• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

DSMnoisemaker & Humboldt Electronics Simplifier Bass Station

#321
Hi all,

A quick question...

I'm looking for something to serve as a preamp/cab sim/di for a corporate band I play in that does IEMs.

Would this do the trick as a standalone to get a nice, organic sounding bass tone direct to foh?

Also, I am a little worried about the reports of volume drops on this thread? My main bass is a fairly low output Tokai P. Would this pose an issue? I wouldn't be intending on doing any paralell routing. Just Tuner -> occasional octaver -> bass simplifier.

Thanks all.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Motown971
#322
OggyOi said:
Hi all,

A quick question...

I'm looking for something to serve as a preamp/cab sim/di for a corporate band I play in that does IEMs.

Would this do the trick as a standalone to get a nice, organic sounding bass tone direct to foh?

Also, I am a little worried about the reports of volume drops on this thread? My main bass is a fairly low output Tokai P. Would this pose an issue? I wouldn't be intending on doing any paralell routing. Just Tuner -> occasional octaver -> bass simplifier.

Thanks all.
Click to expand...
Sounds like more of a series type pre amp would be better for you like the melvin lee davis pre amp. you'll only have to worry about the volume issue when you start using the inserts, and that's only for the parallel channel.
 
#323
odarellmc said:
Sounds like more of a series type pre amp would be better for you like the melvin lee davis pre amp. you'll only have to worry about the volume issue when you start using the inserts, and that's only for the parallel channel.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply mate!

Sorry for potentially being dense, but what do you mean by 'series type preamp'?
 
#326
I like mine quite a bit compared to @silky smoove, you’ll have to try one to see if it’s your favor. It didn’t take me more than 5 minutes to find a couple great sounds out of this device.
 
  • Like
Reactions: StayLow
#327
Just got my Simplifier, been toying with it and I like it a lot better than the OmniCabSimDeluxe I had before!

[edit: see below]
One question which is not answered in the manual: does anyone else feel like there more to the active/passive switch than a 6dB boost?
It's like my old SWR SM-400s: it has an active and passive input and I would always swear that it sounded better in the passive input. After about 10 years of using it that way I learned that the active input uses only half the preamp tube and the passive one uses both sides ...

Sooo... anyone else feel/hear a difference when compensating the Gain for the switch?

[edit]
Ok I feel stupid: in the sound I made I had the PRLL/PREAMM knob not 100% wet and the LPF at 100Hz.
The Parallell loop is taken *before* the gain knob - the "improvement" in sound was thus a 100hz-and-below boost I was hearing. My bad :-)


Herwig
 
  • Like
Reactions: odarellmc
#328
DeadPoet said:
Just got my Simplifier, been toying with it and I like it a lot better than the OmniCabSimDeluxe I had before!

[edit: see below]
One question which is not answered in the manual: does anyone else feel like there more to the active/passive switch than a 6dB boost?
It's like my old SWR SM-400s: it has an active and passive input and I would always swear that it sounded better in the passive input. After about 10 years of using it that way I learned that the active input uses only half the preamp tube and the passive one uses both sides ...

Sooo... anyone else feel/hear a difference when compensating the Gain for the switch?

[edit]
Ok I feel stupid: in the sound I made I had the PRLL/PREAMM knob not 100% wet and the LPF at 100Hz.
The Parallell loop is taken *before* the gain knob - the "improvement" in sound was thus a 100hz-and-below boost I was hearing. My bad :)


Herwig
Click to expand...
Yeah for as small as it is, it can be tricky.
 
#329
My unit arrived and I just spent half an hour or so testing it on my small church board. Impressed and I think this is going to be the winner!

My journey in the space of about six months has been equal parts infuriating and enlightening. For around 20 years my boards have always had my trusty MXR M-80 Bass DI+. Big or small board, it’s been there. For my church board it has been my DI for the last 5 years since we went IEM.

The M-80 does have quirks and can be tricky to get clean vs dirty balance. I started the recent journey wanting to improve/perfect my direct to FOH sound.

To spare the gory details I have gone from this to a Darkglass Microtubes Infinity, then a Two Notes ReVolt Bass, last week I received and tested the Ampeg SGT-DI and now the Simplifier.

