Muddy bass sound at smaller venues with wooden floors

[logicred]

Hi all. I play in a funk band and have a jazz bass, markbass 1x15 and 2x10. Love the scooped sound. In my house, and when recorded the sound is perfect. When playing outside gigs, it's great. HOWEVER, I am struggling with pub or hall gigs which are large and often have wooden floors. No matter what I do, I just hear a muddy sound. I have wireless so can stand at various places whilst doing a sound check which is handy, but the sound is just so muddy when the traditional "both pickup selected" sound is there. I can favour the bridge pickup which makes it a tiny bit better, but then sounds thin.

We have a decent PA and I DI out into this a tiny bit, but anything too loud and it just sounds to tinny (I do lots of slap). EQ wise, everything is pretty flat. I usually take the mids out a bit, but put them back in halfway through the gig and it sounded worse to my ears.

Any advice appreciated. I am wondering if I should try a stingray for stuff like that which will cut through a bit more...

Thanks in advance.

[T-Bay]

Not sure if it's the same problem but I asked on here about playing on a sprung floor recently. The suggestion was to use thick dense foam to insulate the cabs from the floor. I tried with and without and was amazed at the difference in clarity so may be worth a try for you.

[chris_b]

Dial back the filters. They are off when turned fully anticlockwise. Try a high pass filter to reduce unwanted low frequencies.

Reduce the lows and push the mids to improve definition. A GRAMMA pad might help.

My suggestion would be to ditch the 115 and use 2 210 cabs.

[PaulWarning]

scooped sound is lovely when playing on your own but live with the rest of the band it's a no no, I've got a Trace GP12 and I turn all the sliders down below 100Hz, and don't use the TE shape button, what you hear and what the crowd hears are 2 different things, generally you need to think you're not 'bassy' enough but you probably are especially if there's a bit of a crowd in, I've found that bass is particularly affected by bodies in the room

Edited May 27, 2017 by PaulWarning

[logicred]

Really good advice so far, thanks everyone! As it happens, yesterday I was playing on a raised small stage area so the foam certainly may have helped there.Agreed 100% about the amount of people affecting the bass sound, i have also found that.

[jonnythenotes]

Check out Micro Thumpinator, in particular the video of the cab before and after plugging in to it. Brilliant bits of kit. I bought one a few months ago, and it was money well spent. It won't fix the problem for you, but it removes a lot of the bass turbulence that's part of the problem..

[only4]

I also recommend trying an isolation pad, I use mine all the time and seem to get a consistent sound whatever the floor is made from.

[Highfox]

Get it off the floor on a beer crate or the like if you aren't doing that.

[oldbass]

[quote name='PaulWarning' timestamp='1495873931' post='3307170']
scooped sound is lovely when playing on your own but live with the rest of the band it's a no no, I've got a Trace GP12 and I turn all the sliders down below 100Hz, and don't use the TE shape button, what you hear and what the crowd hears are 2 different things, generally you need to think you're not 'bassy' enough but you probably are especially if there's a bit of a crowd in, I've found that bass is particularly affected by bodies in the room
[/quote]

+++++++++1 in fact when your sounding thin and sh*tty on stage the audience are getting full, rich and round tone heaven in the mush pit.

[ambient]

It's the mids that give clarity to your sound, and will enable it to be heard.

The whole band turning down a notch or 2 can help in boomy rooms too.

[Lozz196]

Markbass cabs have a fair bit of top-end roll-off, hence why the DI`d sound is tinnier/sharper. Additionally the wooden flooring isn`t going to be helping, so the suggestion of an isolation pad is a good one, as that will get the sound from the speakers nearer to that through the PA. I`d cut back some highs through the PA as well.

[stingrayPete1977]

Nah get a Stingray like were thinking in the first place

[logicred]

Thanks again all. Some interesting reading. Will definitely try a home made dense foam riser. Appreciate the comments about the audience hearing something different, but as mentioned with the wireless I can walk into the audience area during a sound check and hear what they hear (which is just a muddy bass sound).

The reason I mentioned about the stingray (!) was I used a Ray34 for a while and had no issues whatsoever if I recall. I think my main point about the thread was the use of the jazz 'both pickup' sound which no matter how good the amp would always sounded muddy...

[stingrayPete1977]

I've always struggled with the both pickups on with a jazz bass, I've put an active circuit in mine too.

[ivansc]

Another vote for something like the auralex foam thingies. Mine was the solution to all the oomy wooden stages, etc., and coincidentally seems to help on the few occasions when I have to play directly on a concrete floor no stage.