It’s been a busy summer concert season. I’ve spent a lot of time doing sound engineering for local bands over the last couple of years and thought I would share some observations that have changed how I look at bass playing. This will be long, but I hope it will help people who are looking to start gigging, and maybe some who have been gigging a while.
Playing bass live is different. It’s easy to take all the subtleties and sound shaping and think it makes a difference to what the audience hears. The truth is, it usually doesn’t make a difference. And what sounds good on stage, probably sounds lousy to an audience or at least makes the sound engineer have a Very Bad Day.
Talk to your Sound Engineer. They want to make your group sound good. They probably take it more seriously than most band members. If the sound is mushy or mixed wrong or there’s feedback or you can’t hear the vocals or you can’t hear one instrument or it’s too loud or too quiet or too boomy or too shrill or all of those things at once, it is always The Sound Guy’s Fault.
The problem is that most sound guys are presented with an impossible challenge. What sounds good on stage, and what each musician needs in their monitor doesn’t sound good in front of the PAs in the audience.
Let’s look at stage sound first. Whatever a stage is for the gig. Even if it’s just a stool on the grass. You need to be able to hear the things you need to play well. Sounds simple. But there’s a drummer who pounds the ride cymbal next to you every few beats. Or a guitarist who has cranked his amp so they can hear what they need. So you turn up your amp. But then the guitarist can’t hear and they turn their amp up. You know where that ends up.
Then there’s a vocalist at the front of the stage. Or a guitarist also singing. And their microphone is pointed back towards them. And those amps. So when they are right in front of the mic and kissing it, their voice is all the mic picks up. But the second they move away, that mic is picking up all those amp sounds and drums and sending it to the PA. If those amps are as loud as the singing voice, or in many cases louder, wow, that’s a headache! And then there’s a mic on the kick drum. And it’s close to the bass amp so it gets both. More fun!
Pretty soon, the musicians on stage who never used hearing protection and who are having their ears raped by the drummer have their amps and monitors blasting at 105dB. All of these stage sounds are fighting to be the thing that each musician on stage needs to hear the most. And none of those are doing the job well. The loudest amp on stage then sets a minimum threshold for the PAs to blast out vocals and other instruments so they can be heard over that amp, and the folks near the band end up with bleeding ears. Meanwhile the venue told the sound engineer to keep the volume reasonable at 85-90dB or even lower if it’s a nice bar or restaurant.
Now you’ve got a band with a couple of people singing, a few instruments, and there are several microphones on stage. And each microphone is picking up that stage sound and feeding it back into the PA. Everything sounds mushy and it’s hard to hear anything clearly. The sound engineer tries to pull the fader down on a loud channel and … nothing happens because all of that channel is coming from on stage, not through the PAs. Some feedback starts because the stage monitors are reflecting off the wall behind you. And it’s all The Sound Guy’s Fault!
Suggestion number one: Manage your stage volume. Play with the absolute least sound you can play well with on stage. Lower volume is good.
This assumes that the PAs are going to haul the bass load. For many gigs, that will be true. You’ve got good PAs, maybe with subwoofers and they’re going to provide all the bass the audience needs. But what if the PA doesn’t have the capability to deliver? Then that nice big cab that you bought and the 800W amp come into play. Understand that you are now a part of the PA system. Work with the sound engineer to set a volume that works for stage and audience together. And understand if the sound engineer needs to come up and make some adjustments during the gig.
But if the PAs are doing the job, don’t be That Guy that is playing so loud on stage that when the engineer moves a mixer fader, nothing happens!
The best solution to this is In-Ear Monitors. (IEMs) These don’t need to be fancy. A simple solution is a battery-powered clip-on-belt amp with volume control that plugs into the mixer and a set of good bass-response earbuds, of which many are available for less than $50 on Amazon. Of course you can get fancier. You can get much better earbuds. You can go to a wireless system. But you can get started very modestly. If you do go wireless, get a good system - there are a lot of systems that end up with interference and become useless in practical situations.
IEMs provide some great advantages:
- They protect your hearing. You decide the volume you need and they act as earplugs for the PA or other loud band members.
- You hear what you need. Don’t want to listen to that annoying vocalist? Turn her down! (Especially useful when married to her!) Want more kick? Turn it up! Your sound guy can tailor the channels to what you need and want.
- Better audience experience - without the amp blasting on stage, the sound engineer can balance your playing with everything else. They can highlight your amazing bass solos and fade you back for the great vocal arias. Since the vocal mics aren’t picking up all that bass, the engineer might be able to extend the lower end of the vocal pickup so they have a more full sound. The engineer wants you to sound good - assuming you bought the beers - and you’ve given your engineer better tools to do so.
