Growing Up Bass Player

PA - sound system

A pause for a short blurb on a point of interest (interesting to me and I hope also to you).

Along with being a bass player a lot of my time was spent working with the PA or sound system. I began with the fore mentioned (part 4)“PA” that consisted of homemade cabinets with two fender 12 inch guitar speakers in each, spray painted flat black. To drive the speakers we used an old guitar head and one Shure SM-58. Over the years I graduated into better and “bigger” system. I can say with confidence that no matter how big and expensive the systems got, I never had any good experiences with them.

Dealing with the PA meant unloading and set up the PA at the beginning of the job, then tearing down the system at the end of the job and a constant struggle though out the job to get that one perfect sound that everyone was happy with. Then add to that, there was no way to tell what the sound was like when you were on stage playing. The acoustic of the room would change with the comings and going of the people occupying the room. So the PA would sound different with every hour that passed. Then, at the end or the job, sometimes the end of the night,(we played a lot of one night stands) the PA had to be disassembled, packed up and loaded back in to the trailer.

With that said, the point of this blurb is that I recently came in contact with a PA system the seem to solve all of the above problems. The L1 system by Bose. (Click on Bose and you can see the system)

Recently I attended a Community Concert which featured a trio consisting of two violins and a double bass player. I was just blown away by this group. They were phenomenal, all having doctorate degree’s from prestige’s schools of music.

They performed in Grand Hall in the Washington Pavilion with seating on three levels for 291 people. My wife and I were seated about 20 rows back on the first level.

The group was equipped with one Bose L1 system. (Again, see the Bose site if you are not familiar with this system) With this one system every note they play was heard by my wife and I, clear as can be. I am positive that were ever you are in the hall it was the same. I could not believe it. All I could think was were was this system when I had to deal with the sound coming from our group. This system is placed behind the musicians they hear the same thing the audience hears. That combined with the way the sound is delivered and the fact that the one person could carry and set up the system in about 5 minutes make this a dream PA system. For larger group and venues multiple L1 system can be used though I was told recently by a fellow musician his group ( a 6 piece blues band) played a gig were the house PA was one L1 system and is sounded great. I have seen setups where each musician has his own L1.

I am told that by using this system the musicians can also hear each other better. All the instruments, including the drums routed though the system, the sound does not change, and what the musicians hear is the same as what the audience hears. This was never true with the PA’s I dealt with because a separate mix of both vocal and instruments was used on stage. This was because the speakers for the audience to hear were placed in front of and pointed away from the musicians.

 Anyone who might be reading and has use or had an experience with the L1 system I would really like to hear about it. If you could leave you thoughts in the comment section of this blog I would really appreciate it.

Another Drummer