What's your preferred go to method for a foolproof bass tone going direct with IEMs/monitors into a PA? I've been trying all sorts of setups for my signal chain and it's always either too complicated or seems like it's lacking in some respect. In this group (cover band) we do our own sound so there is no sound person out front and little to no feedback on how the bass specifically sounds or fits in the band aside from "too much bass" or "I can't hear the bass". I've tried a bunch of different sansamps, cab sims, a tube di once- it'll sound good to me in my in ears with nothing but the drums and my bass, hearing guitars and vocals through the pa in the room, but I have no idea how it's working with the rest of the band.
What would you use for a direct sound when you can't hear how your bass sounds in the room out front and you're basically guessing on what kind of EQ or adjustments to make? Straight into a DI? Multi effects unit? Cab sim pedal? Sansamp? HPF/LPF? Give the guitarist an octave pedal and quit the band? How much more money do I have to spend on crap until it sounds good?
IEMs and no amps are nice and convenient but I wish I could bring one bass, plug it straight into an 800RB set flat on top of a 215 and not have to think about tone or EQ or anything and just play the damn music. Please explain how I am overthinking this whole going direct thing and what you would do in this situation to make the bass sound good and not have to worry about how I sound out front and with the rest of the band.
Thanks
For me it's pretty simple. I use DNA and Eden gear, so the sound I'm seeking is clear and clean with some warmth to it and a really tight and focused bottom end. So I would just plug into my WTDI and send that to the PA...have done it many times. I'll also plug into my WTDI and plug that into the effects-in/return jack in the back of any backline amps I'm required to use. In fact, that's why I bought it.
I played with a group that hosted Friday Night Open Mic Nights over 40 times a year and they wouldn't let me bring in my normal 410 because "That's way too much for here. Use that." and they pointed to a small Peavey 112 combo. It was loud enough for the place but just couldn't get a sound I liked out of it. Since we played there so much I went ahead and spent the $149 for it (the price a number of years ago). Was the best $149 I ever spent on musical gear. It's a DI box with built-in Eden WT preamp. I plugged that rascal into the effects-in jack in the back of the Peavey combo and just used the volume control on the amp for the levels. Lo and behold, it sounded like one of my Eden amps.
Then one Friday I arrived about an hour before we went on and the amp was gone. Owner was surprised but evidently it belonged to someone who worked there and I'd been playing through it for about a year before the owner of the amp decided to take it home. I got a lot of worried looks from the rest of the group, but said, "Hey, no worries, just plug this mic cord into the PA and I'll just play through the mains. Worked great and did that for a few weeks before I ordered an Eden EX-112 cab and used my old Eden Nemesis RS400 to drive it.
Had a great experience with that WTDI in 2019 when I played bass at a 3-hour recording session at a pro-studio in Seattle. Rolled in my DNS-410 and then rolled it back out to my SUV because they got too much crosstalk with both the bass and the drums mic'd up in the same room. So I plugged my WTDI into their wall jack instead of their generic DI and set it up like I do for live performances. I ran the Bass and Treble flat, toggled the mids choice to 500hz for the low-mids and boosted it to 1:30, turned off the compressor and the Enhance (shape control), set the gain to 2 o'clock and the master to 9 o'clock. I'm playing a passive Jazz Bass with the 70's era pickup spacing of 4" center to center so it's just a little brighter than my 1965 Jazz was and has a lot more sustain. I dimed the controls on my bass and played for the next three hours.
At the end of the session the sound engineer brought out his mixing headphones and had me listen to the raw tapes of a couple of the songs through them. Man, I sounded GREAT! My bass sounded like it had a little Bass EQ boost on it, but was perfectly clear and the rest of the sound was great. He said, "That is exactly the signal you sent me through your DI. I didn't touch the EQ or put any compression on it, just adjusted the levels. The owner of the studio had joined him and they both wanted to see what I was using. So I showed them my DI. And the owner said, "doesn't Eden want to sell amps anymore?" So ever since that, for any recordings I do, I use my WTDI, which has a permanent home in my gig bag anyhow.
Now, regarding how do you know how you sound out front. The simple answer is to GO LISTEN TO IT! I use a wireless, so when we do our sound check, I typically walk the perimeter of the venue, the middle of the venue, and the dance floor, to see how the balance of instruments and the volume is at those places. That way you find out what the problem(s) is/are before subjecting your audience to them. Be aware that if and when the place fills up, the audience will absorb a lot of the sound. So not a bad idea to take a wireless walk later in the gig too.
Sometimes we'll play a place that has lots of drapes, plush booths, and carpet on the walls. That sucks out the high-mids and highs, so I'll boost the high-mids or the treble, whichever one is needed. Sometimes you find you're playing in a boomy room, usually with hard walls and no drapes anywhere or plush booths. First thing I'll do is make sure my rig is NOT in a corner, because that can boost the boomy low end by about 6db. If it's still boomy, then I'll drop my Bass EQ about 3-clicks to see if that clears it up. I'll continued to cut it by 2-clicks at a time until the boom is gone. Springy stages, that flex as you walk on them, almost always make for a boomy room.
Anyhow, the point is you want to hear how it sounds in the venue not in the IEM's, so take your IEM's out, use a wireless, and when you do your sound check, walk the room and listen to it. Also make sure the bartender can hear his drink orders OK because if the drink receipts go down because you're too loud, you probably will not be asked back.