Each of the other pedals had significant negatives for me, mostly concerning flavour (too much), inflexible cab sim, lack of FX loop or other flaws. Great as each of those units are in their own right, they are all swing and miss for various reasons.

My thoughts on the Simplifier initially: great EQ, just adds a bit of character and brings things into line. FX loop is a major win, since I use chorus and delay/reverb and these must be after drives/fuzzes. The cab sim is great. In all I dialled in a pretty solid sound in no time.

Bonus is I can put the M-80 back in the board solely as my main light/chunky overdrive. I will add a fuzz because the Simplifier is so small I now have space to add one. The lack of a second channel is not a problem I thought it might be.

I use a variety of basses, Rickenbacker, Thunderbird, active Cort Elrick RB5 and some others I haven’t tested yet. So far they all retain their character and sound great.

Job well done guys! In a few weeks I will be on church team so I will get the chance to run it live. Until then, the board will be cleaned up and wired properly. Happy days I think!
 
  • Like
Reactions: StayLow, LowWay, PatrolOfStroll and 1 other person
#330
WestOfBen said:
I will add a fuzz because the Simplifier is so small I now have space to add one. The lack of a second channel is not a problem I thought it might be.
Click to expand...

This is something I've been wondering about actually, whether I would miss the second channel available on certain other pre-amps or if I would instead enjoy just using a drive pedal in front of a bass station, or in the loop. Something like the Surfing Polar Bear from Animals, or a Blueberry. Maybe a JAM Rattler too. I should maybe try to get my hands on a Bass Station at some point in the future and experiment with blending the parallel in with looped guitar pedals too; I'd love to experiment with a Blues Driver I think.
 
#331
I am not sure I will make use of the parallel loop. My chain will be something like this.

Tuner > comp > digital pitch shifter > analog sub oct > Simplifier IN > preamp FX loop SND > grit > fuzz > chorus > delay/reverb > preamp FX RET > etc

The only thing I am undecided about is whether to run the pitch pedals in the preamp loop as well. It might be better for overall tone, unsure.

I might try a little parallel blend to keep some clean low end but I don’t know if that will sound good. I am not into comping just the lows, since that would remove the comp from in front of the pitch FX.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PatrolOfStroll
#333
Tomorrow I run this baby at church. Keen to see how it works in a live setting, no back line and only IEMs.

Spent some time today practicing and finding the core tone. From this exercise I have only one criticism and potential version 2 feature suggestion.

I found the preamp section to have a fairly strong bump in the 600-800Hz region with everything flat. As a result I have the mid selector set for the 800Hz option and mids backed off to about 9 o’clock (say 6-8 dB?). This is good and I am really happy, however I don’t have any control over the 400Hz range now and I find it just ever so slightly too thick. I am used to my Gallien-Krueger 700RB-II which has low and high mids, which is extremely handy.

To retain some high-high frequency snap, I am blending cab sim to around 3 o,clock. Just about right. Treble control is slightly boosted at 1ish, because I don’t want any high harshness. Bass is at 3ish.

My suggestion for V2, even if it increased the size of the unit slightly, would be to have four EQ controls instead of three plus switch. Keep bass frequency where it is, have a low-mid and high-mid at 400Hz and 800Hz respectively and maybe widen the band of the treble control to give a bit more control over the glassy highs without having to blend more direct vs cab sim. Mostly for that slap snap and harmonic loveliness. I am not sure many are finding the 1.5KHz option very useful. Control over the other two mid frequencies might be more sought after.

I have the parallel blended ever so slightly, or not, with the LPF off. I am afraid of introducing any phasing issues here, especially with effects.

Running the 4x10 ported cab, resonance near full because it is nice and thumpy. Modern speakers and mic placement about 1:30.

Overall I am liking it lots. It fits the board perfectly. Aux and headphones work well for practicing. Will post a photo tomorrow after church and after no doubt refining settings.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ba55Man1ac, PatrolOfStroll and odarellmc
#334
WestOfBen said:
Tomorrow I run this baby at church. Keen to see how it works in a live setting, no back line and only IEMs.

Spent some time today practicing and finding the core tone. From this exercise I have only one criticism and potential version 2 feature suggestion.

