Sound guys did Starfire bass overdrive at church for the services this weekend?!?!

lungimsam

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We have a large auditorium that has about 4,000 congregants over three services each Sunday.

They sound guys have all of us bassists go DI to board, and then the techs do whatever they do with the sound there. We never know what it sounds like out in the congregation because we use LiveMix in-ear monitors and hear everything like it is direct. The guitarists use their pedal boards and Kempers(?). Techs don't want any stage noise so no amps and they really control the sound tightly. Lately they have started adding a touch of distortion on the bass signal to let the basses cut through the mix more. I hear this during the weeks I don't play and I am in the congregation.

So I'm playing yesterday and doing my usual thing holding it down and trying to do tasteful fills and stuff where appropriate and I have no idea what my tone sounds like to the congregation. It all sounds direct clean tone with the rest of the band in my ears like it does every weekend.

When I went home I viewed the posted video on the worship team rehearsal site that they post each week to see how the bass sounded, and I was surprised because this week's sound guy must have decided to go over the top with the distortion on my bass. Made the low end huge and all my running around ripped thru the mix right out front.

I was stunned that the sound guys mixed it that way, as controlled as they usually are, but I figured they must have liked it since they control all that out there in the auditorium. It sounded balanced, but the bass was definitely out in front this weekend, which was fun to listen to on the video!!

Anyway, the Starfire sounded great in my ears and out there, too. I had never heard it like that before.
It will be interesting to see if they do it again with the next bassist next week.
 

fronobulax

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:)

That's better than the jokes about the bassist who played in church for months and then discovered the bass had never been plugged into anything.
 

Nuuska

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:)

That's better than the jokes about the bassist who played in church for months and then discovered the bass had never been plugged into anything.


That reminds me of the story I heard of "electric-sensitive" woman. A new telephone link mast was erected in her neighbourhood and she calls the company and starts bitchin about all the problems she had since the mast was erected. Person on the other end of the line listened patiently and finally said : "We haven't powered it yet."
 
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