Finding your sound

[Stub Mandrel]

My local club is the one venue where almost every band praises the sound.

 

It is rectangular with all dimensions very different. The ceiling steps down at the far end, but is all suspended tiles that absorb sound well. This mesms there are no strong resonances.

 

One side has several windows, but with curtains. Curtains across the patio-style door behind the band. The ends of (normally hidden) skittle runs each side create modest sound traps behind the band. The suspended floor gas heavyweight vinyl that seems to stop any booming. It sounds fairly dead with no noticeable reverb.

 

Asudd from the curtains, none of this was deliberate, just a happy chance.

[Stub Mandrel]

Hard to see but they are deep brown.

 

 

[ezbass]

2 hours ago, Stub Mandrel said:

Hard to see but they are deep brown.

 

 

Lovely peppers, but how do these affect your sound?  

[Russ]

I've gone through a few phases over the years. I used to go for a very mids-heavy sound and quite heavy-handed technique to try and cut through in a band with two guitarists with Dual Rectifiers. It sounded decent, but a bit boxy and it peaked out a lot. Then I decided to go back and re-engineer everything and try and get something closer to the Tony Levin sound, with my own twist. So I started using a moderate amount of compression (I used to avoid it if possible), scooped out everything around 800Hz and started playing with a much lighter touch to "play" the compressor, so the bottom end bloomed out more, but still kept definition in the high mids and treble so the sound cuts through. A bit more mids, and a little wash of DG-style distortion gets added for when the guitarist goes off to solo to fill things out a bit. I'm also not averse to a bit of delay/reverb, and love me a bit of ambient/shimmer reverb.

 

It took a while to get to this point though, lots of experimentation with playing style, basses, effects, gain staging and so on. It's the sort of thing that only really comes with time and lots of listening. 

[Baloney Balderdash]

I utilize an "amp-less" setup, that took years, a lot of thought and experimentation, to perfect, which purpose is to emulate having an amp and a cab.

 

And my primary reason for this is that I get a very consistent tone whether I practice at home with a pair of decent approximately FRFR studio grade headphones, jam at band rehearsal space through a PA or FRFR cab, play live at a venue through their PA system, or record.

 

And as a welcome bonus it frees me for having to drag around with amps and cabs.

 

It's all on my pedalboard. 

 

Edited 23 hours ago by Baloney Balderdash

[BassAdder60]

On 02/10/2025 at 16:09, Russ said:

I've gone through a few phases over the years. I used to go for a very mids-heavy sound and quite heavy-handed technique to try and cut through in a band with two guitarists with Dual Rectifiers. It sounded decent, but a bit boxy and it peaked out a lot. Then I decided to go back and re-engineer everything and try and get something closer to the Tony Levin sound, with my own twist. So I started using a moderate amount of compression (I used to avoid it if possible), scooped out everything around 800Hz and started playing with a much lighter touch to "play" the compressor, so the bottom end bloomed out more, but still kept definition in the high mids and treble so the sound cuts through. A bit more mids, and a little wash of DG-style distortion gets added for when the guitarist goes off to solo to fill things out a bit. I'm also not averse to a bit of delay/reverb, and love me a bit of ambient/shimmer reverb.

 

It took a while to get to this point though, lots of experimentation with playing style, basses, effects, gain staging and so on. It's the sort of thing that only really comes with time and lots of listening. 

Fingers or pick ? 
I’ve always found it harder to get my ideal tone from finger style but pick I start off with a better tone and try hard to fill it out and get the more depth to it. Compression especially Opto compression is making it even better 

[Nickthebass]

17 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

I utilize an "amp-less" setup, that took years, a lot of thought and experimentation, to perfect, which purpose is to emulate having an amp and a cab.

 

And my primary reason for this is that I get a very consistent tone whether I practice at home with a pair of decent approximately FRFR studio grade headphones, jam at band rehearsal space through a PA or FRFR cab, play live at a venue through their PA system, or record.

 

And as a welcome bonus it frees me for having to drag around with amps and cabs.

 

It's all on my pedalboard. 

 

I’m in a similar space to this, although I’m not amp-less. “My sound” is controlled by my pedalboard - EQ -> compressor -> BassRig SV. 

 

Front of house gets the sound of an SVT rig which has been tweaked to be genre appropriate and has already had a band pass to remove most of the junk. The rest of the EQ and compression is pretty light. I’ve done my best to make it easy for the engineer if it sounds bad out front it’s not my fault. 😁

 

Also - they’ll have a job making an SVT into an 810 sound like something different!

 

The BassRig jack out feeds the amp which can be EQ’d for the stage without comprising the FOH signal.