundchecked, within 30 seconds. Admittedly it was a great sound system with good foldback and pro sound guys. Sounded fantastic out front too. It can be done.

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3 minutes ago, ChrisJaxon said:

I walked onto the stage with my bass and humble BDI 21 and was up and running, soundchecked, within 30 seconds. Admittedly it was a great sound system with good foldback and pro sound guys. Sounded fantastic out front too. It can be done.

Nothing better, but as said before if the PA and personnel are less than perfect, it's a giant pain in the bum. :)

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I think only twice before have I just used a DI box for gigging - I did know beforehand that the FOH was really good and the wedges on stage were great for personal monitoring. Too much of a crap shoot to try it every gig.

I'm sure guitarists still don't understand how DI boxes work...

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45 minutes ago, The59Sound said:

I think only twice before have I just used a DI box for gigging - I did know beforehand that the FOH was really good and the wedges on stage were great for personal monitoring. Too much of a crap shoot to try it every gig.

I'm sure guitarists still don't understand how DI boxes work...

I'm not sure myself.  DI boxes  provide an interface between instrument and sound desk, right?

The abbreviation stands for Direct Injection, I believe.  I assume it's to supply signal level that is not too much for the desk.  I only used one twice myself and that was about thirty five years ago!  The function of the DI box seems to be available as a feature within bundled fx devices these days.

I would like to know who makes  the simplest and most reliable stand alone DI boxes for FRFR situations should they ever occur.

It might serve this topic well if someone in the know provides a brief technical description of the DI box/function for us all.

Edited by SpondonBassed
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4 hours ago, The59Sound said:

I'm sure guitarists still don't understand how DI boxes work...

Do they have to know? Talking to the guys I play with, their sound is usually generated by over driving various parts of their gear so a mic in front of the speaker is the best way of putting guitars through the FOH.

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5 hours ago, claptonite said:

That's detailed and explains in some depth, thank you.

I would still enjoy seeing it discussed here however.  The terminology may not always be technically correct but it is always entertaining reading how some of the BC parishioners describe the electrickery stuff.

4 hours ago, discreet said:

Radial make good DI boxes.

Ta.

Is a hundred and fifty quid fairly representative of a good quality entry level DI box?

Radial Pro D2

I remember the sound man in Dublin had a DI box for me in his toolkit.  Even if that is the norm, I'd imagine it is a good investment to make for regular gigging.

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On 4/18/2018 at 06:23, The59Sound said:

Got me thinking with the amount of pedals coming out every month - is the idea of using a bass straight into an amp old fashioned or do you feel you can't get a workable tone without pedals?

Do people love the simplicity of plugging straight in and just using the EQ to get a good sound? 

Yep, I do and it works for me. Haven't used a pedal board in years (had to flog it on here because I was skint). 

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On 4/18/2018 at 23:16, Deedee said:

Bass ➡️ Zoom B3 ➡️ Trace Head ➡️ Berg cab

There are a couple of tunes that require specific effects.  95% of the time I play clean, just using the tuner on the B3.

I'm with you bro....bass to Zoom B3 to TH500 to BF 2x10...B3 is 99% on same setting and used as a tuner, never had a complaint, never felt dissatisfied, don't really care what anyone else thinks!

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2 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

Is a hundred and fifty quid fairly representative of a good quality entry level DI box?

I use a Behringer DI400P which is about £18.  I'm sure a Radial is slightly better. But I'm yet to be convinced I need to spend 10 times more.  (I am listening though, if anyone wants to try.)

 

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1 hour ago, jrixn1 said:

I use a Behringer DI400P which is about £18.  I'm sure a Radial is slightly better. But I'm yet to be convinced I need to spend 10 times more.  (I am listening though, if anyone wants to try.)

 

IMO Behringer gear really punches above its weight. The BDI21 is a great Sansamp clone, yes the Sansamp is better but again, is it 10 times better, probably not but it costs ten times the amount (and should point out I`m a major Tech21 fan so not being critical of their products at all).

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3 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

Is a hundred and fifty quid fairly representative of a good quality entry level DI box?

No, I wouldn't say a Radial is entry-level. I carry a BDI-21 in case of emergency, which has a DI out, but not a dedicated DI box. Engineers prefer to use their own and I'm happy to let 'em. :)

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