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Double Bass DPA 4099 vs AMT SP25B
- Thread starter Ric Vice
- Start date
I got the DPA 4099 in for a trial run yesterday, and unpacked the box and played with it a bit tonight. First impressions are that it's well thought out, well made, and sounds great. For most of the night I practiced with it running through the mixing board and coming out of the monitors, and the sound was full and even. I tried the violin mount on the side of the f hole as shown earlier in this thread, and it worked as promised - when mounted in this way, I can even feed the cable through the little foam pacman disc in the bridge wing hole along with the Full Circle cable.
Toward the end of the night I put on the bass string mount, and found it to be a simple and elegant solution to the mounting issue for bass. While it does limit the range of the mic placement, it stays way back by the spot where the strings meet the tailpiece, and is very unobtrusive - and the mic sounds great between the bridge feet. With the mic mounted there, it's simple enough to tie the cable behind the tailpice and attach the XLR mount to the strings (also right down where the strings attach to the tailpiece). When set up this way, the cable can then come through one of the string holes and attach to the XLR plug, keeping most of the unit unobtrusively out of sight. I think I'll keep it in this position for the rest of the week as I start testing the mic out on gigs through an amp.
Toward the end of the night I put on the bass string mount, and found it to be a simple and elegant solution to the mounting issue for bass. While it does limit the range of the mic placement, it stays way back by the spot where the strings meet the tailpiece, and is very unobtrusive - and the mic sounds great between the bridge feet. With the mic mounted there, it's simple enough to tie the cable behind the tailpice and attach the XLR mount to the strings (also right down where the strings attach to the tailpiece). When set up this way, the cable can then come through one of the string holes and attach to the XLR plug, keeping most of the unit unobtrusively out of sight. I think I'll keep it in this position for the rest of the week as I start testing the mic out on gigs through an amp.
Progress report: hooked up the DPA through the Headway and blended in the Full Circle. This is going to be a nice combination, I think. So far I've only run it through a Focus and a VL108, but there's a lot of control to be had between the two. I've heard several people comment that although the mic sounds great, they had a difficult time getting enough volume on the gig for the mic to be worth the trouble. Tomorrow night will tell for me. The trick I discovered that nearly doubled the usable volume of the DPA was to put it close to the top - this also raised the feedback threshold by a good amount. We'll see tomorrow night.
This has been my experience as well.
With this little shotgun - capsule placement is a big determining factor for sound and usability.
- May 6, 2003
- 5,272
- 160
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- Proprietor Fifth Avenue Fret Shop. Technical Editor Bass Gear Magazine
Headway vs. mixing in with two sides of the Focus? What's up with those choices?
Sorry for the confusion: we had about 8 inches of snow, so I was too lazy to drag the PJB in from our unattached garage. When using the Headway, i was just using the Focus as a one channel amp. I'll be using the Headway with the PJB on the four gigs this week, and will report back. So far it looks promising, but we all know how living room promise doesn't always translate to the bandstand.
well it sure translates for me.I just played a loud ballroom gig (500+)with it, giving the sound guy a direct from the Headway EDB1 while using my amp for monitor. I mixed the ATM 35 and pickup and it sounded great to me the sound guy the band and a bunch of people who commented on my tone. Sure jonesing for the 4099 though...
- Jan 25, 2006
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- Endorsing Artist; Arnold Schnitzer/ Wil DeSola New Standard RN DB
Chris, have you tried it w/o the Headway, straight into the Focus w/ the Full Circle in the other channel?
I could see if you have a one channel amp where the Headway would be essential, but w/ the Focus 2R you have phantom power and 2 channels & all already. I would like know if that were enough right there to run the 4099 mixed w/ a pu successfully.
THNX, Bri
I could see if you have a one channel amp where the Headway would be essential, but w/ the Focus 2R you have phantom power and 2 channels & all already. I would like know if that were enough right there to run the 4099 mixed w/ a pu successfully.
