e.q.ing with drums

[swayingtree]

I have a question for all the bass/sound experts of which I am not one. I play with a drummer and acoustic guitar player. We were playing with a small soundboard but recently got a bigger one which can fit 4 channels of the drums. Before we had it set so that I could hear my bass perfectly, but now I am having trouble hearing the lower notes. My bass amp goes directly into our soundboard and then we hear the mix through headphones through a headphone amplifier, but we can adjust our own volume and the highs and lows. I have my bass e.q'd with a lot of mid because that is the way I like to have it sound. While playing alone I can hear all the notes at the same volume, but when the drummer plays with me I have a hard time hearing the lower notes. We tried to "scoop" by lowering his mid, but then my low notes were audible but sounded metallic and too vibrato. The guitarist said that he had heard of other bass players who had a similar problem so he suggested I find a bass player chat room, so I did. Any suggestions? (You may need me to clarify as I don't know the sound system language too well)

Thank you!!

[Quinn]

I'm *NOT* a sound expert, but I am a bassplayer.

 

It sounds like the drummer's kick drum is simply covering up your lows. EQing your bass for more mids should help you be heard above his kick, but you also might try turning down the mic on his kick drum a bit and/or changing the EQ of THAT mic.

 

He probably won't like that, but you can remind him, "there's no 'I' in team!"

 

Hope that helps in some small way and you'll probably get some ideas from other folks here.

[alexclaber]

Originally posted by swayingtree:

We were playing with a small soundboard but recently got a bigger one which can fit 4 channels of the drums. Before we had it set so that I could hear my bass perfectly, but now I am having trouble hearing the lower notes.

Sounds like the best course of action is to revert to something like the old setup. What's the difference between old and new - are you micing the kick and/or the larger toms differently?

 

If it ain't broke...

 

Alex

[moot]

You have to hear yourself.

We also practice in headphones most of the time and I have a real problem hearing myself.

 

I tried a lot of different EQ settings and finally tried different headphones until I ended up with Sony earbuds. Not the most comfortable things but they work great.

[swayingtree]

Thank you so much for your responses. You guys are great!

 

What's the difference between old and new - are you micing the kick and/or the larger toms differently?

 

Yes. They got a new mic for the bass drum and now they are using 3 channels rather than 2 (I thought they were using 4)... maybe that makes the drums too loud? Also, the drum set is just a bass drum, a snare, and cymbals, no toms. Maybe we will just e.q. the bass drum differently. ?? I noticed on another section of this chat room that someone said something about drummers tuning their drums to the bass. Could it possibly be that the bass drum needs to be tuned to me? (or me to it?)

Thank you so much for helping me out! I really appreciate it.

[Nicklab]

After reading through, it seems like perhaps the drums are too loud in general. Typically, you don't need to have a high level on drums going through the mixing board since drums produce more of a transient attack and not a long fundamental.

 

As far as the drum EQ goes, you can probably roll back the low end of the kick drum. Too much low end will make almost anything muddy and undefined. Most of what you want to hear from the kick is the attack, which lives in the upper midrange.

 

Once you've got an acceptable drum sound, then I would go about the process of tone shaping the bass and guitar. You're really limited in how much you can do with the drums (which isn't very much), so get them set and then work around them. Get sounds for the guitar and bass that are good AND that are distinct so that you can all hear one another.