- You can play using your IEM system at 2AM at home and not wake up the neighbors and their newborn baby and have them hate you. Forever!
It seems that many band with members under 45 years old use in-ears, while most older players are scared of them and want traditional monitors. If you’re an old fart (like me), give them a try. It’s easy to get started. If you need ambient sounds, look at Sensaphonics 3DME systems. We could do a whole guide on how to use IEMs!
Next topic is Tonal Quality
When I hear a bass player come in saying they are doing things to “cut through the mix” I immediately have a flag that there will likely be problems.
When we practice, or we play at home for fun to backing tracks and recordings, we want to hear ourselves. We want to cut through the mix. It’s satisfying to hear that bass get personal with our ears. But when we play live with others, you don’t want to Cut Through The Mix. Unless you’re a one-man-band playing bass solos, you need to be part of the mix. We want each instrument to be heard and hold up its part. When the bass is stepping on the vocals and other instruments, the music is mushy and confusing.
Most of the time tonally, that means rolling off the treble. Maybe even living with flatwounds. Not always, and style of music makes a difference. Highly driven or distorted bass with a lot of overtones lives in the same frequency spectrum as the guitars and vocals for most rock and pop. If you don’t shape your tone to play well with the rest of the band, the sound engineer will either do it for you, or the audience will just live with lousy sound. In either case, it’s not a good solution. Know how your bass sounds as part of the mix, and make your tonal adjustments so the whole band sounds good, not just you. Ask your other band members for their opinions, then actually act on those opinions.
Know what musical part to play. There is a place for flourishes, and a place for simple roots. The best live bass players I know make it look like playing root-fifths for country music is the most fun thing they have ever done. And maybe once or twice in a song they’ll get to go into an elaborate bass riff, but then they’re back to smiling and dancing to root-fifths.
A band I do sound for was interviewing a new bass player. At one point as they’re going through a song, they say “ok, this part goes to a guitar solo.” The lead guitarist starts his solo, and the bassist immediately starts in on an elaborate higher-octave diatonic riff. Totally playing over the guitar. Don’t be That Guy. Know when to play, and when to keep it simple. The bass provides the groove. It can be magic when you are in the groove. Don’t trample the guitars. Don’t break groove to go play that elegantly complex riff that shows off your great music theory and prestidigitation. Give your audience the groove and they’ll love you.
This is actually good news for new bass players. Because When To Keep It Simple is actually most of the time. If all you do is stand up and play the root note of each chord, you can establish a simple groove and your band is going to sound pretty good. Of course if you can get those flourishes in, and establish a more complex groove and make it all work with the rest of the band, your band can sound great. Something to aspire to.
But your band will sound Bad if you start playing solos on top of other instruments, or you break that groove to go meandering randomly through the diatonics. A good sound engineer will just bury the bass as much as possible rather than let Bad Bass (as opposed to BadAss Bass) into the PA.
Finally, and this isn’t about bass. It’s about presence. We had a stand-in bass player for a couple of months with the main band I do sound for. Great player. Knew his stuff. Fantastic sound and technique. And stiff as a board. Look and act the part. Whatever that is for your band. Dress appropriately. Move appropriately. A good-looking band that moves well sounds better than a band that looks lousy and doesn’t play to the audience. That’s not facetious - it’s weirdly true. Watching live musicians is part of a whole sensory package. And movement can help you keep the groove.
If you remember just a few things:
Stage sound is audience sound. What you have on stage fights with the PAs in the audience and feeds into all the vocal mics. You want good audience sound.
Manage your tone. Have the appropriate sound for what you’re playing. Almost all the time that means don’t tonally trample the vocals and other instruments. But play what is right for the genre and style and works well with your band.
Don’t overplay. You’re part of a band. Not a solo player. Play the groove for the audience to lock in. Go off-groove only when it’s appropriate. When in doubt, keep it simple.
Look the part. It’s not just sound. You’re delivering a whole experience. Whether that’s grunge, casual or a black-tie big band.
Have fun! Talk to your sound guy and ask what their pet peeves and problems have been, and how you can help make the whole band sound better for the audience. If you are gigging, you’re delivering a product - to yourselves and to your audience. Make it a good product!
Anyone who has thoughts on how to make gigs better, post them! Some of us might be old dogs, but maybe we can learn new tricks. I believe Josh’s course is the very best beginner course out there, and will give you a solid background to start gigging. And gigging will make you a better player. Use that power for Good!
(and they sounded great)