THNX, Bri
I tried it with my Focus in my music room the first night I got it, and it sounded fine. But these days the PJB Super Flightcase is the main amp, so I'm checking out the Headway unit. Nothing beats the Focus for ease of use, and it has the perfect feature set for an amp with both channels and the dual HP filters. But nothing beats the PJB combo for sound, especially considering the built in monitors on top.
i tried it this way with the AI 2x10 combo and also with the headway into one channel and didnt find a big enough difference to warrant the use of the headway in that situation. i dont like the eq point on either unit for bass. where i did notice a big improvement was when i ran the mic (with external phantom power) and my pickup through my PZ pre with the sweepable mids. A huge improvement over them both and the guys i was playing with seemed to agree. it was a rehearsal, and i had my pz pre, the headway, and just the AI alone, and i was switching around between tunes not telling the guys which was which. my clear favorite was the PZ pre and so was everyone else's. i think my headway will be collecting dust.
- Jan 25, 2006
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- 6
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- Endorsing Artist; Arnold Schnitzer/ Wil DeSola New Standard RN DB
Thnx Shwashwa.That's good to know. Do you mean the Tonebone PZ-Pre Acoustic DI Box Preamp??
Bri
yes, that is currently my favorite preamp, and i have the headway, the fishman platinum pro bass, and the raven labs blender.
- Jan 25, 2006
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- 6
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- Endorsing Artist; Arnold Schnitzer/ Wil DeSola New Standard RN DB
How about the LR Baggs Paracoustic DI?
What did you use for the external phantom power?
ive never tried that one. sweepable mids seems to be key for me, as well as a properly voiced bass control. on the headway the bass control is voiced too high for my personal taste. it encompases the lows and low mids, 2 frequency areas i that i like to have seperate control of, not lumped together. and the mid frequency is set kind of high for me to be able to have control of ther 200-250 MHZ area that i like so much. for phantom power i just use this: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Phantom1/ im sure you can find it cheaper. i dont remember paying $55 for mine. i think it was more like $20 off of ebay or something like that
- May 6, 2003
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- Proprietor Fifth Avenue Fret Shop. Technical Editor Bass Gear Magazine
I agree, most of those preamps were voiced for guitar and not bass so the EQ points are not as useful as they need to be or could be.
The AI Focus is the same way.
Those that are marketed towards bass players are often things that are adapted from guitar products.
There are very few double bass specific electric devices designed from the ground up.
The AI Focus is the same way.
Those that are marketed towards bass players are often things that are adapted from guitar products.
There are very few double bass specific electric devices designed from the ground up.
Hopefully Fishman well design one of those "swiss army knife" preamp/blenders for Double Bass. The Pro Platinum is pretty cool but 1 channel. I am a big fan of their bass preamps and the voicing that they use.
I just picked up the new EA Doubler to blend my 4099 with my pickup. The EQ and features of that piece are certianly built around DB.
I will say that I reluctantly go to the world of class D amps. I still think the older tube amps or solid state amps like Walter Woods just sound better, but the trade-off to having more features in a smaller and lighter package is fair.
I will say that I reluctantly go to the world of class D amps. I still think the older tube amps or solid state amps like Walter Woods just sound better, but the trade-off to having more features in a smaller and lighter package is fair.
My Fishman Bass Blender with the that Crown GLM mic actually sounded pretty good. It was voiced for DB. If they would build something like that it could be interesting, but since they pulled the blender off the market I'm wondering if there just weren't enough units sold, it was pretty expensive. For a few more bucks you could just buy a EA Doubler.
Ric
it's certainly ironic that a discussion of a microphone made by folks who've made dead flat measurement mics for years would devolve into a discussion of eq options.
my feeling is that if you need to eq things that dramatically, beyond an hpf, which i believe is mandatory for playing out, and maybe a notch filter to deal with feedback, there's something wrong with either the front of the signal chain or the back ...
i continue to be astonished at the absolutely stupid amounts of eq musicians use. No wonder there are so many bad sounding gigs.
meanwhile back to the dpa. want to eq it? experiment with the placement.
jeff.
my feeling is that if you need to eq things that dramatically, beyond an hpf, which i believe is mandatory for playing out, and maybe a notch filter to deal with feedback, there's something wrong with either the front of the signal chain or the back ...
i continue to be astonished at the absolutely stupid amounts of eq musicians use. No wonder there are so many bad sounding gigs.
meanwhile back to the dpa. want to eq it? experiment with the placement.
jeff.
What about the interaction of the room? Even if the sound coming out of the amp is identical in every way to the sound your bass produces, you would still have a different sound in different rooms.
