Main Area and Open Discussion > Living Room

Do we have any musical people on DC?

<< < (41/65) > >>

Vurbal:
^ On the good side, that leaves us with more money for the higher power amps we need and more efficient speakers to save our backs, not to mention another bass or 2. I'm thinking I'll be replacing my POS low end Hartke cab soon with a Bill Fitzmaurice DIY kit.

I would, however, like to get a good compressor pedal, and the Keeley seems to be the one that gets the best reviews. My old Trace head has built in compressor that sounds surprisingly good at a minimal setting. Of course, there are no fine tuning options, and, unlike a pedal, it's not exactly portable to another amp.

40hz:
I would, however, like to get a good compressor pedal, and the Keeley seems to be the one that gets the best reviews. My old Trace head has built in compressor that sounds surprisingly good at a minimal setting. Of course, there are no fine tuning options, and, unlike a pedal, it's not exactly portable to another amp.
-Vurbal (February 13, 2015, 10:28 AM)
--- End quote ---

My high wattage SWR head has a built-in compressor too. It's actually rather nice sounding. But it's of the single knob variety which doesn't allow much in the way of fine tuning to get it to sound exactly your way. For normal and sane volumes however, there's always my old and beloved Ampeg B-15N. Being all tube it provides that wonderful natural (by way of physics) compression instrument tube amps do so well.

It always amuses me that the hardcore "vintage tone" freaks love to diss outboard compressors. ("It's just unnatural dude. I'll only plug straight into my Twin 'verb cuz I want to hear pure unadulterated guitar!") And they'll argue at length about it without realizing a compressed signal IS "vintage tone." Those old amps they love and praise so much also compress the living heck out of their signal. But these tubeheads have heard that ol' 12AX7-driven preamp and tube compression so often (and for so long) that they've now come to accept it as uncolored. Which is fine. That trace of distortion and compression is a lot of what makes all-tube amps so musical. So even if the tube freaks underlying premise is wrong, at least the amps they swear by sound good. >:D

Beyond judicious use of compression, I've also had good luck adding the tiniest trace of reverb and the least hint of some very slow tremolo to my bass signal chain. It's so subtle it's virtually inaudible since it only adds a touch of moving air and an indefinable "liveliness" to the overall sound. You can feel a similar sensation of motion when you're in the same room with somebody playing the double bass. Enhancer devices will also give you some of that. I have a lot of respect for the BBE Sonic Maximizer, which I've used in the past even though I rarely use it now. Same goes for the Aphex Aural Exciter which does much the same in stereo. The Aphex also included a feature called Optical Big Bottom which really made it shine for use with electric bass. I have one of those in my rack too. But like the BBE, I seldom use it these days. 

The whole "exciter" thing can be a little hard to get your head and ears around. There's a lot of bad marketing fluff surrounding them. And there's even more flat-out wrong information posted on the web about how they work - along with crazy claims about what  they can do for your sound. However, this video below does a good job demonstrating AND correctly explaining the BBE. Especially impressive (and why I like Nick Jaffee so much) is that this is a redo of his original video. He redid it because BBE contacted him after he posted originally to politely suggest his presentation wasn't clear - and his explanation about how the device worked "wasn't entirely accurate." Most video bloggers wouldn't be so upfront about being wrong when they redid their video. Far too many would double down and start insisting their explanation was "more correct" than the manufacturer's was. But whatever. Put your headphones on and check out what Nick has to say and show you about the BBE Sonic Stomp Maximizer. Fast forward to the 1:00 mark to skip the opening if you want to get right to the demo and explanations:

superboyac:
I just finished putting some organ on my friends' tracks, for this upcoming album:
http://creativecolloquy.com/special-call-for-submissions-valentines-day-massacre-at-the-narwhal

So it's coming up soon!  It was a delightful track, if I do say so myself.  A sound we've been talking about for years.
-superboyac (January 15, 2015, 06:15 PM)
--- End quote ---

Sounds good! Keep us posted. :Thmbsup:
-40hz (January 16, 2015, 12:09 PM)
--- End quote ---
It's out!
http://creativecolloquy.bandcamp.com/album/valentines-day-massacre-at-the-narwhal

I'm on the last track (the closer, yes!!) "Mac the Knife".  The same band (minus me) is also on track 3 "St. James Infirmary".  Hope you guys like it!

And Happy Valentines!

40hz:
^Nice! Very nice. (Like that vocalist too!) :Thmbsup:

superboyac:
^Nice! Very nice. (Like that vocalist too!) :Thmbsup:
-40hz (February 13, 2015, 09:00 PM)
--- End quote ---
We think she's awesome, too.  Thanks!!  Check out this track from maybe 10 years ago.  That's Houston person playing sax on it, and one of my first times in the studio, and I was basically just mesmerized because he might be my favorite sax player of all time.  Pay attention to 1:50.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page