Double Bass how to test Dyn B

[neroantico]

Dear Friends,

my rig: focus 2R III, doublebassmax,fishmann platinum, edencxc 110, 3/4 hybrid gewa bass.Spirocore Stark

few days ago i got a good price for a new DynB. I purchased.

As a first approach i put the microphone 5cm south ,between bridgelegs, too boxy.
Better right central under the bridge. mixed 50% with pu got a very good sound.
i'd like to use piezos less and less

In order to extract the best i'm asking you your consideration about best positions and if there is somehow a procedure to achieve the right spot.
I thought that even without preA II the microphone could work with my focus.
is there a tipical Focus setting to dial in when using Dyn B?

Sorry for my english and thank you for your time.

Ciao
Giovanni

 

[bolo]

Giovanni,

What I have done with the DYN-B and a couple of mics is to adopt a laboratory mentality. Try something. Write down the results. Try a slight change. Write that down too. Take pictures maybe. Keep going.

The number of different possibilities is daunting. And so it can take a really long time. But that's the only way I can really can keep track of it and satisfy myself that I've tried a bunch of different things. Someone noted in another thread yesterday that a 1 mm change in the position of their DYN-B can make the sound go from good to bad. But they found the sweet spot for their bass.

Seems like you're tried some of the logical positions for the DYN-B. Try positions over and around the soundpost. Then maybe over the bassbar. All around both bridge legs. Then between the top of the f-holes. I think every bass is going to react / perform differently, and players have different tastes. I strive for the most natural sound w/out any EQ. Then work the EQ and fine tune it once I feel the position of the transducer is optimal.

Take your time. Have as much fun as you can. A make a good sound!

 

[neal davis]

that was me who wrote about the 1mm difference. The position I liked the best was around 1cm towards the middle of the bridge from the bass foot of the bridge and about 4 cm down. this worked great on one bass but horrible on others, good luck if you can get the pickup to work for your bass you have a great pickup

 

[Adrian Cho]

The best thing to do is play the bass while you have someone else move it around (without the putty) and listen for the bass sound. As for not using the Pre-A II, one of the things the Pre-A II does is to notch out a resonance frequency- I think it's 180 Hz from memory.

 

[Monte]

The best thing to do is play the bass while you have someone else move it around (without the putty) and listen for the bass sound. As for not using the Pre-A II, one of the things the Pre-A II does is to notch out a resonance frequency- I think it's 180 Hz from memory.

The frequency notch is very important.

I roll my eyes every time I see a post about how they tried a Dyn B and it sucked or was tubby sounding....just about every time it was straight into an amp without the proper eq.

You just aren't going to get a good sound with that frequency honk.

 

[spaghettiwestern]

+1 for that. i'm amazed at how much i use that knob. depending on the room, PA, music type, etc. it can really change the sound. i hardly touch the bass & treble at all. just volume and resonance notch.

also, the 180 degree phase shift switch on the pickup jack is really useful. any time i'm feeding back or just can't seem hear myself as i'm setting up i flip that and 'presto!' everything seems to just fall right into place. it seems to be most useful if the distance you're standing from your amp tends to change from room to room.

The frequency notch is very important.

I roll my eyes every time I see a post about how they tried a Dyn B and it sucked or was tubby sounding....just about every time it was straight into an amp without the proper eq.

You just aren't going to get a good sound with that frequency honk.

 

[bolo]

The frequency notch is very important.

I roll my eyes every time I see a post about how they tried a Dyn B and it sucked or was tubby sounding....just about every time it was straight into an amp without the proper eq.

You just aren't going to get a good sound with that frequency honk.

Well I guess that would include me. I don't doubt what you're saying Monte. You make a good sound chief. I didn't say the Schertler sucked. I said that I could not get it to work to my satisfaction in the short time I had it on loan using my bass, my gear, healthy dose of YMMV, all that.

Ultimately in my case I just couldn't see spending that much money on the DYN-B and the Schertler preamp. Close to $900 if memory serves. So after some time I eventually bought an H-clamp, a nice Beyer mic, and had money left over. That was the sound I was hoping to get w/ the DYN-B anyway. Plus I can use the mic for other things, not just DB.

Maybe I missed the boat. But the Beyer sounds pretty sweet. Still diggin' the H-clamp too.

 

[Monte]

Oh no doubt...the Dyn B doesn't see the light of day anymore with an H Clamp and mic doing 100% of my amplification. However, a crowded stage or setting up next to monitors will have me throw it on in a heartbeat.

Also, you don't necessarily HAVE to have the PRE-A. The only really useful thing is the notch filter, and there are a lot of cheap parametrics that will do the same thing, without the gain staging problem the PRE -A presents......it is one hot preamp. I have successfully used a Behringer el cheapo parametric with great results.