In search of STEREO

[gastric]

I've owned or tried a variety of amps or preamps in an effort to find what I like. Along the way I ended up with both a Bass Pod XT Pro and a guitar Pod XT Pro with all of the add-on packs, both run through a QSC RMX 1450 into my cab(s).

I've gravitated towards the guitar version specifically for it's stereo support. I have a couple Boss VF-1 which can output stereo and has a lot of excellent stereo modulation effects, and an Electrix Filter Factory which adds a lot of nuanced stereo to it's filtering. It's fun stuff when listening through headphones or when playing back MP3 with just bass or drums and bass. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm playing in a band again so I don't have a full mix to see how stereo bass survives, but I'm planning an electronica style band where I think some of the stereo effects would work well, though possibly only in a recording/playback environment compared to live.

Anyway, while I enjoy the stereo-ness of the Pod, the various sounds available, and the possibility of running DI/recording out with speaker sims, I don't really like how the Pod kind of squashes dynamics compared to analog amps/preamps. I haven't found any of the Pod effects to be particularly useful yet compared to what I already have so I don't think I'd miss much there.

Long story short.... I've been trying to figure out how I can effectively run stereo with a straight bass preamp or amp. The only products I've identified thus far are Eden Navigator and other Eden heads. Are there other preamps/amps that support stereo effects loops and stereo outs?

I'm sure some of you have done this, tried it, or have some wise words for me. And I look forward to reading them.

[seamonkey]

Regular small stereo mixer have stereo effects mixes.
Incredible bargains these days.

[IvanMike]

depends on what kind of stereo you want. True stereo will require you to have cabs on both sides of the stage. anything like that and i'd be doing it through the pa in some manner, and only on frequencies above a specific crossover point as the low end tends to dissapear with lots of stereo effects that screw with the phase of the signal.

run stereo effects into two cabs side by side or one on top of the other and nobody will be able to tell unless they are about two meters or closer to the cabs.

If you're looking for "stereo" where one cab gets the dry unaffected signal and the other one gets a signal with effects you can go with a stack. People won't hear it as stereo but it can often sound better than running a straight wet signal as bass guitar often loses low end from a whole variety of signal processers. However, a good side chain effects loop will allow you to blend both signals into one cab (or several) and get pretty close to the wet/dry cab setup. (now it sounds like i'm talking aquarium filtration setups - lol)

Not a ton of heads/preamps have stereo options for the signal or effects loop. However, many effects can take the line level signal of the dual line outs of preamps and you can run some (not all) of them between the preamp and poweramp.

[gastric]

I have a stereo power amp, two cabs, and would feed PA whenever I could as I have no desire to lug even one cab much less two.

Stereo effects could include panning, ping-pong-delays, stereo chorus/flange/phase, all that fun stuff. Again, in an electronica environment. I'm not even sure I'm that seriously interested in pursuing stereo, but if you can why not?

Using a separate mixer and it's effects loop absolutely positively NEVER crossed my mind. And is such a marvelously simple solution VS spending tons of time trying to find bass amps that support stereo. Which is exactly why I posted here. WOOT!

[BassmanPaul]

I have done this with a stereo effect unit that operates at line level. I always use a pair of cabinets and, at one time, placed one on each side of the stage. It did give some interesting effects but I considered that all in all it was a waste. Now I stack my cabinets and am far happier with my system.

Paul

[RickenBoogie]

Same here. In fact, at one time, I was using two compete bass rigs, left/right, with an effects board splitting the signal. It's cool, no doubt, but not really worth all the effort that goes into it. Back to a single bass rig, and happier than ever.

[Smu573]

The Eden WT1205 has an internal switch that makes the amp true stereo(great for stereo effects). (it also has two preamps)

[Jeff Scott]

Walter Woods stereo model Electaucoustic amps.

[Nightlyraider]

Bass is non-directional (or very close to it) below a certain frequency, so that your brain cannot determine direction (if the sound is coming to your left or right first, the key effect present in "Stereo") acoustically.

You can use stereo effects with success in the mids and highs, but you'll need 25 feet at least between the speakers, and even then remember that your instrument is poorly suited range wise for stereo, or at least the human being is poorly suited to it.

Edit: I can't tell from your post, but with the pod and recording stuffs I figure you may be listening back through headphones. Isolated speakers to each ear individually, such as headphones, will create stereo effects you'll never be able to achieve in a live sound.

[chuck3]

I've experimented with it and started a couple of threads about it here on TB. I use the EBS pedals that are stereo to split the sound. Problem is, it makes no sense at all for the band I play in - assuming the listener hears it at all, which I do when I'm fooling around by myself, but I'm not sure the average listener does. As others said, it's not really worth the trouble in my experience.

That said, these experiments and things people said on TB got me into the wet-dry thing (but in mono), and I have an Xotic Xblender on order. I am looking forward to splitting the signal between wet and dry which I expect I actually will use a fair amount with the band.