First outdoor gig, tips me!

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Nojja

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Hello, so my band is playing a festival in my towns biggest park. We get 30 minutes and i wonder i should know ?


I dont think there will be any major soundcheck, allthough we are the first band that plays.

But i mean shall i turn the bass down so i later can turn it up and be heard better?


Is it hard to hear yourself when you play outdoor? It will be a rather large stage with a stationary amphitheater as setting.


I will play with my Warwick Corvette
 
If the gig is as big as you say, the soundman on location will probably help you with all your questions. And no, you should NOT turn up your bass after the soundcheck, because then you'll screw up the settings the soundman has set. Most of them hate when you do that.

Since you are playing first, your soundcheck will be the last before the show starts, a standard routine.
 
Hi Nojja!

It may help if you have someone in the audience who can give you a "thumbs up" if the level is right... at the very least it helps to stop the paranoia and give you some more confidence. If you're going through a big PA (which I assume you are) the sound guy may just turn you down if you turn yourself up!

I did an outdoor gig last year - the backline was provided - I just plugged in and trusted the sound guy. The band before us... the bass player had to borrow my bass as there was something wrong with his (he'd never played a fretless before... but did really well). So I went out front and listened... sounded bloody awesome. So my advice, play a Thumb BO, then you'll cut through regardless!
 
The Swedish Owl said:
Since you are playing first, your soundcheck will be the last before the show starts, a standard routine.
Click to expand...


No but yes, there wont be individual soundchecks since the only thing the band has personal is the guitars! But since we are the first band they probabl y adjust it after us (which is good).
 
saxonbass said:
Hi Nojja!

It may help if you have someone in the audience who can give you a "thumbs up" if the level is right... at the very least it helps to stop the paranoia and give you some more confidence. If you're going through a big PA (which I assume you are) the sound guy may just turn you down if you turn yourself up!

I did an outdoor gig last year - the backline was provided - I just plugged in and trusted the sound guy. The band before us... the bass player had to borrow my bass as there was something wrong with his (he'd never played a fretless before... but did really well). So I went out front and listened... sounded bloody awesome. So my advice, play a Thumb BO, then you'll cut through regardless!
Click to expand...


Allright, i have asked a friend to film it actually, so atleast i can here later, how we sounded.


I guess its better to tell the soundguy in the mic "more bass" than to try to trick him by screwing with the volume knob:)


Another question, i usually play with the tone knob at mid setting? I allways here that you should have the tone full and then adjust on the amp, but i dont find that the best all the time, i get way to "clicky" sound.
 
My guess is that you'll be DI'd through a much larger PA, which will (most likely) bypass any amp settings you have. A DI is a straight feed direct from your bass to the PA.

Don't have your tone controls all the way up - if they have a centre indent, leave them there would be my advice until you're more comfortable with controls and 'your sound'.

If you are playing through a large PA, you are pretty much at the mercy of the sound guy...but at least you play a Warwick so you stand a good chance of being heard :-)

The main thing is to remember that people DON'T notice mistakes but they do notice people having a good time and that's infectious. Have fun and look like you're enjoying yourself - and that means smiling (something I'm not very good at LOL).

Don't be disappointed if the sound recorded sounds absolute pants - it's hard for a little condensor mic to pick up the full spectrum of sound. I begrudginly post up this link to demonstrate my point....we were playing through a decent PA with soundguy.

[video=youtube;R2iSCoWO-5k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2iSCoWO-5k[/video]

Sorry to ramble on there - hope it's helped in some tiny way!!

G
 
Hey Nojja, congratulations for your show!
Actually telling him loud "more bass" during the concert is a bad idea too, he will feel offended.
Try to remember some basic rules when playing outside, big sound and stuff:

1- You DON't know how you sound in front. Never! So never ask for more bass because this is stupid, ... you don't know how loud you really are. If the woofers are close to you you will feel like there is a lot of bass, if the speakers are far away, you will think you are not loud enough. The new Line Array systems are pretty quiet if you stand behind them.

2- if your friend isn't a good sound guy or an experienced musician, don't let him judge if the bass is too loud or not. Most of the time he will be wrong. The FOH sound guy will judge it better anyway.

3- You being loud is not necessarily a good thing... you play in a band, and the bass has it's place in the mix. Listen to your CD-s, go to some live shows and listen careful: The bass is not that loud as you would like to, eh?

