Di sound tips. How to help the sound man?

[Monckyman]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1335260780' post='1628012']
I know it doesn’t help, but I saw Little Feat at the Shepherds Bush Empire and they had the worse sound and balance that I’ve ever heard. Bad FOH can happen at every level.

Do you know what the audience was hearing when your “bad” recording was made? If they were getting a good mix then you were ok inspite of the bad recording.

Unless the sound engineer has a very expensive system, recording off the desk is never going to be "studio quality" and it will sound different to the FOH mix. That's not what most FOH systems are designed to do, so the engineer might [s]not have recording studio type facilities and eq[/s] [b]be struggling to work on a behringer prototype only produced in Mongolia in the late 80s by Yurt dwelling Nomads.[/b]
But if he’s doing his job properly his [s]main[/s] [b]only[/b] concern will be getting a good sound and balance “out front” and not “doing a [b]free [/b]recording for the band [b]that will only be used later to denigrate his mixing abilities on a bass forum somewhere[/b]”.

I always use sound desk recordings for reference purposes only, ie dynamics of the band, checking arrangements, timing, tuning etc, but as you say, at the end of the day if you play at semi pro gigs with semi pro engineers you do have a lottery. Part of the learning process is to rise above it all and know that you've given a good performance inspite of everything else that was going wrong.
[/quote]
Very much this, and I fixed a few spelling mistakes.
The amount of times bands have come to me and said, "hey, this recording`s got no guitar on! it`s all drums and vocals you f***ing moron"
Whereupon I try to explain the two marshal stacks and trace elliot rig going full pelt didn`t feature much in the PA mix and consequently (and it`s here they struggle to understand), they didn`t end up on the recording..
If you must record yourself, take a recorder with a stereo mic and set it up near the sound man.
Back to the original question, the ONE thing you can do to help the sound man is have all your gear working and organised so your precious allotment of time for a soundcheck is spent checking your sound and not wiring up pedals/tuning/borrowing a strap/having a piss. Truly.
Bribes may also help.
MM

Edited April 26, 2012 by Monckyman

[51m0n]

[quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1335436787' post='1630972']
[size=1]Very much this, and I fixed a few spelling mistakes.
The amount of times bands have come to me and said, "hey, this recording`s got no guitar on! it`s all drums and vocals you f***ing moron"
Whereupon I try to explain the two marshal stacks and trace elliot rig going full pelt didn`t feature much in the PA mix and consequently (and it`s here they struggle to understand), they didn`t end up on the recording..[/size]
[size=5][i][b]If you must record yourself, take a recorder with a stereo mic and set it up near the sound man.[/b][/i][/size]
[size=2]Back to the original question, the ONE thing you can do to help the sound man is have all your gear working and organised so your precious allotment of time for a soundcheck is spent checking your sound and not wiring up pedals/tuning/borrowing a strap/having a piss. Truly.
Bribes may also help.
MM[/size]
[/quote]

Cannot agree with this enough.

The desk is not the place to record from, unless you have serious resources (ie multitrack system recording before the FOH faders & eq)

A stereo mic FOH will sound ace in comparison, you are giveing about as fair a representation of the engineers and bands abilities in the room like this.

Thats how [url="http://soundcloud.com/51m0n-1/sets/brighton-and-hove-youth-big-1/"]this was recorded[/url], and it sounds pretty acurate to me

[iiipopes]

[quote name='Hector' timestamp='1335371146' post='1630101']
Fab post!

I wonder if number 4 is related to my tendency to cut certain frequencies to find a live tone that I like? I know my bass has naturally got a lot of bottom, and that can sometimes cause a poorly-defined tone in rooms that are naturally a bit boomy.
[/quote]
Thanks. It can be anything. We could all go on with "war stories" all night, but most of my gigs are in rooms that are moderate size, and I am always having to use a tight parametric to cut a standing wave somewhere between 75Hz and 200Hz.

For general "boomy"-ness, I use an adjustible buffer/high pass preamp called the "HPF-Pre Series II." I don't know if Francis Deck, the manufacturer, ships to the UK (he says no outside-USA sales due to the cost of CE compliance) but here's a link. If he can't or won't ship, he posts the entire schematic as open architecture online so a DIY or favourite tech can build one for you:
[url="http://personalpages.tds.net/~fdeck/bass/hpfpre.htm"]http://personalpages...bass/hpfpre.htm[/url]
[url="http://personalpages.tds.net/~fdeck/bass/hpfpd.pdf"]http://personalpages.../bass/hpfpd.pdf[/url]

Edited April 26, 2012 by iiipopes

[BassBod]

The Armstrong is essentially a bass guitar pickup..so I'd treat it the same way. Best results I had with one (on EUB) were straight into a Sansamp bass driver DI...set for about two thirds flat sound, with a third of "effect" blended in..drive about half way. Bass boosted a tiny bit beyond half way, treble and presence mid way. Its important not to have too much low end - has to be set to suit the stage or you just loose your definition and get turned right down in the FOH. Set the amp for a little bit less stage volume then you'd like...but just enough to feel comfortable.

This gives the PA a post eq signal (which I found is what that pickup needs), but its not crazy and shouldn't cause any problems out front. Taking the DI send from the Sansamp is usually accepted with no complaints as its recognised as a "good DI".

I know that its better to send pre-eq etc and its a bit of stealth eq, but it worked for me. Eventually, I just moved to a Realist pickup, of course!