i like the amp to be classy with sound and not have a button or knobs that adjust anything so a true sound can come out. i have a dream that a amp will be so you don’t do anything to “get there”. Even volume not have a button or knobs, so it’s automatic that listens to the room and makes it do everything. amp will have noise sensors that evaluate every situation and mix possible. there will be algorithms, but all analog. how about a bass amp for a live concert to adjust itself and will cut through by itself? can it be the future?
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amp without controls to just be everything you want
- Thread starter Rumbledore
- Start date
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
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- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Nope, it's all in the past: unamplified upright bass with simpatico player and audience.
DI into a PA connected to a real-time spectrum analyzer. Entirely possible, the technology has existed for years.
di imto pa isn’t the definition of an amp i have in mind. let me clarify that in the situation, i see a “amp” as a modern combo... say a rumble 200, just as a means of reference for design if you know what i mean. thanks for your interest, thought, and time. -r
That would be a very expensive amp to produce.
In the mean time learn to spin knobs.
In the mean time learn to spin knobs.
Too bad, because that's the only way for it to work. A mix has to involve all the instruments being played, and to evaluate that mix whatever is hearing it, whether it be a sound engineer's ears or a mic plugged into an RTA, can't be within the footprint of a combo amp on stage. That sensor has to be far enough away to hear everything.
The other issue, of course, is what sound are you going for? The sound that makes the bass player best able to hear themselves or the sound that mixes best with the rest of the band on the other side of the room? Those are often two very different things. Ignoring the subjectivity involved, which is yet another deal breaker of your idea, you often can't have both. That's why there are separate main and monitor systems, with small combo amps usually serving functionally as an individually controlled monitor, not something that carries the room.
Does not matter what you think you want this too be, you are describing a DI and a Sound Man.
You plug in a line and he will adjust your sound and volume to the full band mix listening and eqing to the room. Give you your bass on stage in the form of monitors on the floor and/or sidefills or through inear headphones.
Maybe you are looking for the SoundMan to be replaced by a robot? That would give you the more "automatic" feel you are going for.
how about large diaphragms (1 inch?) with bluetooth type of transmission, that can be stuck on walls, and around the room that would hear and send back information, what needs to be done electronically back to the box. idk, but such a pleasure to have this discussion* with all your professionalism .
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- Feb 12, 2006
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- Development Engineer-Mesa Boogie, Development Engineer-Genzler (pedals), Product Support-Genz Benz
What happens when your taste changes, or does not align with another player's taste? Suddenly, your "perfect" amp becomes a lot less perfect.
perhaps as both show-goers and performer(s) could check-in at the door (kiosk type), a computer could/would average their preferred tone, the amp would then deliver the results requested, maybe as pandora delivers
Start a TalkBass Thread about how the perfect amp should have knobs to adjusts.
The AES standards for proper bass tone have been tested and verified to be correct. Deviation from the standard is a felony punishable by up to a $1000 fine. Authorities have been notified.
You're talking about something that already exists and has for a long time. It's called a real time analyzer. Test tones, generally pink noise or a succession of sine waves, are played through the PA, a properly calibrated mic listens to the tone as reproduced by the speakers, feeds it into the RTA, where it is compared to the source. The RTA will then tell you EQ offsets to get a flat response that will reproduce the source tone as accurately as possible. Often you will average more than one measurement location by walking the mic around the room.
These have existed in one form or another for decades. I know people who used them in the 1980's. Nowdays it is possible to connect them all digitally and not have human ears involved in the process.
This is one example.
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I pretty much use one tone and the room adjusts to me.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
- Dec 3, 2003
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- Designer/Toaster Tech @ Passinwind Electronics
Speaker free DJ shows are already a thing. Just work out an app so everyone in the audience can control their own headphone mixes via their stoopid phones, and profit!
great! so the tech is there, but i don’t see ANY combo amps that play the whole room exactly like i’ve been describing
Apps already exist that let band members do their own monitor mixes via ipads. The question is whether that would scale to 100+ people in an audience.
That's because combo amps don't cover whole rooms, unless the room is very small or the band is very quiet.
I've allways found that what an rta likes is not what your ears want to hear. In a past carear I was an SQ judge for karatio on occasion. Marks for accuracy but not sonic pleasure. Just my experience. Long live the sound man!
