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Takin' It to the House:

How to Get Your Sound into the PA

Dan Berkowitz

If you're fortunate enough to get gigs beyond the small clubs, then you've probably been able to run your bass through the house PA. Sound people all have different approaches and you'll need to learn how to work with them in order to get decent sound quickly. Most sound techs want to keep things simple from their end, so they'll simply hand you a direct box to plug your bass into. Then you run a cord from the DI into your amp and you're ready to go.

But there are lots of choices, each with its own trade-offs. Here are some of them:

- Passive DI box into the board allows the sound tech an easy solution. Depending on your bass, you might find that the box loads your pickups a bit and changes your sound into the amp. But this solution should be fine for a bass with a built-in preamp.

- Active DI box into the board provides a better sound into the board and into your amp, because the electronics buffer the signal at the input. Be sure the switches are set correctly for your pickups (active or passive).

- Direct out from your amp (pre EQ), if you have a built-in DI in your amp, it can offer a simple solution: just plug in a microphone cord and you're ready. This is my favorite option because the setup is familiar to me, but some sound guys don't like having to work with an unknown DI signal. For example, one of my amps has a very hot DI signal, while the other has a much lower level. Be sure that the phantom power has been turned off on the line running to your DI - some built-in DI's can be ruined by phantom power from the PA. If you do go this route, a big advantage is that the signal to the board is independent of any of the tweaking you might do at your amp. Start with the DI level set in the middle or lower, because hot signals can be a problem for some boards. Listen for hum that results from a ground loop. If it's there, flip the ground lift switch. Of course, you'll be sending a dry signal - no effects - in most cases, which could mean that the audience doesn't hear what you've intended for them.

- Direct out from your amp (post EQ), helps you get a sound out in the audience that matches what you've tried to get on stage. The main problem is that the sound person will tweak the board for a good house mix, and when you change your volume or EQ on stage, it messes things up in the house. Also, because the house PA speakers are different than your cab on stage, your stage sound might not translate well out front.

These are the main choices and their trade-offs, but there are a few other possibilities that sometimes come in handy. For example, once I was playing an outdoor gig powered by a generator and couldn't get rid of a hum that sounded like a ground loop. Using the provided DI before my amp provided a weak, thin signal to the amp. In that case, I ran a cord from a line out to the DI box and flipped the DI's ground lift switch. No hum. Good stage sound. Good sound in the PA. The only drawback was that my direct signal was the same as post-EQ, so that any changes I made on stage would be reflected in the signal going to the board. In a similar way, if your amp is a combo and doesn't have a line out but does have a speaker extension jack (or if you want the sound of your full signal chain going to the board), you can hook up the DI box to the extension speaker jack. Be sure to flip the pad switch on the DI from the "instrument" to the "amp" setting, which cuts down the level to the house. In most cases, this doesn't have a meaningful change to the speaker impedance that your amp sees, so it won't cause any problems for your amp. Finally, some sound people like to skip the whole DI thing and mic your cab instead. If that's the case, watch where the mic goes. Sometimes the sound person will be in a hurry and will put the mic in the wrong place. I've seen it set in front of the cab's horn or way off to the edge of the speaker. And remember to leave your amp and bass controls settings alone, since any changes you make will affect the house sound.

In all, there are a number of ways to get your sound into the house. If you're familiar with all of them, you'll be able to set up quicker and get a better sound to your audience. The sound person will be happy, too. And of course, a happy sound person is more likely to try to make your band sound good.