How do you get YOUR SOUND to FOH? (BASS)

TeeBass

New Member
Howdy Fractal Audio Fam...

I'm a relatively new member to the Fractal fold with a Mark II as my main bass backline, and I've plugged a fair bit of time into my bass tones (separate processing for lows/highs, fx, eq,etc) and I'm really happy with the general scope of my tone on stage. It all adds up really neatly in a punchy, clear package without too much mud/gunk..

...but I worry about getting these balances happening out front through FOH. I know it is entirely up to the sound crew to fully translate the bass sound into the venue, but what can I do to give the sound crew the best shot at doing this?

Do you output the halves of the tone to the L/R outputs separately? (High half on L, low on R) Do you send a single output of the mixed tone to the desk? Do you add DI's in there somewhere? Have the cabs mic'd? What do you do to get your sound to the crowd?

Thanks for your time :)
 
I go single output, direct. Cabs on stage only for my personal monitoring. Big advantage of gear like the Axe FX is having no drums bleeding into your bass mic.
 
I go single output, direct. Cabs on stage only for my personal monitoring. Big advantage of gear like the Axe FX is having no drums bleeding into your bass mic.

Right on. This is the way I usually do it... blended tone to single XLR, and have out 1 copied to out 2 for separate FOH/amp levels. :) Just wondering if other people do it differently and how they go about it.

Thanks for your input!
 
Same here. Blended tone to single XLR to FOH. I usually use my RCF as a stage monitor, but lately I have been trying in ears, so the RCF is more of a back up in case in ears fail.
 
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I'm in the process of setting up my pedalboard for different scenarios. I will install a stereo DI on the board which will give me various options to send signals to FOH. I will be able to send a signal directly from my bass AND/OR a signal with FX only (which will also go to the stage amp) AND/OR a signal directly from the AX8 with the amp/cab simulation as well as FX. I will be using a Radial Stereo JDI which is industry standard (so sound techs won't question the quality of DI), and clearly indicate which output provides which signal.

The issue you may encounter on multiple-band festival stages is that some of them have the subs 15dB louder than tops where the bass will end up being a big mess of low end mud. It happened to me last year where I had to cut almost all of the bass out on the AX8 and it was still too much. In those cases, I will be able to send a flat signal to FOH.

I also do sound and have a pretty decent P.A. system that I set up pretty flat. In those instances, my AX8 directly in the P.A. sounds great. I'm on IEM and only use an amp on festival stages where they usually also mic the cab. When playing these festivals, it's not unheard of to have 15 minutes changeovers. Having the option of sending the best signal to the P.A. of the day is important.

Once I'm done programming all the presets to my liking, I will also copy them on different banks with varying levels of low end. Playing through the same P.A. every day makes it easy, but playing the festival circuit means we need to remain flexible.

My routing will look like this:
1. BASS DIRECT
Bass --> DI-Left Input
Thru --> AX8 Input
DI-LEFT OUT --> FOH

2. EFFECTS ONLY
AX8 OUT 2 --> DI-Right Input
Thru --> Bass Amp
DI-RIGHT OUT --> FOH

3. AMP/CAB SIM & FX
AX8 OUT 1 --> FOH
 
DI and mic together for best result. I go direct and then have my Ampeg 1x15 just as a monitor for me. I should mic it, but it would mean moving channels around on the board. Too much for our current sound people. But yeah, do both.
 
I am a big fan of DI and amp blended, but managing the blend int he Axe-FX II, in this way FOH can't dial out my grind.

I always asked FOH to try the signal flat before compensating for the acoustical realities of the room that FOH needs to deal with, that I might not be able to hear on stage with the band ripping.
 
I live in a small area, and the few times I actually get someone running FOH they have always managed to completely screw up my monitor mix. So I personally handle my own monitor mix now.

So I give the front of house Output 1 - Left from the XLR , Balanced goes to my power amp and cabs

Then I use output 2 - for my in ears, which is just a mirror of output 1, with a separate EQ profile under global.

I've spent a good deal of time building patches where the lows don't over power a room, while still being present (yay for multiband compressors). If for some reason they really slaughter the tone at this point, I will just bring the stage volume up.

At some point i Will probably have a DI output again, but right now I am pretty much playing on the clean side of things. With Different compressor profiles for different songs.
 
Hi teebass,
If you are using frfr it makes the answer simple - just send them your sound from the axefx whether it be mono or stereo (I remember sometimes preferring stereo when the pa was stereo and I was using some cool chorus, delay, or flange sounds that could engulf the audience). That's the beauty of frfr - what you hear is what's coming out of the unit. If you're using bass cabs, well then you're setting up your sound to sound good through the cab so a Di and fx feed might be appropriate.
Thanks
Pauly

Ps: you can always tell which audience members are stoned when you start those stereo swirling chorus sounds hehe.


Howdy Fractal Audio Fam...

I'm a relatively new member to the Fractal fold with a Mark II as my main bass backline, and I've plugged a fair bit of time into my bass tones (separate processing for lows/highs, fx, eq,etc) and I'm really happy with the general scope of my tone on stage. It all adds up really neatly in a punchy, clear package without too much mud/gunk..

...but I worry about getting these balances happening out front through FOH. I know it is entirely up to the sound crew to fully translate the bass sound into the venue, but what can I do to give the sound crew the best shot at doing this?

Do you output the halves of the tone to the L/R outputs separately? (High half on L, low on R) Do you send a single output of the mixed tone to the desk? Do you add DI's in there somewhere? Have the cabs mic'd? What do you do to get your sound to the crowd?

Thanks for your time :)
 
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