Do I need a bass amp or is a preamp/cab simulator enough?

[LowWay]

Oops I guess I missed it.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

There's also a strange pyschoacoustic thing I've noticed - at high enough volumes and the right EQ settings bass strings have the impression of being softer. That's probably because you have to play them less hard for it to be loud, but that should be mostly a plucking hand effect, but it seems to be something I notice on my fretting hand. Brains are weird.

Explaining that a bit more - I sometimes notice this softening or hardening of the strings (for want of a better descriptive term) when practising at home over headphones, but less commonly. There might be a hardening if the signal is bass shy and just not quite enough in the mix. The feeling of soft/loose strings is much more obvious when there's an amp in play, and the signal is reasonably bass rich, even though objectively there may be less low frequencies reaching my ears compared to over headphones. So I attribute this to some level of whole body involvement, but it's totally unscientific. I lack the will to do a more detailed study on even my own reactions. But I assume that I am not alone given the existence of variations vibration plates and so on I've considered buying or building at various points. I read of some people using IEMs in conjunction with these, but if I am having to bring other large pieces of equipment to compensate for a lack of a speaker then unless there is a requirement for the stage to be silent I feel I wouldn't really be gaining much in terms of reducing gear I need to take. And I would love to be able to take less. I am already paranoid enough that I take two of everything...

 

[DJ Bebop]

Hey,

my bass amp died and I'm not sure if i should buy another one or just a good preamp/cab simulator.

I'm playing rock (Arcosok Klubja on spotify if you're interested) and we only gig at places where there are FOHs and we usually also bring our own soundtech. Also during practice we use IEMs and the goal is to use IEMs on gigs too.

So wonder if I even need a amp and cab or just a good preamp? Or maybe should I buy an amp and use it's line out and if i need it I can use it as a amp too?

What preamp do you recommend if I decided to go that route?
I was thinking about getting a Darkglass because i have the alpha omicron distortion and I really like it.

Also I have a budget of around 500 USD.

Thanks for helping!

Is this you guys?


A good preamp in the gig bag is always a good bit of kit for the traveling musician to have even with an amp for those times when amps go down.

The preamp choice should be based on how you want your bass to sound to the audience and in your IEM. That can be made by you and in a collab with your sound tech. If you like the sound of the Darkglass products and how they present your bass sound to the world, I don't see any reason not to use them if it works in the context of your band and music.

Me? I still like having an amp available to use.

 

[Deloofs]

I never had much luck finding a "full range PA speaker" that sounded great for this application.

I think you'd need a full-range top plus a dedicated sub.

 

[DJ Bebop]

I think you'd need a full-range top plus a dedicated sub.

Much like a drumfill or drum monitor

 

[Deloofs]

Much like a drum stack or drum monitor

Sure. FOH is expected to make our bass tones sound good through full-range PAs with subs so if we can't do it ourselves then that's probably a problem for us.

 

[TheArchitect]

Hey,

my bass amp died and I'm not sure if i should buy another one or just a good preamp/cab simulator.

I'm playing rock (Arcosok Klubja on spotify if you're interested) and we only gig at places where there are FOHs and we usually also bring our own soundtech. Also during practice we use IEMs and the goal is to use IEMs on gigs too.

So wonder if I even need a amp and cab or just a good preamp? Or maybe should I buy an amp and use it's line out and if i need it I can use it as a amp too?

What preamp do you recommend if I decided to go that route?
I was thinking about getting a Darkglass because i have the alpha omicron distortion and I really like it.

Also I have a budget of around 500 USD.

Thanks for helping!

As a live sound mixer, the less stage volume the better. If the PA can handle it and monitoring is sufficient, no, an amp is not needed. That said, something like a rumble 100 as a personal monitor with its line out feeding foh is not a bad approach either.

 

[agedhorse]

As a live sound mixer, the less stage volume the better. If the PA can handle it and monitoring is sufficient, no, an amp is not needed. That said, something like a rumble 100 as a personal monitor with its line out feeding foh is not a bad approach either.

I find that a little stage volume makes the mix sound more authentic and convincing, plus the band typically plays better with each other rather than at each other's ears.

 

[Deloofs]

I find that a little stage volume makes the mix sound more authentic and convincing, plus the band typically plays better with each other rather than at each other's ears.

I go to a lot of shows where the crowd presses right up against the stage and interacts with the band a lot and they're usually out of the "field of view" of the PA. In that case stage volume is pretty necessary.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I go to a lot of shows where the crowd presses right up against the stage and interacts with the band a lot and they're usually out of the "field of view" of the PA. In that case stage volume is pretty necessary.

Maybe centre fills like soundbars for TVs are required in future. But it used to be that going down the front to be deafened by the Marshall stack cranked to entirely inappropriate levels was one of the rites of passage of going to gigs much as complaining to the guitarist is for a bassist.

An audience member clambering on stage to find that it's like a silent disco up there would be a bit of a buzzkill. Do you have to hack into the wireless signal to talk to the singer?

 

[agedhorse]

Maybe centre fills like soundbars for TVs are required in future. But it used to be that going down the front to be deafened by the Marshall stack cranked to entirely inappropriate levels was one of the rites of passage of going to gigs much as complaining to the guitarist is for a bassist.

An audience member clambering on stage to find that it's like a silent disco up there would be a bit of a buzzkill. Do you have to hack into the wireless signal to talk to the singer?

Front fills and infills (behind a barricade) are pretty common…

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Front fills and infills (behind a barricade) are pretty common…

I don't recall having seen them in smaller venues (500 capacity or less) here, but then I've not looked out for it, nor do I tend to push myself to within spitting distance of bands like I might have done a dozen years ago. I was ill (plus one of the dogs) in the autumn so my last gig was Throwing Muses at the end of the summer in a basement bar of about 300 capacity, but I was halfway back. Main main issue was not hearing more than about three notes of the bass all evening. I will look out for the centre fills in future. The previous gig I was at slightly earlier in the year was in a ~600 capacity (I'm not very good at estimating capacity) all-seated and I don't recall any centre fills then. It certainly didn't sound like there was, but at least the crowd started circa 15 feet or so back from the edge of the stage. I was slightly off-centre about 50 feet back but the sound was a bit hollow in the middle. It certainly seems like a good idea, and I wish someone would promote it more here.

 

[agedhorse]

I don't recall having seen them in smaller venues (500 capacity or less) here, but then I've not looked out for it, nor do I tend to push myself to within spitting distance of bands like I might have done a dozen years ago. I was ill (plus one of the dogs) in the autumn so my last gig was Throwing Muses at the end of the summer in a basement bar of about 300 capacity, but I was halfway back. Main main issue was not hearing more than about three notes of the bass all evening. I will look out for the centre fills in future. The previous gig I was at slightly earlier in the year was in a ~600 capacity (I'm not very good at estimating capacity) all-seated and I don't recall any centre fills then. It certainly didn't sound like there was, but at least the crowd started circa 15 feet or so back from the edge of the stage. I was slightly off-centre about 50 feet back but the sound was a bit hollow in the middle. It certainly seems like a good idea, and I wish someone would promote it more here.

Also depends on the height of the stage as to how these fills are implemented.