4- Be careful with your settings! Avoid boosting the lows, that's why the FOH has woofers. Too much bass = muddy sound. If you leave it flat it will be more than enough, and sometimes is too much anyway. Set your mids right to have your desired character in the sound.
You have to know where your bass is in the mix, and make the sound according to that. The bass can be below the bass drum, or the bass drum can be low and the bass higher ;-)

If you don't really really know what you are doing, it is better to send a PRE EQ signal to the sound guy, and he will know what to do.

When the show starts, nevermind the sound, the friends making signs, etc... Just have fun, and do your job. Remember this: You don't really know how the band sounds in front, and your friends are most of the time wrong :-)

I hope it helps, Have fun my friend!
 
If you can't hear yourself, how about more bass (As in instrument) in your monitor?
I had a sound guy at a small show who showed all the lead guitar up in my monitor. No bass at all. But people told me they digged the sound of my bass when we were done, so that calmed me down
 
Okey, thanks for all the advice:)


Why i wondered about its okay to say "more bass" in the mic, was because last year as one of the last bands, a ska band played, and the bassist and singer said in the mic like 3 times, "more bass, please". And they got it, but they were a Ska band where the bass really needs to be loud.
 
You cannot become a professional if you act unprofessional. You don't know how your bass is in front, so why to ask for more bass? Maybe it is VERY loud, you cannot know it...
PLease remember that... all you hear is the monitors, so ask for anything in your monitors, and nevermind the FOH. Sound guys, have in general a hard life, and they are not always very kind with bands that don't understand some basic rules.
You can go before the show, and have a little chat with the guy if you think the bass needs to be more proeminent than usual in your band.

But don't tell him during a show to make the bass louder, because 1- (again) you don't know how the bass is, and 2- you make him feel bad because you consider he doesn't know how to do his job, and you tell this in front of everybody in the house. Believe me, that's a bad idea...
Oh... and the volume on the bass should be full open, that way you have the best sound and the best signal to noise ratio. If you boost your bass after the show starts, it will clip, the sound will choke, it will sound actually worse, the sound guy will see a red LED (he cannot miss that), and he will reduce your gain, even more to prevent you ruining the sound :-)
 
They were referring to having more bass through the monitors, so they could hear the bass player and not referring to the bass being louder out front.

Quite often on a large stage, other members of the band cannot hear each others amps, so the soundguy will send those instruments to the monitors - a classic example is the singer, he doesn't have an amp so they send his vocal to his monitor so he can hear himself sing.

Depending on the stage you will either have your own monitor or maybe have to share one. I prefer to work so that I can hear my amp and then have drums, vocals and then less keyboards and guitars sent to the monitor. That way I can hear the most important things (drums and vocals) and also hear the other band members.

HOWEVER - it's important to strike a balance on stage! The louder everything gets on stage, the more you need monitors ... as the monitors get louder, you hear less of the natural backline, so the monitors go up again. Before you know it, it's very loud on stage!

Another tip - if the soundguy asks you to do a bass soundcheck, do NOT play slap, tapping etc if that's not what you play during the gig!! Only play the style that you play during the gig, otherwise he may EQ you for slap only to find that you play fingerstyle! I've seen pro players do this and I just think "what a twat".

G
 
Gman said:
Another tip - if the soundguy asks you to do a bass soundcheck, do NOT play slap, tapping etc if that's not what you play during the gig!! Only play the style that you play during the gig, otherwise he may EQ you for slap only to find that you play fingerstyle! I've seen pro players do this and I just think "what a twat".

G
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Why do they do that? I've seen a guy go for a full on slapfest on the sound check and then just play fingerstyle in the gig. Didn't realise it was an epidemic!

The biggest outdoor gig I did last year had the monitor mix guy at the side of the stage, so you could talk to him quite easily, and he could also sort you out if you had backline issues (the backline was "provided"). I didn't even concern myself with FOH, although as I said before, It sounded fantastic when the band before were using my bass!

When I mentioned the "thumbs up" it was at a gig with backline and vocal only PA... not very well organised for a large outdoor gig really. I got my wife to listen for my level and cut-through-ability... and I do trust her... she's been to more gigs than I have! On the whole, I agree with the principle... you have to trust the sound guys and not mess with FOH... I saw other bands trying to do it, and they just hold up the show and look like assholes!
 
So we got there at 11.00, to play at noon, but the whole schedule was delayed, and we have now been given a new time, at 22.15! Between the main acts! Brilliant!



I dont must most bassists so far have been terrible, allthough some played Rock Basses, they picked and just followed the rhytm guitar with 8 notes and whatever, really dissapointed, but tonight there will be some good bands! And our first concert will be on prime time!



We have filmed everything so far, will make a good documentary, from playing infront of 20 people in the morning to like a couple of hundred at nightime!
 
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