Question about Basses and DI Boxes

[StopReferencing]

Hi -

My amp doesn't have a direct out, so a lot of soundguys have me plug into a DI (from the last output of my effects chain) that then feeds my amp. At a lot of gigs, this becomes problematic as I run a bunch of effects that load the DI waaaayyy more than my clean signal does. Sounds great coming out of the amp, sound outrageously over the top and shitty in the house. I imagine some of you have encountered this - how do you get around it?

Thanks!

[Astricii]

Tell the sound guy to fuck off and do his job and mic you. Or you could make him run the di before your board so the in house is a clean blend. And still make him mic you. Remember. It's his or her job to make you sound good. However it's your job to make them know what you are supposed to sound like. I know I sound like a prick but having a great set ruined by some sound guy that wants to treat you like a praise and worship bassist is beyond infuriating. So son't tollerate it

[StopReferencing]

Tell the sound guy to fuck off and do his job and mic you. Or you could make him run the di before your board so the in house is a clean blend. And still make him mic you. Remember. It's his or her job to make you sound good. However it's your job to make them know what you are supposed to sound like. I know I sound like a prick but having a great set ruined by some sound guy that wants to treat you like a praise and worship bassist is beyond infuriating. So son't tollerate it

For whatever reason, mic-ing the bass amp is never on the sound guy's agenda. I almost always (like, 98% of the time) tell the dude that I run a lot of effects that'll hit the DI ridiculously hard, and they're never like, "Oh, let's mic it then." Is that really sheer laziness?

[Ancient Astronaught]

Well it's half laziness, and half pressure to get everything soundchecked in time. Most sound guys who ask you to use a DI have a channel on the board already setup to run a DI bass, and not one for a bass mic. Which means they have to find an open channel, grab another mic, set it up, run the cables and then do a blank slate sound check all within like 2 minutes. Plus a DI box is sturdier and cheaper than a good bass mic, and alot less likely to get damaged by an enthusiastic aggressive bass player whose all over the stage.

The best way to help yourself and the sound guy to please everyone is to get an a/b/y box send one channel to your amp the other into a nice compressor pedal into the DI box or get a sansamp pedal and cover all those bases in one pedal (plus you get a half way decent preamp going into the DI). This way you can control the signal going to the house alot easier and keep the volume and tone under control even when you have a shit tone of effects going on, instead of relying the sound guy to take 30 seconds to eq and compress the DI signal correctly.

You've got to remember if your not the headlining band, they most likely don't care how you sound, they care about getting you playing at the designated time so they don't get yelled at for throwing off the schedule by the person who signs their paycheck.

[univalve]

I did not try this with bass but for Recording purpose of the drums i played with my guitar and Board into a DI (with speaker emulation). I got the same problem as you described it. So i put a pedal with an ef86 tube between my Board and the DI. The Tube smoothed everything and i did not had the Extreme Level jumps. I would suggest to try a Tube Diven Pedal that you Set up clean, Short before the breakup. The Tube will Kind of compress the level differences and add a Kind of Amp character to your DI Sound.

[tuffteef]

for the record
totes always mic the bass amp

- fellow soundman


only situation ive had to use a DI was when both of the bass players ampeg heads and cabs died at one point in the show

[Achtane]

If you show up with your own mic and stand or something they might be more inclined to give it priority. I dunno

[Ancient Astronaught]

If you show up with your own mic and stand or something they might be more inclined to give it priority. I dunno

When i've done sound at smaller gig's for my promoter friends, this is very true. If you brought your own mic and asked me nicely to help you out, i'd have no issue with that. BUT i've found that if you show up to a larger scale venue and do that... well the sound guy can take it as an insult to their abilities or tell you that they have dedicated channels and setting up the mic can take up too much time (this happened with my internally mic'd kick drum when i played shows )... maybe i've just dealt with a lot of dickhead sound guys....

[StopReferencing]

My sincere thanks for the helpful suggestions, guys!

The best way to help yourself and the sound guy to please everyone is to get an a/b/y box send one channel to your amp the other into a nice compressor pedal into the DI box or get a sansamp pedal and cover all those bases in one pedal (plus you get a half way decent preamp going into the DI).

Anyone know of a good all-in-one DI/compressor/preamp thingy (for when mic-ing "isn't an option")?

[Ancient Astronaught]

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/bassdriverdi.html

These things are beast, the bassist in AA uses this for exactly what your trying to do, and also to run dual amp setups with 2 different tones.

[MEC]

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/bassdriverdi.html

These things are beast, the bassist in AA uses this for exactly what your trying to do, and also to run dual amp setups with 2 different tones.

+1 on the SansAmp
I've heard good things about the Rusty Box too.
http://www.tronographic.com/

[D.o.S.]

If you show up with your own mic and stand or something they might be more inclined to give it priority. I dunno

When i've done sound at smaller gig's for my promoter friends, this is very true. If you brought your own mic and asked me nicely to help you out, i'd have no issue with that. BUT i've found that if you show up to a larger scale venue and do that... well the sound guy can take it as an insult to their abilities or tell you that they have dedicated channels and setting up the mic can take up too much time (this happened with my internally mic'd kick drum when i played shows )... maybe i've just dealt with a lot of dickhead sound guys....

Fuck that. If you show up with your own mic and mic stand, you should absolutely use it.

The sound guy's job is to deliver a good mix to the P.A. Bassists definitely get the short end of the stick when it comes to soundcheck, but I don't know a single soundguy who'd say no to someone who brought his own mic in most situations.

[Grrface]

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/bassdriverdi.html

These things are beast, the bassist in AA uses this for exactly what your trying to do, and also to run dual amp setups with 2 different tones.

+1 on the SansAmp
I've heard good things about the Rusty Box too.
http://www.tronographic.com/

I use the MXR M80 DI. It's not bad, I like it as a pre-amp, and I've done DI to board and preamping to my amp. I'd love to try a Rusty Box at some point, but I need a balanced output for my DI needs, and I'm not sure if it does that.

But yeah, having your own DI ready is never a bad thing if you run into a total D bag of a sound guy. Either that, or turn your amp up really loud and remove the PA from the equation

[behndy]

i have a Rusty Box at the end of my chain, and i bring a cable for it so if i HAVE to it can be used as a di. but the last band i played in, no guitar player, keyboard/laptop running out of a stereo di we brought, and they STILL never wanted to mic me. 's some bullshit.

fuzz sounds WAY better mic's through a bass cab than di'd. i have a Shure Beta52 that i'll be bringing to gigs when my new bands ready to play out.

the Tech21 SansAmp stuff is a'ight. Rusty sounds better to me though. the SansAmp is allways a SUPER modern sound, kinda brittle.

[coldbrightsunlight]

I've got a friend who plays with loads of heavy fuzz+other effects and he uses one of these http://www.jimdunlop.com/product/m80-bass-di, he always gets a great sound out of it.