Jump to content


Please note: You can easily log in to MPN using your Facebook account!

Bass Echo Question


cherri

Recommended Posts

Hi guys - as you know I'm not a bass player but my husband Paul is. He doesn't get time to lurk on the internet as I do, so I am posting a question on his behalf.

 

We played six shows at the same club over the last three weeks. To save money we did not employ our sound tech, so Paul ran the board along with playing bass.

 

The very last night, he began to get a strange echo from his bass channel. He'd hit a note and it would thump right back. It would also make a deep feeback hum - audible more on stage than out to the audience. You could see it pegging on his channel on the board, and the echo was pegging several channels.

 

Process of elimination - he changed the battery in his remote & his preamp. He unplugged the remote and plugged directly into his amp. He plugged directly into the board. He slices, he dices, he does julienne fries! But no luck. He turned off the reverb unit in the sound cabinet.

 

With the reverb unit off, no echo. But unfortunately, no reverb for anyone's vocals or guitars, either.

 

I'm throwing this out to the experts to see what advice or ideas you may have to solve this problem. Thanks in advance!

Link to comment
Share on other sites



  • Replies 7
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Ok, right off, it sounds like perhaps the vocal mic's were picking up the bass guitar signal and looping it through the PA. Turn the stage volume down, and try to position the mic's and bass cabs so that the mic's don't pick up bass guitar that's coming out of his on-stage bass rig or out of the stage monitors.

 

HTH,

Dave

Old bass players never die, they just buy lighter rigs.

- Tom Capasso, 11/9/2006

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You didn't say whether the bass rig was mic'd. Important piece of info there.

 

But offhand, it wasn't feedback from other mics on stage - not with the severity of inidcations you have just described.

 

More likely it was a feedback loop caused by the way something was buss-assigned or patched into the board (this can happen when patching a channel or patching to auxillary returns). That'll peg meters like crazy and is dangerous to the equipment. Another possibility is caused when a recorder is inserted and is recirculating the signal that it is recieving in standby or record mode.

.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Greenboy: The bass rig (Peavey TNT 115) is not mic-ed. It runs through a DI box out of the preamp. We weren't using any recording equipment.

 

Thanks for the ideas ... we can touble shoot at practice or our next show, if it crops up again. Paul seems to think (I'm on the phone with him right now) that it has to do with that evening's bass amp placement in relationship to the stage mics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by cherri:

Greenboy: The bass rig (Peavey TNT 115) is not mic-ed. It runs through a DI box out of the preamp. We weren't using any recording equipment.

 

Thanks for the ideas ... we can touble shoot at practice or our next show, if it crops up again. Paul seems to think (I'm on the phone with him right now) that it has to do with that evening's bass amp placement in relationship to the stage mics.

The delay between the bass amp output and the stage mics should be too slight to notice. Did a mic get added at the board? Anyone mess with the reverb unit settings (since it did work fine the previous nights). Have someone drop each mic out while he's playing to eliminate the mics as a possibility. Good luck.

You can stop now -jeremyc

STOP QUOTING EVERY THING I SAY!!! -Bass_god_offspring

lug, you should add that statement to you signature.-Tenstrum

I'm not sure any argument can top lug's. - Sweet Willie

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Paul and I talked on the phone yesterday. The bass guitar didn't have any thing to do with it - the problem even existed when the bass rig was turned off or unplugged.

 

It was likely resonant ringing at a relatively low frequency, from the description. System shakedown from cable wiring to gear isolating will determine if the problem was any deeper than just an unseen change in settings or placement or even electrical AC supply to the room that night.

.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...