Muddy Sound: Difference between revisions

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A note from Chris-at-Bose<ref>[http://bose.infopop.cc/eve/forums?a=tpc&f=8146026354&m=2871062105&r=1191094205#1191094205 Chris-at-Bose talks about Muddy] </ref>

;musician friends in the crowd said everything was "muddy"  

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Boy, do I hate "muddy". It's a personal pet peeve. So I have a catalogue of what I think can make things muddy. I'll you give the full list in order of increasing cost, not in order of likelihood, then I'll try to address your situation in particular. Some of it is repetition of what others suggested. (If I'm leaving out something that creates mud, I hope someone will chime in and add it to my list.)

Open mike on the kick drum. The whole bass region gets hip-deep in mud from open kick drum mics. The kick gate can cure this, if you have a T1. (This doesn't apply in your case, Steve, since you have E-drums, but with acoustic drums, it's almost universal.)

Overdriving the B1s or even the L1s. We have really good limiters in our amps that prevent nasty distortion if you try to get too much level from the B1s or L1s. But if you really push them too hard, they will kind of "mush out" and sound "flabby". (Great word, huh?) If this is happening in the bass, turning down or getting more B1s is the fix. Remember, the sound on stage for a given audience level is definitely lower than you're used to, so you may not need to be so loud where you are. You may be able to turn down and still rock the house. If the L1s (not B1s) are limiting and muddying up the midrange, maybe too many people are sharing those L1s. (Not your problem, Steve, as you each have an L1.) If every member of the band has their own L1 and you are still overdriving the midrange, you are louder than I want to be close to. I'm not saying that no band should play that loud but, at that point, you're out of the L1's league and you may need something that can deliver more "punishment", if I may interject my personal slant on things. (I really like loud music and I appreciate bands that don't require ear plugs to listen to.)

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