DI/Cabinet emulation question.

[Bassdirty]

I mean that's just not something a lot of us can do. Even if we had some one we're lucky to get more than a line-check during a 15 minute change over.

Yea, Good point. I guess I kinda got spoiled when I joined my last band. It was a sound guy that the drummer has known/used for years.
I haven't done one of those "15 min changeover" shows in years. I did NOT love it. Even though I could probably setup in 15 minutes, still feels rushed with people comin off, and goin on, and you almost cant recover from that feeling.

T$

 

[TimGriffiths]

It's not a fun way to start a gig but you get used to it. It's also why I just try to have a nice but workable pre-stage tone that gets sent to FOH to either reinforce or step all over. On that front I'm going to be trying out a cab sim live for the first time this weekend, going to be interesting to see how that goes.

 

[agedhorse]

How do you think an audience would reaspond to a longer changeover?

 

[SteveIII]

I imagine that would be a cultural thing. Some places will have canned music between sets. But if the Audience is used to 15 min or less, you do what ya gotta do right? I would suggest everything racked up and on a dolly. Wheel it in plug into power and plug the xlr into you FOH send. Any patches should be volume matched from practice and rehearsal. You should have to eq for room possibly and that's about it. Still doesn't make a quick changover fun but hey?

 

[TimGriffiths]

Depends on the context. For the kind of gigs I play more than 20 minutes starts to push it. There's often a lot of bands on and people may not know, or like, all of them. There's also some pressure on promoters to start gigs as late as possible for a given finish and 15 minutes tends to price in things not running to time.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

How do you think an audience would reaspond to a longer changeover?

Better than the seeming five minutes between songs I've occasionally seen from overly ambitious and eclectic bands where half that time has been tuning up a unique Patagonian instrument made from the bodies of five different hollowed-out reptiles strung with the world's most temperature-dependent substance. I have been hoist by similar petards in the sense of the dummer (Alesis SR16) exploding or issues with laptops providing backing and lighting over DMX having issues 10 seconds before gig start.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Finding the right sound engineer would be great, but often you are limited to the one at the venue or the one the people with the PA for the gig brought, etc. In the UK I've been the sound engineer for others and it seems to work best if you are headlining your own gig and are either using your own PA or playing in a market town's town hall or community-run venue when people seem a bit less precious about their equipment. Often, unfortunately, they are a bit unaware of what they have so asking questions also results in suggestions that the 100W RMS (10,000 PMPO marketing Watts!) system into two 6.5" speakers is 'powerful' because it works for Mrs. Miggins and her exposition of the finer points of jam making on Wednesday evenings.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Finding the right sound engineer would be great, but often you are limited to the one at the venue or the one the people with the PA for the gig brought, etc. In the UK I've been the sound engineer for others and it seems to work best if you are headlining your own gig and are either using your own PA or playing in a market town's town hall or community-run venue when people seem a bit less precious about their equipment. Often, unfortunately, they are a bit unaware of what they have so asking questions also results in suggestions that the 100W RMS (10,000 PMPO marketing Watts!) system into two 6.5" speakers is 'powerful' because it works for Mrs. Miggins and her exposition of the finer points of jam making on Wednesday evenings.

 

[bigtone23]

I use an old H&K Redbox Pro for direct sounds with cab emulation. The 4x12" emulation sounds pretty close to my cab on stage (which is usually a 1 or 2x12") and I run the Redbox Pro from a speaker out on the amp, so there's that shaping in effect, too. Sometimes, a little bass bump from the channel strip is all it needs to sound more like a bass cab in the mix and the highs and upper mids react to pedal distortion like a 12" speaker.
The catch is the head I use is only 100w. Not sure if the Redbox can handle a 300W SVT or the like.

 

[hennessybass]

I've been considering a few options for FOH...

#1
A LPF + HPF, like the one Broughton makes. I could run this in my signal, or after my signal but before a DI going to FOH.
Not thrilled about this option because I think some of the other options offer more functionality.

