Gorecki Posted November 12, 2005 Report Share Posted November 12, 2005 Howdy Fellas, This year I'm on a small quest to expand my bass sounds inventory. Historically I would run direct to the board, most often with some compression and tweak sounds as I went Or I would use midi for a double bass or electric. Now I'd like to get some inspiration from pre-shaped bass tones. I'm only doing this for studio tracks as I'm not a 'bass player'. I've been looking over some of the lower end stuff but haven't heard much yet. Looked at things like: DigiTech BP80 Bass Multi-Effect Pedal http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=bass...ase_pid/150847/ Behringer Bass V-AMP Modeling Preamp http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=bass...ase_pid/480692/ Any of you 'real' bass players have experience, suggestions, favorites? Suggest away! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Primal Posted November 14, 2005 Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 I've been eyeing those Behringer V-Amps myself. I've heard that they are just as good as the Line6 PODs. I would probably splurg for the rack mount version. From what I understand, the effects are higher quality, plus you don't have to fool with that awkwardly shaped... thing. Let us know which one you get. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bytrix Posted November 14, 2005 Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 I have the Guitar version of the V-Amp pro (rackmount), the high-distortion channels are a little too clunky but everything else on it is great. You can get a massive difference in tone and sound from it. Plus it's very flexible with the floorboard unit (which costs almost as much as the V-Amp Pro itself, letting you bind almost any control to the expression pedals and footswitches lets you do alot. I might also be buying the bass version early next year (and I was originally planning to get the POD XT Live which is 3 times the price of the V-Amp Pro. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted November 14, 2005 Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 At home (I hesitate to call it a "home studio"...) I double-track the bass. One channel is direct-in, the other channel is through my guitar rig (Digitech RP1 preamp with its own effects loop out to a bunch of boutique pedals and then into a 2x10 guitar combo amp, miked). So the DI channel provides the foundation, and the miked-amp channel provides the "special effects" and I have both available for separate EQ-ing and mix-down. It's like studio bi-amping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted November 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 At home (I hesitate to call it a "home studio"...) I double-track the bass. One channel is direct-in, the other channel is through my guitar rig (Digitech RP1 preamp with its own effects loop out to a bunch of boutique pedals and then into a 2x10 guitar combo amp, miked). So the DI channel provides the foundation, and the miked-amp channel provides the "special effects" and I have both available for separate EQ-ing and mix-down. It's like studio bi-amping. ← That's an interesting thought! I've used a guitar preamp before and even run through the rig entirely but was never happy with the sound (for rock mic'd 4x12 cabs was fine but not for much else) and went to direct only because of it. Never tried a blended feed for bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluespresence Posted November 14, 2005 Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 I never was one for effects or pedals but I recently picked up the new TonePort from Line6......I have loaded the software but due to bowhunting season life has been temporarily placed on hold I should get around to playing with it next week when gune season starts and I have to hang up my bow for 11 days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted November 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 I never was one for effects or pedals but I recently picked up the new TonePort from Line6......I have loaded the software but due to bowhunting season life has been temporarily placed on hold I should get around to playing with it next week when gune season starts and I have to hang up my bow for 11 days. ← That brings up a point for clarification. I'm not really looking for effects, more so 'shapes' and 'tones', that's where the thoughts of 'modelling' preamps may be inspirational. Maybe I'm just bored with the sound of my bass which is a P-Style Yamaha with EMG's? My thinking is if I can get some different shapes without having to go through all the effort in my DAW. I presume you'll enjoy the TonePort, I picked up a GuitarPort a while ago and been very happy with it. Haven't used it to record yet (other than loops of myself to noodle over) but expect to because I've dialed in some interesting sounds I expect to try out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted November 14, 2005 Report Share Posted November 14, 2005 I have the guitar V-amp, and for my tastes it just doesn't have as many tweeks as I'd like. Many more on the RP1....but then again, I'm an obsessive knob-turner. I may not be Eric Johnson but I know what I'm after. EQ-ing and tweeking compression/distortion on my RP1 is