Dealing with bass live? Getting on the road & working live sound out still...

[kev]

Hey guys,

Started a thread recently about dealing with live drums. This is a similar one for you live dudes but for bass.

Is the best idea to run a DI direct to PA for pub/club gigs?

For practice he has a solid state peavey stack (not sure if they are any good or not but I suspect not- his setup sucks to my ears) Likes to use a few effects and distortions but i'm not sure we need to be using all this backline stuff cluttering up the sound to hell.

Looks like we might use axe FX II & pod HD500 for guitars, a nice tama kit with a triggered kick for drums, but have been unsure about the bass.

The idea I've got at the moment is running everything direct into the PA to keep things as clear as possible and minimise gear carrying. Not sure if my plan is badly flawed yet

Cheers : )

 

[JonWormwood]

If the venue as the power, you could run a bddi/psa straight in!

 

[B36arin]

I hope you're playing big venues with big PAs. When my band was on tour through Europe with Týr/Moonsorrow/Crimfall we mostly played venues with a capacity of 3-800 people. Out of 14 dates there were several shows where there was no way in hell that the PA would have been able to handle anything close to what you're talking about... Running triggers(and drums), guitars, vocals and a bass through the PA at a club gig with acoustic drums is very optimistic to say the least

 

[tempe]

Yeah don't get to far ahead of yourselves! Keep it simple dude, especially if you're playing smaller venues where the house engineer probably isn't used to dealing with things like samples / triggers.

 

[Terminus]

When we would play smaller gigs our bass player would just bring his 4x10/head and then bring along his sansamp bass driver just in case it was possible to plug in to the P.A.. It's nice to have a DI input when available but it's not always going to be. I've played some downtown places here in A-town where they don't even mic the guitar cabs, the PA is so small.

 

[if6was9]

Yeah gotta say that unless you're playing some capable venues and bringing around your own sound guy this is gonna cause some huge problems on tour. In my experience, alot of venues will have insufficent monitoring to cater for all this and it's quite possible that some places won't have the from system either.
I always Di the bass, but you really will only be reinforcing the live stage sound, not crafting the mix like in the studio. The real killer here will be the acoustic drums- getting everything else heard live over the cymbals and snare will be your biggest problem.

Thats said, you can't go wrong with a sansamp bass driver di. I just recently bought one but over the last few years I've always been impressed with the tone they put out when doing sound.

 

[Sloan]

If PA system is good, sansamp direct in rulez. if chance of bad pa, bring a good amp.

 

[Melb_shredder]

Bass -> Comp Pedal -> BDI -> Split to AMP (Foldback really) and DESK.. That's really IMO the best way to do it... ever!

 

[xFkx]

if the instrument sounds good, then your saved, you can get away with a shitty guitar, but not with a shitty bass.

usualy I just do one or two notches to get rid of excesive mud/honk/rattle. Then some compression (around 4-6 db gr, so the level is more or less constant, but the compression doesn't make the instrument dissapear into the back of the mix), and send the channel to the sub aux.

This is the case with a good PA, with shitty PA you'll have to be creative (and by that I mean you'll tear your hair out)

 

[ahjteam]

Bass -> Tuner -> DI box -> Effect pedals -> Amp -> Mic

The sound guy will use them or not.

 

[Damage, Inc.]

Unless you're 100% certain that every club has an acceptable monitor and front end system, you don't want to leave the backline gear at home.