Michael Angelo;144610 wrote:
My question to you is, do you EQ your bass on the XR and if so, can you give me an idea how you do set it to control the noise?
Michael - Yes I do EQ my Bass input to the XAir. The specifics of the EQ can change with the particular song or playing style.
I assume you were just going direct in to the XAir off your amp or a DI box. In that kind of set-up I just try to match the response of the speakers on my Bass Amp. For me, that is a Low Pass filter set at around 5kHz. I use the High Shelf filter in the parametric EQ on the input channel. I like that better than the High Cut Off since the real speaker does have some output above it's specified upper frequency limit.
Finger noise is usually especially prevalent on songs where you are using overdrive or distortion.
You may also want to use a High Pass filter at 30 Hz or so if your PA has a Subwoofer. It's not as important, but I can hear the low thumps on my PA if I don't do that. The standard low cut option on every XAir channel works fine for that.
Again, you may want to change these settings depending on the song, but that's the beauty of the XAir with it's snapshots. You can change things in realtime as you go.
I do have a couple Schecter Basses with active electronics and a three band EQ. I find that they tend to have too much finger noise with all the EQ knobs set to the central detents. For most songs I'll turn the treble knob all the way to zero, and then just back it off zero by a slight amount. However, sometimes I'll turn the midrange knob to zero, put the treble at the central detent, and boost the bass a little to get a nice scoop sound.
So, like you said, experiment a little with your new Bass. Just keep in mind that if you are experimenting using your Bass Amp, that your PA speakers probably have a very different frequency response. The 5kHz or so low pass filter should fix that. If you have access to your PA when practicing, you might try doing an A/B comparison with your Bass Amp and PA to tweak the EQ just right.
-Ted