Ampeg SVX for Live

[silvertones]

I've been playing bass for 46 years. I've had all the vintage stuff when it was new. I want to do something different. I want to use a small netbook with the SVX as the pre with a nice clean power amp. The question is for a speaker cabinet.
Anyone doing a setup like this as your main rig? The box needs to be a real good full range with very flat response as the SVX is doing all of the tone shaping. Not to big either. The first box that comes to mind is a Carvin 1503 or something similar. Of course a nice 3 way EAW would be nice but$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[JimmyM]

fearful, bill fitzmaurice, accugroove, audio kinesis, mayer (if you have $10,000 to spend on it )...some folks like to mod the ls1503 with the eminence 3015lf to make it more bass friendly, but by that point you might as well just get one built the way you want it.

btw, i don't use svx live but i do use a tech 21 vt pedal, and it sounds equally great in both hi-fi style bass cabs and traditional bass cabs.

[seamonkey]

Google "DPC Latency checker"
Carry this on a thumb drive and run it on netbooks you're considering.
Netbooks are limited on purpose by Microsoft to not handle much memory an use a crippled version of Windows.
Jump up to a standard laptop - good ones are not much more than netbook. the Latency checker will show much better performance.

I would actually say skip the Laptop and look for a small book size computer. It will have better performance. It will boot faster than most keyboards or tube amps. And it will take standard memory and disk drives.
And you can dedicate it just to this task. If you buy a netbook or laptop you're going to do stupid things with it like install crap as you cruise the internet.

Check out some big name concert acts. You'll see PC's next to the soundboard. They run plugins there.
It's getting to be a new world.
It like when electric bass took over from double bass for most bands. It's now plugins taking over for amp tone and sounding great.

[JimmyM]

believe it or not, i'm going to +1 seamonkey. i wouldn't run svx on anything but the highest powered laptop i could find or a good desktop. last thing you need during a gig is a freeze-up, and they use quite a bit of ram. and latency will be a big issue as well. this is why people with laptops always bring hardwire rigs as a backup. unless you really really REALLY have to have a computer, it's way more cost effective to get a head or a preamp with a power amp.

btw, how are you planning to use the svx? are you going to switch tones through the night or just leave one sound on?

[silvertones]

This is for the near future as soon as I get back to Florida. I do a solo show with a program called Real Band. I have everything I need equipment wise except my PA speakers. I'm very much interested in the Carvin 1503 for PA and thought they'd also be good to play bass through in smaller gigs. I have a Toshiba Laptop that is dedicated to music only. It runs just Real Band & the SVX. I use an Audidgy 2 ZS Notebook PCMCIA card for the "band". I don't use the Creative drivers I use KX drivers. KX gives me 4 pairs of outs. One out is for the melodic instruments, one out is for the drums, and one out serves as the effects return. KX has all kinds of effects that can be assigned to the DSP chip. So for vocals, I run in KX on the DSP, a compressor & reverb. All outs go to a mixer including the out from the Stealth interface for the SVX. The send on the mixer goes to the in on the A2ZSNB for effects. Works great. I'm just fine tuning all of the songs and also adding more. I have over 200 now.
I don't know the age of the folks here and I'm sure some of the younger people are up in arms somewhat about this idea of a one man band. I'm 60 and have played in all sorts of bands and this is the first time that I can sit down and play music with a great band and not have to deal with people's idiosyncrasies.
I haven't tried a netbook but you're probably right. For a bass only gig I was sort of looking for something smaller then my Toshiba with a 17" screen.

[JimmyM]

hey, you have to do what you have to do make money. i'm not offended

i'd probably stick to the toshiba for bass only gigs, too. it works and you already have it.

[seamonkey]

Originally Posted by silvertones

This is for the near future as soon as I get back to Florida. I do a solo show with a program called Real Band. I have everything I need equipment wise except my PA speakers. I'm very much interested in the Carvin 1503 for PA and thought they'd also be good to play bass through in smaller gigs. I have a Toshiba Laptop that is dedicated to music only. It runs just Real Band & the SVX. I use an Audidgy 2 ZS Notebook PCMCIA card for the "band". I don't use the Creative drivers I use KX drivers. KX gives me 4 pairs of outs. One out is for the melodic instruments, one out is for the drums, and one out serves as the effects return. KX has all kinds of effects that can be assigned to the DSP chip. So for vocals, I run in KX on the DSP, a compressor & reverb. All outs go to a mixer including the out from the Stealth interface for the SVX. The send on the mixer goes to the in on the A2ZSNB for effects. Works great. I'm just fine tuning all of the songs and also adding more. I have over 200 now.
I don't know the age of the folks here and I'm sure some of the younger people are up in arms somewhat about this idea of a one man band. I'm 60 and have played in all sorts of bands and this is the first time that I can sit down and play music with a great band and not have to deal with people's idiosyncrasies.
I haven't tried a netbook but you're probably right. For a bass only gig I was sort of looking for something smaller then my Toshiba with a 17" screen.

Real Band with it's real tracks are great. I use Band In a Box for Practice which gives me the ability to loop a chorus to practice over. It can spoil you though when playing with live Musicians.

Jamstix just released version 3 which is also a great program for drums, but it tends to work better with small combos where it can hear the music intensity and adjust itself.

After you get going with SVX, you'll be happy to find that there are plenty of plugins that do amazing things.

Even "The Who" used sequencer way back when. You can see Moon wearing headphones to stay in sync. Doing this may not be new - but for a bass playing to do it is something new.

There are some pioneers leading the way with this playing keyboards, or guitar, it's time for some Bass players to take the mainstream.

Best of luck. You'll do great.

[silvertones]

I'm a Beta tester for PGMusic. Have been for a number of years. If you visit the forums I go by Silvertones there as well. I'm an old guy now but have been playing bass for 46 years. My dad ran an electronics wholesale store in NH were I'm from. They handled Jensen, Electrovoice etc. He was also an excellent electronics guy. Could build anything from old TVs. My first bass rig back in 1963 was a 60 watt all tube amp he built for me with 2- 12" Jensens. It also had a pair of sattelite speakers with a 12" Jensen in each. Had a little band and we'd "play" ( not very well) at our Boy Scout meetings and Jamboree. I was 12 years old. The first gig we played we only did one song. Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones. It had just hit the airwaves. I've never stopped.
In 1965 I bought a brand new Fender P bass. Kept that for many years. I used to buy a REAL heavy gauge LaBella "E" string and a medium gauge set of strings and do the BEAD thing back in the "60's.
Stop by PGMusic forum. I've got over 200 songs done with 100% Real Tracks.

[silvertones]

Seamonkey,
Seeing as you use BIAB and are familiar with Real Tracks I'm uploading 5 songs to Box.net. They were done in Real Band with all Real Tracks except of course the vocals and I'm playing bass. I use a Carvin BB75 with the Ampeg SVX. These are what my live tracks are like. Mixed in mono and harmonies by a vocalist. I'll post the link shortly as they are still uploading.

[silvertones]

Silvertones Songs