Dave, I was just talking about Eq, since it depends mostly on what acoustics environment you're into. It doesn't matters how much Eq circuits you need to feel your tone as right, you can only do it by your own perspective. As audience are seated in a different spot, they will be under another acoustic scenario and so they'll need different Eq settings to get the same tone you get at your spot on stage. And that's why we can't adjust our tone anymore after sound check in a post DI situation, as Keith explained.
Any sound engineer who wants to be respected as a professional must not assume any tone as being the only way any instrument should sound. What could be a Fender tone, anyway? Marcus Miller's tone, Geddy Lee's, Larry Graham's? So it is basic walk up onto stage and hear what a musician is trying to achieve before trying to reproduce it to an audience. Anything less than that is for rookies or lazies.
But, you're right. We can't use a DI before Modulation, Delay or Reverbs, as they are part of your tone. I was just pointing that you need first equalize to match your amp/cabinet's response with room acoustics before focusing in setting your tone. You can't simply assume the room will not interact with your cabinet, because it will, a lot. So, regardless choosing an amp or monitor wedge, we must compensate room acoustics at our particular spot first at the risk of thinking we're setting our tone while we're really ruining it.
I'm probably less demanding about tone as many of you look to be, but I see my Alembic as being able to give me any tone I could come with (and it is not a Series). So I tend to take its circuit as being enough for the job of shaping my tone. Ok, I could probably use one external parametric Eq section with joy, but is essencial having one dedicated solely to flat monitoring different from the one used to help shape my tone.
As I'm little used to record my bass in studio's controled enviroment with supposedly flatted monitor systems, I assume that I know how it should sound without any processing. This is the tone I seek on my amp on stage first time I turn it on. That way I'm closer to predict right which tone I am sending to house console. And I can even change the way my amp/monitor sounds like after turning FOH up loud or after audience came in, without messing everything, if I'm sending my signal before this last Eq. So you can have any amount of sound processing you wish, need or think you need, just guarantee setting flat your monitor first.
The risk of having tons of Eq gear in our sinal chain is loosing the point we're looking for. Am I really equalizing my bass or am I correcting room acoustics? Hope I'm not being too repetitive and hope you get what I'm trying to say in my limited english, but there are so many skilled professionals that end eluded by this, so I stress that point anytime these questions present themselves.
(Message edited by mario farufyno on September 21, 2014)
