Too much Mids?

[garth4664]

Any drummer is going to be without high frequency hearing due to the cymbals. Some years ago i thought my bass sound was getting more middley through the gig...turns out it was just hearing damage in progress....time for earplugs 😁

[jazzyvee]

Had a reggae gig last night and used a hired in backline of ampeg gear provided by the venue which was a large holding at least 1000+ people.
I have no idea what wattage they were but I brought my F1-x to plug into the pwr amp input or the return socket and both times I could not get any clean headroom even with the F1-x down really low. I decided to forget my F1-x and go from my DS-5 into the front of the ampeg head via the venues DI box and even then I could not get any clean bottom end everything was middly and distorted like the speaker was being pushed too hard.  The keyboard player came over to see if he could EQ the thing whilst I played and he is a good producer and couldn't get anything with any weight at any useable volume without distortion. In the end we had to settle for a low volume middly tone with the bass setting on the head just under the 12 o'clock  and the volumes on my bass just under 50% open and use the floor monitors. But even they were unable to give me any decent bottom end. Our regular sound engineer was out front and confirmed the sound FOH was perfect which was a relief to know it wasn't my bass.
 
Usually I don't take my series basses to this venue as rightly or wrongly I think the sound of it is wasted on a predominantly drunk audience but yesterday I decided to make an exception and take it for my pleasure. But, nothing worse than having a bass that you know sounds awesome and not be able to hear that sound.


Yes I could always take my own rig but these are all weekend events with multi-band setups and the transfer time between bands is short and just a line check so we don't usually carry our own backline on these gigs for convenience.

[mario_farufyno]

Well, I have to say that I gave up my Ampeg SVT-III because it never sounded really clean and didn't liked its mids (not to mention the graphic Eq degrade incoming tone). So, despite I didn't tried that portable ampeg, is not odd hear that someone also conplained about distortion from an Ampeg, although I've used some big stacks live and was really pleased about their 8x10 cab. Can only think in poor production control, may be we just had bad luck.

To get the botton end you need, I suggest trying some of those new ported cabs. I love my Epifany 2x10, it goes deeper than the afforementioned ampeg 8x10 and is much louder (sensitivity 102dB@W/m) in a lightweight package (its drivers are neodimium). There are many other brands doing great cabs that our peers here can talk about.

Today I got my self carrying it to every gig I get, even if it doesn't "pay" for it. But, you know? If the money is short, my pleasure to play and be heard can't be compromised. It would be a second displeasure...