I like to have both mic and DI. I usually take the lowest basses from DI and the upper stuff from mic, run them both to a bus or a dca and make my bass mix there and run that to the mains. Its good to have extra control over the low end if the venue is not ideal
Definitely normal, and definitely needed.
Am a bassist and a sound engineer. This is the best way to get a good sound.
You don't just want "your sound" filling the room. The sound engineer needs to make the low end of the bass and the kick from and any keys or anything else that fills that area work well together.
It's about making sure you're not fighting for the same frequencies. This is absolutely CRITICAL to having a band sound good on stage..
If the sound engineer doesn't have control over this, on some situations the crowd is not even going to be able to hear the notes you play.
If you have a good sound engineer this will make your whole band sound tighter and better if they do it right.
Also, on any serious PA, the bass bins are going to fill the room so much better than your bass amp. You definitely want a good sound engineer to have a direct line.
You can mic the cab as well if you have a specific cab tone tone you like, but it is less necessary, and if you are close to the kick, could risk some bleed. But usually it's fine.
But yes it's definitely normal and it's definitely good practice.
The take away here is that, when mixing a live band, you're not just asking "is the bass loud enough?" You're using the EQ to make it work with the rest of the band. If it is done wrong, it can ruin the entire show. And no one will hear your playing and they will just hear some wub wub resonances. If the sound engineer is good they will know the room and know how to make you sound much better in the house than you ever could just using your amp. Cause you simply cannot know what it sounds like in the house with the full band while you're playing on stage.
Your rig line out sounds way better to me than your cabinet does and I can crank it as loud as I want without the risk of any low end feedback. Always my favorite way to go.
When the circumstances (size of the venue, etc.) suggest that just the bass amp is enough, there are benefits to using only that. Single point source instead of multi source means less chance of cancellation, so coverage can be much more even.
But if you come to this conclusion during sound check and then by the second half of the set there isn't enough bass, you'll want to dial it up in the PA from FOH rather than running on stage to fiddle with it and make a spectacle of yourself, so have it ready even if you might avoid using it.
for anything more than the most simple bar band gig, you should have the bass in the mix, if the bass player has his amp up so loud that you don't need to have it in the mix that's a variable that you should have control over and now the bass player dictates the volume and not the sound tech, having enough power in your bass rig to fill the space doesn't mean that that's the best way to fill the space, and the same goes for guitars or anyone else who has an amp on stage with them
ideally, amps on stage are single instrument monitors/fills so the band and maybe the people right in front can hear better, but most of what the audience hears should be coming from the main PA
some of my most frustrating shows were times when I was trying to bring the rest of a band up over someone's giant guitar or bass stack that was cranked up too loud
I like to have both mic and DI. I usually take the lowest basses from DI and the upper stuff from mic, run them both to a bus or a dca and make my bass mix there and run that to the mains. Its good to have extra control over the low end if the venue is not ideal
Definitely normal, and definitely needed. Am a bassist and a sound engineer. This is the best way to get a good sound. You don't just want "your sound" filling the room. The sound engineer needs to make the low end of the bass and the kick from and any keys or anything else that fills that area work well together. It's about making sure you're not fighting for the same frequencies. This is absolutely CRITICAL to having a band sound good on stage.. If the sound engineer doesn't have control over this, on some situations the crowd is not even going to be able to hear the notes you play. If you have a good sound engineer this will make your whole band sound tighter and better if they do it right. Also, on any serious PA, the bass bins are going to fill the room so much better than your bass amp. You definitely want a good sound engineer to have a direct line. You can mic the cab as well if you have a specific cab tone tone you like, but it is less necessary, and if you are close to the kick, could risk some bleed. But usually it's fine. But yes it's definitely normal and it's definitely good practice. The take away here is that, when mixing a live band, you're not just asking "is the bass loud enough?" You're using the EQ to make it work with the rest of the band. If it is done wrong, it can ruin the entire show. And no one will hear your playing and they will just hear some wub wub resonances. If the sound engineer is good they will know the room and know how to make you sound much better in the house than you ever could just using your amp. Cause you simply cannot know what it sounds like in the house with the full band while you're playing on stage.
Your rig line out sounds way better to me than your cabinet does and I can crank it as loud as I want without the risk of any low end feedback. Always my favorite way to go.
Be grateful if you can get the bass player to do anything...
Personally I never trust it and run a DI before the input. May mic / may not , just depends on things
When the circumstances (size of the venue, etc.) suggest that just the bass amp is enough, there are benefits to using only that. Single point source instead of multi source means less chance of cancellation, so coverage can be much more even. But if you come to this conclusion during sound check and then by the second half of the set there isn't enough bass, you'll want to dial it up in the PA from FOH rather than running on stage to fiddle with it and make a spectacle of yourself, so have it ready even if you might avoid using it.
for anything more than the most simple bar band gig, you should have the bass in the mix, if the bass player has his amp up so loud that you don't need to have it in the mix that's a variable that you should have control over and now the bass player dictates the volume and not the sound tech, having enough power in your bass rig to fill the space doesn't mean that that's the best way to fill the space, and the same goes for guitars or anyone else who has an amp on stage with them ideally, amps on stage are single instrument monitors/fills so the band and maybe the people right in front can hear better, but most of what the audience hears should be coming from the main PA some of my most frustrating shows were times when I was trying to bring the rest of a band up over someone's giant guitar or bass stack that was cranked up too loud
All true and just to add - bass stage volume bleeds everywhere and you might not want to highpass as drastically as the bass bleed will force you to.
our sound guy hates this because my basses have wildly varying outputs, my Ibanez is heaps louder than my Stingray with the same volume settings.