I found the preamp section to have a fairly strong bump in the 600-800Hz region with everything flat. As a result I have the mid selector set for the 800Hz option and mids backed off to about 9 o’clock (say 6-8 dB?). This is good and I am really happy, however I don’t have any control over the 400Hz range now and I find it just ever so slightly too thick. I am used to my Gallien-Krueger 700RB-II which has low and high mids, which is extremely handy.

To retain some high-high frequency snap, I am blending cab sim to around 3 o,clock. Just about right. Treble control is slightly boosted at 1ish, because I don’t want any high harshness. Bass is at 3ish.

My suggestion for V2, even if it increased the size of the unit slightly, would be to have four EQ controls instead of three plus switch. Keep bass frequency where it is, have a low-mid and high-mid at 400Hz and 800Hz respectively and maybe widen the band of the treble control to give a bit more control over the glassy highs without having to blend more direct vs cab sim. Mostly for that slap snap and harmonic loveliness. I am not sure many are finding the 1.5KHz option very useful. Control over the other two mid frequencies might be more sought after.

I have the parallel blended ever so slightly, or not, with the LPF off. I am afraid of introducing any phasing issues here, especially with effects.

Running the 4x10 ported cab, resonance near full because it is nice and thumpy. Modern speakers and mic placement about 1:30.

Overall I am liking it lots. It fits the board perfectly. Aux and headphones work well for practicing. Will post a photo tomorrow after church and after no doubt refining settings.
Click to expand...
Great review. I totally agree with your accesment, but I would make bigger for stereo operation. I love this preamp with my source audio board. Give the digital some analog warmth. Down side I can't use the board in stereo. If it could do stereo, it would make it easier to integrate into the studio.
 
  • Like
Reactions: WestOfBen
#335
Been gigging with the Simplifier for a month now. (big pedalboard, quite complex - doing all kinds of music)

Beforehand I thought I would use my SansAmp BDDIprogrammable less with the arrival of the Simplifier but I find them to be quite complementary. I'm not too fond of the sound of the gain/grit in the Simplifier but the BDDI stacked before the Simplifier makes for a VERY potent TimmyC-type RATM sound.

Still looking for the perfect spot in the LPF and HPF..I mean speaker sim section but getting there.

Constantly changing my monitoring (IEM's, a big FRFR set and small more traditional bassrig) helps in evening out the differences I hear.

Still not dumping my Broughton HPF (very start of the pedal chain) or LPF (very end of the chain, even after the Simplifier).

Radial JDI sound a tad better than the XLR out to my ears so still using that at the moment.



Herwig
 
#336
First gig done. Mostly success, not the Simplifier’s fault. Crackly patch lead I had to swap out during rehearsal and a FOH mixing discovery… turns out there’s a compressor and EQ on the channel set for FOH being routed to my IEM channel. So I was tweaking the Simplifier to hear what I wanted and the engineer was unknowingly defeating it - mostly with a wide 3-4dB hump around 600Hz and LPF around 6.5KHz.

Next time I am on we are going to set my IEM channel to be pre-DSP there were brief moments of loving it, so I know the Simplifier will do the job nicely.

Stereo Simplifier would be interesting. You could always just buy two, then you would have EQ and blend and cab control over both, independently. I would happily do that if I was in stereo mode.
 
  • Like
Reactions: odarellmc
#337
WestOfBen said:
First gig done. Mostly success, not the Simplifier’s fault. Crackly patch lead I had to swap out during rehearsal and a FOH mixing discovery… turns out there’s a compressor and EQ on the channel set for FOH being routed to my IEM channel. So I was tweaking the Simplifier to hear what I wanted and the engineer was unknowingly defeating it - mostly with a wide 3-4dB hump around 600Hz and LPF around 6.5KHz.

Next time I am on we are going to set my IEM channel to be pre-DSP there were brief moments of loving it, so I know the Simplifier will do the job nicely.

Stereo Simplifier would be interesting. You could always just buy two, then you would have EQ and blend and cab control over both, independently. I would happily do that if I was in stereo mode.
Click to expand...
That's an interesting concept. I'll have to think on that one.
 
#340
Decided to take the plunge in my quest to find a compact di with cabsim. Still figuring things out but the ability to run a parallel signal clean with 100hz LPF and blended back in seems very underrated. You can give an entire signal path a clean blend that’s low passed at 100hz, 500hz, or wide open.

Don’t love the preamp coloring so far but holding off final judgement until I play it live.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: monsterthompson

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back