#2
An Aguilar TH DI. I played the TH amp for a long time, and like the tone, especially with the gain turned down for a clean tone. The AGS is very much like a cab sim. Lot's of people think it's a distortion - and it can be if you use it with the gain knob. But keep the gain low, and it's like a cab sim.

This is a graph of the TH head with the "Drive" (AGS) set at 3:00, which is about the same as the fixed AGS setting on the pedal. It looks like the response curve of a cab.

And if you don't want that peak at 2.5K, then the treble knob can take care of it. And you can use the para-mid control to really shape your sound - although maybe better to let the FOH guy do that. You can also use the gain to put a little hair on your notes (if that's part of your sound).

The only thing stoping my from going this route is a lack of I/O options. If you want the pedal enganged with the AGS on for the FOH, but don't want that in your amp signal chain, you have to find a way to split your signal. On my Streamliner amp, I could run a signal out of the tuner out to the TH, but if I wanted to use my vintage bassman, which doesn't have a DI or other out, I would have to find a way to split my signal - assuming I don't want the TH sound going to my stage rig. Not a huge deal breaker, but an unaffected out / passthrough would be a nice feature.

#3
My third option, and I'm leaning this way (actually maybe this and the TH - different flavors), is a Q-Strip. It has all the I/O options you could want and has a built in HPF+LPF and some pretty powerful EQ that can give you that bass cab response curve. Nice looking box that is kind of a swiss-army knife type tool. Nice to have that in the gig bag.

#4
Also in the running is the Shift Line Olympic. Again, preamp with great I/O and cab sim for FOH.

I'm pretty interested in the SLO, TH and Q-strip since they both have actual pre-amp functionality (unlike the Broughton option). I could use the Q-strip with my acoustic guitar as well.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I use an old H&K Redbox Pro for direct sounds with cab emulation. The 4x12" emulation sounds pretty close to my cab on stage (which is usually a 1 or 2x12") and I run the Redbox Pro from a speaker out on the amp, so there's that shaping in effect, too. Sometimes, a little bass bump from the channel strip is all it needs to sound more like a bass cab in the mix and the highs and upper mids react to pedal distortion like a 12" speaker.
The catch is the head I use is only 100w. Not sure if the Redbox can handle a 300W SVT or the like.

I use a Behringer 4x12" guitar speaker emulation on occasion, and it sounds like it behaves like yours. It's red so it's probably a rip off. The downside is that it's either phantom power or battery, but no wall wart which limits the usefulness as the battery is almost impossible to remove without randomly stabbing around in the compartment with a penknife. Hence I've sometimes used an Award Session MB-10 which is only a 1x12 guitar speaker sim but does have an EQ button which adds some bass boost with variable treble. If didn't tend to use multi effects with sims in I'd get something better.

The Award Session works for an old school sound with the treble trimmed, but it's not actually a balanced, just low Z. I've never really had an issue with noise from it, though . The real advantage is easy access to the battery and a walk wart option that works with just about any supply.

 

[TimGriffiths]

Had the first outing with the the Joyo Cab Box this weekend. I'd spent some time loading various IRs during the week and I have to say the bass cab sims are actually pretty damn good comparatively. The Big Box from RedWire are good but it's far too easy to get lost in the weeds with all the options. In the end I settling on using number 12 from the Shift Line cab pack which is just what it is and what it is is good.

Gig went well and did get to hear a clip from a quick desk recording the Sound Tech did and it sounded pretty damn good in context. Only adjustment I was asked to make was for stage sound. So so far so good, next gig is with a bunch of bands we're friends with and will have a lot of other bass players I know there besides. Will be interesting to see what they make of it.

 

[bigtone23]

The downside is that it's either phantom power or battery, but no wall wart which limits the usefulness as the battery is almost impossible to remove without randomly stabbing around in the compartment with a penknife.

This is why I sought out the Red Box Pro. It requires no power, phantom or battery or wall wart. Pretty sure the rest of the generations of Red Boxes do.