Bassists?? How to make myself more heard?? Please read details...?

Question:I play in a church band with a male vocalist/keyboardist, female vocalist, a drummer, an electric guitar, and me (bassist). We all plug directly into the board (DI) and we all use in ear moniters. But people have told me that they can't hear me 75 percent of the time from the audience. I'm not a bland bassist by any means; I move around quite a bit in an attempt to make myself heard. Any suggestions?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I play in a church band with a male vocalist/keyboardist, female vocalist, a drummer, an electric guitar, and me (bassist). We all plug directly into the board (DI) and we all use in ear moniters. But people have told me that they can't hear me 75 percent of the time from the audience. I'm not a bland bassist by any means; I move around quite a bit in an attempt to make myself heard. Any suggestions?

I do sound for bands as a living (believe me, it doesn't pay the bills). From the sounds of it, a couple of things could be going on.

My first suggestion would be to talk to the sound guy and see what he says. I've had a few shows where the bass was extremely loud and punching, but due to the general tones of what was going on, I had people ask why they couldn't hear it. I then had to point it out to them and they were amazed that they were hearing it, just not readily identifying it. This could be the case. Then again, I'm also assuming the person running the sound board knows what he's doing. If noone is running the sound board, that could be your problem.

Generally, when a bass is being mixed for a live show, it's left in the bottom end of the "sound wall" (a term for the entire general sound that comes from the performance) where it is supposed to be undertones to the guitars/vocals/etc and is an accent on the drums. But some bassists stand out in a higher frequency to get that nice crisp snap sound that has become more common place with bassists today. The sound of your bass is entirely dependent on what type of bass you play (body, pick-ups, strings) and what kind of amplification device you run through (pedals, amps, sound boards).

If you are not being heard, either your volume is not loud enough (ask the sound guy), or your bass is giving out a more of a warm paddy sound, in which case it is heard, but is more of a sustained filler note that the rest of the band sits on. If this is not what you want, adjust your tone knobs (plug into an amp and keep the amp on clean) until your pickups are making the sound you are looking for. If you still can't get what you want, try either different strings or different pickups or even a different bass altogether.

Also, little things like playing with a pick as opposed to your fingers will give you a little extra boost on the attack of the sound, and even playing through an amp will give you more control and produce a much louder sound that is easier to mix.

Hopefully this helped a bit.

Hopefully, this helps out a bit.

Use a bass amp.

Talk to the sound engineer who's running the board. He or she is controlling your volume levels -- and obviously needs to be told (politely) that you're not being heard in the mix and that he/she needs to make you louder.

Either that or don't go through the board -- bring your own amp up on stage with you so that you can control your own volume, and the sound person can adjust the PA volume to blend with yours.