As a (former) bass player, you need to start a bit early, yeah. But that's not so much for distance but because it takes longer for the sound to start. Pipe organ is of course much worse. I would do one concert a year sitting next to an organist... The keyboard noises and motion from him playing way before me were pretty distracting. And when we stopped during rehersal, he'd stop on the keys right away, but the organ would keep going for a bit.