almost as painful as doing it in the software plug-ins (I use Logic). The only problem in going with a guitar amp is that the center EQ positions are different than they would be on a bass amp, and so for the really low freqs it tends to flatulate. That's where I need the DI. But for a bit of low-mid growl and a bit of chorus-distortion-delay, the guitar rig works out really nice. The settings are just way different than for guitar...but then again, I have 125 user-defined memory banks on the RP1 so a bunch of them are dedicated to bass settings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boogiewoogieman Posted November 16, 2005 Report Share Posted November 16, 2005 Howdy Fellas, This year I'm on a small quest to expand my bass sounds inventory. Historically I would run direct to the board, most often with some compression and tweak sounds as I went Or I would use midi for a double bass or electric. Now I'd like to get some inspiration from pre-shaped bass tones. I'm only doing this for studio tracks as I'm not a 'bass player'. I've been looking over some of the lower end stuff but haven't heard much yet. Looked at things like: DigiTech BP80 Bass Multi-Effect Pedal http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=bass...ase_pid/150847/ Behringer Bass V-AMP Modeling Preamp http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=bass...ase_pid/480692/ Any of you 'real' bass players have experience, suggestions, favorites? Suggest away! ← I got a Korg Pandora Px4D for sale man it's on ebay check it out seller iamcanadian2003_0 if it does not sell I'll sell it to you if you want it or you can bid on it if you want too. it works on bass and guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted January 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Well I finally got a spine and went with the Behringer V-Amp Bass Pro. I wired it up digital direct to my DAW and gave it a whirl. First thing I checked was the highly acclaimed Ampeg SVT emulation and as far as I'm concerned that one sound is worth the cost of the unit. First negative so far, envelope/filter based effects (auto wah, Ultra-Bass, Voc,Vcr) are extremely noisy/breathy. In mid play it's not noticable, then stop and...whosh!!! I'll hopefully do some tracking with it in the next weekend or two to get a real world feel for it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodBlessTexas Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Excellent. I was considering picking up a Bass Pod, but the limited time I got to spend with one (about 30 minutes) wasn't enough to get through more than the presets. Still, they all had very similar sounds to me, which didn't inspire paying the high cost of entry. I think I'll have to pick up the Bass V-Amp. Does it support recording over USB? GBT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted January 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Does it support recording over USB? No it doesn't. It has digital i/o in various flavors but it doesn't act as a computer audio interface, you have to put an audio interface in between, what ever the flavor. Even SoundBlaster cards have digital i/o these days and using something like that will show no loss in audio quality because it's digital to digital, the only loss would be when using the analog converters (SB's are cheap) to play it back but the original digital will remain. I can't say so far I've found much value in most of the presets but that's pretty common. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GodBlessTexas Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Well, doing a quick search at newegg, it's going to cost me at least $189 for a SPDIF equipped SoundBlaster. That plus the cost of the V-Amp is enough to pay for a Bass Pod. Decisions decisions. GBT Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gorecki Posted January 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Well, doing a quick search at newegg, it's going to cost me at least $189 for a SPDIF equipped SoundBlaster. That plus the cost of the V-Amp is enough to pay for a Bass Pod. Decisions decisions. GBT Really? Well they've got some nerve! You can get a Delta 1010 LT for that kind of money that has considerably more to offer than Creative. http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home...ase_pid/701376/ It really depends on what you want to do, I have many options in my studio to do things that many may not have so that additional cost certainly is a factor. Also, you don't have to go direct digital, I did because I could! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mattia Posted January 18, 2006 Report Share Posted January 18, 2006 Indeed. A good quality soundcard with SPDIF in/out shouldn't run that much. I've got an M-Audio Audiphile 2496 (Stereo in/out, plus digital in/out), costs under 100 bucks these days. I hear very good things about EMU's newest line of semipro cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gripper Posted January 20, 2006 Report Share Posted January 20, 2006 If you can find one to try, the BBE Bmax is just about as flexible as a preamp gets without effects. Might be a bit tame for what you want, though. Bass rocks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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