A Technical question about sub placement

[Jenny_Innie]

I have a technical question about sub placement.

Me and my girlie band are having our first outing next weekend at a party and we're borrowing a PA off my dad's drummer. Guitar, bass, drums, punkie. Nobody is coming with us to help set up - so we're sort of flying blind. We have a play with it at a rehearsal in the hall that the party will be in. All was fine, saved the settings and we'll tweak from there given that there will be people there and not an empty hall next time.

We didn't use the sub as it wouldn't fit in my boot- just the two tops and a couple of monitors. We'll have the sub on the day though.

Where do you put the sub (I mean physically place it). Is it okay to have it at the back beside the drummer? I know you ain't supposed to have the mics ahead of the vocal tops (which is fine) - but does the same apply for subs? Touch of bass and the kick will be going through there. There is a configurable/dedicated sub out on the desk.

It's just that the sub is big and will look weird and big and we're thinking of having some plant pots in the only space it could go at the front.

[bertbass]

Some useful info here, http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=398

Good luck with the gig!

[crez5150]

You should get it in front of the Mic's, especially if you are mic'ing the kick.... you'll get a load of boom/rumble from that. Can you not place it underneath one of the mid/high cabs and use a speaker pole between the two?

Edited December 10, 2014 by crez5150

[Truckstop]

Stick it out front somewhere.

If it's behind the band along with the rest of the backline you'll get a load of spill into your bass drum mic and it'll be really loud on stage too. The sub is not for the benefit of the band, it's for the benefit of the audience! Who cares if it looks a little weird?

Truckstop

[Phil Starr]

It isn't really very critical where you place it as the sub is omni directional (radiates equally in all directions) and in any case we aren't very sensitive to those frequencies. Conventionally it is often placed in the middle at the front of the band if you have a raised stage but putting it under one of the tops on a pole is equally good and at least makes it more difficult to knock the top over than on a stand. I find them great as a table to put the mixer on as well.

It's best not to put it in line with the mics if you can avoid it but most of the mics should have the bass filter on and most vocal mics are naturally insensitive to bass. It isn't ideal to have them behind the mics but sometimes you have to compromise and you should still be able to get a reasonable sound.

Don't agonise about it too much, just put the sub anywhere convenient, but be aware that putting it in a corner will increase the bass because the corners will reflect more of the bass into the room.

Have a great gig

Edited December 10, 2014 by Phil Starr

[Jenny_Innie]

Okay, also - so can you tell me what the difference is between the following outs on a bass amp:

Line Out
Send
Sub Out
DI

[VTypeV4]

Line out: Typically an unbalanced line level (not speaker / amplifier level) full range output on quarter inch jack. It's output level may be determined by a separate control or possibly in conjunction with your master volume. Use it to connect to other amplifiers or a mixer if an XLR connection is not available.

Send: Usually accompanied by a 'Return' jack socket which forms the other half of your FX loop. These are usually in series and interupt the signal through your amp. Modulation effects like chorus or phase are best placed here whereas overdrive / distortion are better before the amp.

Sub Out: A 'low pass' or 'high cut' output (ie not full range) for dedicated low frequency amplifier and speaker combinations. It may be paired with a frequency knob to control the upper bandwidth of it's output. Typically I'd expect a dedicated sub out to work at around 100hz downwards. This is probably on a jack although it's possible it's on an XLR connection.

DI Out: DI stands for 'Direct Injection' and is normally a balanced full range output on a 3-pin XLR connector for connecting the pre-amp (tone shaping, compressor etc) into a mixing console for live sound or recording purposes. It's output is usually determined by your input gain settings although it may have an independant output level.

Hope that helps.