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EQ'ing Da House


zujo

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What up y'all

:wave:

its been some time. I do need some assitance from the experience from the brotherhood.

 

Lately I have been having trouble getting a good thick sound away the stage,It always soubnds thin as I walk away from it.

 

I am searching for the type of sound that fills the room with decent rumble.I am using an ampeg B2 (350 watts) and one SWR 4x10 cabinet.

 

Are there any things you guys do to ensure a panty dropping sound across the stage ??? ;)

"Word to your mother"
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I'll take a swing.....

You're not loosing bottom when you step away, you're hearing more top end and the impression is that it's getting thin.

 

High frequencies beam a lot more than low and when you stand close to the box you get so far off axis of the speakers that you don't perceive the high end as well.

 

Tilt the cabinet backwards and you'll find a sweet spot where your ears will be more on axis and hear more highs while at the same time the room will be more off axis and will hear less.

 

Eventually you will find the spot where it sounds the same to you on stage as it does out front.

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Originally posted by getz76:

What does your current EQ look like? What bass are you playing (and what pickup selection/EQ'ing) are you doing here?

 

Do you have PA support, or are you using your amp for house and stage volume?

I am bypassing the preamp section by plugging into the B2A a pandora FX bow in the rear pre ampp input. This means I am amplifying the pandora to 350watts. I do use the proper EQ [lotta lows 505 mids and 30% highs]on the box and it does sound very full on stage and smaller venues. However, as you walk away it seems to loose body...The house is miking my rig to a minumun level.
"Word to your mother"
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I've been using the Aphex Aural Xciter pedal and like what it does to my low end. Makes it fuller and punchier sounding without being louder. I like it.

 

I also am a big fan of using lots of power to play at moderate levels. I find I have more low end just by having a lot more power than I use, and the amp doesn't have to work as hard to amplify the peaks in my signal.

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Originally posted by zujo:

I do use the proper EQ [lotta lows 505 mids and 30% highs]on the box and it does sound very full on stage and smaller venues. However, as you walk away it seems to loose body...The house is miking my rig to a minumun level.

The 'proper EQ' - what do you mean by that?

 

From small speaker arrays (i.e. a typical bass cab) the highs and mids tend to be beamed whilst the lows are more omnidirectional. Consequently, as you move away from the amp the highs and mids drop off by about 4.5dB every time your distance from the amp doubles, whilst the lows drop off at more like 9dB for each doubling of distance.

 

Put simply, if your bass sounds deep and bassy when you're standing 5' from the amp, once you get to 20' away it will sound only half as bassy. That's a BIG difference in tone, like turning the bass knob on your amp most of the way down.

 

If you have a big enough rig and a small enough room you can defeat this problem by literally filling the room with bass, so that everytime you hit a note the air pressure in the room goes evenly up and down. You can try this out in your car - crank the stereo and feel the bass. Then open all the windows and the sunroof and notice how the bottom drops away. That's like the difference between playing a small room (capacity 200ish) and a big room (capacity 1000ish) with a 4x10". Get enough 4x10"s, like eight, and you can fill the 1000 capacity room with bass again. In car audio terms this phenomenom is known as cabin loading.

 

If you want to fill a big room with that air-moving bass sound, you'll need more speakers or go through a decent FOH system with subs. Alternatively, if your rig has to carry the house because the PA's relatively small and you've no extra cabs available, try flattening your EQ somewhat and because your onstage tone will be less reliant on the deep lows it'll thin out less as you move away from the rig. Most of the tone that matters is in the low mids which your amp should be able to project across a big room with thickness and fatness.

 

Alex

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I agree with Alex, but I'm rough around the edges technically.

 

Simplified:

 

Sounds like you like a more classic tone (ala Ampeg SVT style, kind of burpy and blunt).

 

Current EQ - Bass cranked, Mid's center, and Highs dipped a bit

 

Try this EQ - Bass at about 1 o'clock, mid's center, and highs at about 9 o'clock. Tweak the mids from there to get the sound you're looking for (which might be a mid-boost)

 

In general, cutting frequencies does more good than boosting. Using the EQ judiciously (ESPECIALLY ON STAGE) is key. In the studio it's a different story.

 

- Maury

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Originally posted by BenLoy:

In other news, Zujo, how ya doin'? It's been awhile since you posted here. How are things for you lately?

Thanks to all!!!

 

every comment counts :thu:

 

I will play the same place again this wednesday and I will not let the housesound take me by surprise again...

 

I am fine benloy hope all of you are too...let me introduce myself and the band I am currently with.I am the ugly dude in the right :D

 

http://www.ofeelya.com/

 

:P

"Word to your mother"
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My best sound was when I ran my SWR preamp section through a careful set of patches from my ZOOM pedal and/or a SansAmp DI into the house mix. My sound guys used a combination of 18s (low end) and 10/12s (high end) to amplify that using various Crown, QSC and other power amps. Offhand, I'd say we were running 2000 watts on some nights, but I'm not certain.

 

Anyway, I was rewarded one night with the sight of a young lady attempting to lap dance with one of the 18s on my side of the stage. She commented (a little breathlessly) that she loved the cool air coming from the speakers. For the record, she was wearing a short skirt and it was summer, but if I recall correctly the air conditioning in the club worked fine.

 

To keep this above board, let me say this: after that night, I was unimpressed with Sharon Stone's signature performance in "Basic Instinct".

 

There are other events I can recall, but let's save them for other postings...

:D

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