Put your fingers in your ears to hear the bass??

[geoham]

I had a rather weird interaction with a punter at a pub-gig on Saturday.
To set the scene... myself and the guitarist plug in to the PA via modelling rigs, and the band mostly use IEMs to monitor. It's a well powered system with subs. I'm mixing from the stage - obviously far from ideal, but what can you do in a pub? We've got a digital mixer and settings are saved between gigs - generally meaning only minor tweaks are needed in different venues.
The singer will pop out to have a listen during instrumental sections, and I will do so a few times at the start of the night -I'm using a wireless system.

Anyway, during the first song I've got a punter complaining that he can't hear the bass. I pop out front and the bass is clear as day. I stop playing for a second - and let him know when I'm coming back in. "You're not even plugged in! Where's your amp?" was his response!
I return to stage, have a quick look at my my iPad to visibly check my levels and get back to to it. I confirm with my singer that the bass sounds okay in the mix.

The punter is sitting with his fingers in his ears. He explains to me at the end of the first song that you are supposed to mix bass with your fingers in your ears. If it doesn't sound clear that way, then you need to turn it up. I play a couple of notes without the band - 'Much better - I can actually hear you now'. (I've not touched a thing!)

I'm not a quiet bassist by any stretch of the imagination. I do try to keep the band level as low as possible to avoid having to crank the vocal mics and the feedback issues that this gives in a small pub. Not that low though - we've got far too noisy a drummer! 

 

I guess my post is part anecdote sharing - there's always a punter with a view on the mix, and I often wonder if they've been to too many gigs without hearing protection.
However, bass isn't normally what folk ask to hear more of. Have any of you ever encountered the 'fingers in the ears' technique before? Seems incredibly weird to me...

[Burns-bass]

2 minutes ago, geoham said:

I had a rather weird interaction with a punter at a pub-gig on Saturday.
To set the scene... myself and the guitarist plug in to the PA via modelling rigs, and the band mostly use IEMs to monitor. It's a well powered system with subs. I'm mixing from the stage - obviously far from ideal, but what can you do in a pub? We've got a digital mixer and settings are saved between gigs - generally meaning only minor tweaks are needed in different venues.
The singer will pop out to have a listen during instrumental sections, and I will do so a few times at the start of the night -I'm using a wireless system.

Anyway, during the first song I've got a punter complaining that he can't hear the bass. I pop out front and the bass is clear as day. I stop playing for a second - and let him know when I'm coming back in. "You're not even plugged in! Where's your amp?" was his response!
I return to stage, have a quick look at my my iPad to visibly check my levels and get back to to it. I confirm with my singer that the bass sounds okay in the mix.

The punter is sitting with his fingers in his ears. He explains to me at the end of the first song that you are supposed to mix bass with your fingers in your ears. If it doesn't sound clear that way, then you need to turn it up. I play a couple of notes without the band - 'Much better - I can actually hear you now'. (I've not touched a thing!)

I'm not a quiet bassist by any stretch of the imagination. I do try to keep the band level as low as possible to avoid having to crank the vocal mics and the feedback issues that this gives in a small pub. Not that low though - we've got far too noisy a drummer! 

 

I guess my post is part anecdote sharing - there's always a punter with a view on the mix, and I often wonder if they've been to too many gigs without hearing protection.
However, bass isn't normally what folk ask to hear more of. Have any of you ever encountered the 'fingers in the ears' technique before? Seems incredibly weird to me...

Seems like the classic gig nutcase.

 

In my experience, it’s normally the vocalist that gets the most hassle. 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

Nutters like this are best ignored. I'd ask him why, if he's such an expert, why is he not gigging himself?

[Dan Dare]

The average person's ability to discern - visually or audibly - is not high. They seem to hear and/or see anything complex as a jumbled mess and are unable to separate out the individual strands of what is going on.

 

If a musician tells me something is up with the balance, I take heed. If it's anyone else, I thank and ignore them.

[Linus27]

I've actually aware of the finger in ear test. I can't remember the science behind it but a friend of mine was a noise tester for Sutton Council and she did explain to me once how it works. It is a very simple way to measure the bass as muting your hearing does amplify the bass but it was used to determine if bass is too loud as a nuisance. Its used in conjunction obviously with noise meters. I'm also aware of a sound engineer who has also used this method in venues. So its not a daft idea but the punter at your gig did sound a bit of a tool.

[SimonK]

...I normally thank the punter and adjust a fader on a channel with nothing plugged into it to show I've done something!

[TimR]

I don't think the audience know what bass guitar is. He may know what 'bass' is, and lots of people probably equate bass as that unpleasant floor vibrating hum that you get in clubs rather than what a bass guitar should actually sound like. 

 

[Huge Hands]

24 minutes ago, SimonK said:

...I normally thank the punter and adjust a fader on a channel with nothing plugged into it to show I've done something!

Aaaaah - the classic "DFA" button or fader (Does F**k All).

 

It is a classic often used control in the pro sound engineer's toolkit!

[Dan Dare]

22 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

I've actually aware of the finger in ear test. I can't remember the science behind it but a friend of mine was a noise tester for Sutton Council and she did explain to me once how it works. It is a very simple way to measure the bass as muting your hearing does amplify the bass but it was used to determine if bass is too loud as a nuisance. Its used in conjunction obviously with noise meters. I'm also aware of a sound engineer who has also used this method in venues. So its not a daft idea but the punter at your gig did sound a bit of a tool.

 

I should imagine it's to do with the fact that lower frequencies are felt - via causing your bones and tissues to resonate/vibrate - as well as heard. Blocking your ears masks the high frequencies by preventing vibration of the air reaching your eardrum, leaving only those which reach it structurally. It's the same as hearing only the bass from your neighbour's hi-fi because it causes the structure of the building to vibrate.

[geoham]

33 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

I've actually aware of the finger in ear test. I can't remember the science behind it but a friend of mine was a noise tester for Sutton Council and she did explain to me once how it works. It is a very simple way to measure the bass as muting your hearing does amplify the bass but it was used to determine if bass is too loud as a nuisance. Its used in conjunction obviously with noise meters. I'm also aware of a sound engineer who has also used this method in venues. So its not a daft idea but the punter at your gig did sound a bit of a tool.

 

5 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

 

I should imagine it's to do with the fact that lower frequencies are felt - via causing your bones and tissues to resonate/vibrate - as well as heard. Blocking your ears masks the high frequencies by preventing vibration of the air reaching your eardrum, leaving only those which reach it structurally. It's the same as hearing only the bass from your neighbour's hi-fi because it causes the structure of the building to vibrate.

 

These explanations do make some sense. We have a couple of powerful subs, and I can make myself be felt as well as heard by cranking the bass control on my preamp - although, it's typically not the kind of sound I'm after. I use a good bit of drive and my tone often goes in to 'fake rhythm guitar' type territory, especially when our guitarist is playing lead. I also normally high-pass my signal to reduce muddiness, but not at too high a frequency - perhaps 50hz from memory.

 

Punters... who'd have them!?

[scalpy]

1 hour ago, SimonK said:

...I normally thank the punter and adjust a fader on a channel with nothing plugged into it to show I've done something!

AKA Linda McCartney mixing

[PaulWarning]

sort of see where he's coming from, if you stick your fingers in your ears it cuts out the treble therefore the bass becomes more prominent, so if you still can't hear it it must be too quiet, however, you shouldn't have to stick your fingers in your ears to hear the bass

edit, taking out my hearing aids has a similar effect 😂

Edited yesterday at 13:01 by PaulWarning