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Noble vs Tube Amp

#41
I've used a Noble in a recording studio sounded great. But if I was looking for a pedalboard gig use I'd try the newly released more pedalboard friendly Arkham Oracle with a Broughton HP/LP filter. Also I'd consider the Broughton Tube injection DI if I didn't have a preamp with DI I trust. D750 and a Broughton DI would cover all the basses.
 
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#42
Scotty4string said:
Ivan Caranza did a video A/Bing the Helix model and the real thing. In his video, I thought the model sounded better.
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ha! well, we all hear stuff differently. I listened to Ivans A/B vid too, and the Helix model did not sound right to me at all. Much darker sound to my ears than the real thing.
 
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#43
pfschim said:
ha! well, we all hear stuff differently. I listened to Ivans A/B vid too, and the Helix model did not sound right to me at all. Much darker sound to my ears than the real thing.
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as an additional comment re @IvanBassist, I find it interesting that he has retained the Noble as an integral part of his stage rig even after he moved to the Quad Cortex. I've always admired Ivan's tone and attitude so I pay some attention to his choices.

All that being said, the Noble is not magical, it just sounds really good and adds sweetness to your signal chain.
 
#45
Jed Green said:
Shows range from small to medium and sometimes decently large. All have space for decent size cabinet and amp. Never use IEM's at this stage, though I should look into them.
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Sounds like you’re in an ideal position to purchase and regularly use a live bass amp! That opens up a world of options for you, and if you ever decide to get a Noble in the future you’re going to be very likely to flip it with a minimal loss if you’re not in love with it.
 
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#47
frankie5string said:
I keep getting a Noble pre as my input to the IEM system at our rehearsal room. One time the engineer came up to me and asked me what I thought of the awesome bass sound I was getting from the Noble. I pointed to my Sansamp BDDI and asked "You mean this thing I plugged into it?"

The Noble isn't as dramatic as people let on. It's a good DI with bass and treble boost, and a fixed low-cut. It can also power your pedals if you have any... But I wouldn't say it was doing anything tube-like, sonically, whatever that actually is.
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The BDDI is a great little box for sure! I love it for "hairy" bass tones. I don't like it quite as much for 100% clean tones. It's a bit too colored for my taste, with the speaker sim that can't be deactivated. But I'm generally not a fan of Ampeg-ish clean tones, which is more or less what the BDDI simulates. Still a great box, and the drive tone is absolutely superb! It needs to be the BDDI V2 though. The mid control they added for V2 makes a LOT of difference!

Yeah, the Noble may seem a bit over-hyped. It's a bit like the original Klon guitar pedals (before cheaper Klon clones started popping up): Great pedals for sure but not REALLY worth the insane price IMO. At least when there are lots of equally good options. Maybe you won't get EXACTLY the same tone with other gear but you will still get a GREAT tone.
 
#48
halech54 said:
If you're not playing with IEMs and need to have stage volume to compensate for the lack of PA support and monitoring, a new amp would be my choice. There are plenty of hybrid amps where the tube colors the DI signal if that's a concern of yours. If you were looking at creating the best IEM signal or recording signal then maybe the Noble is the move; personally I've never really had a desire to get one or felt I needed one and instead have picked up offerings from Shift-Line and Sushi Box as well as Radial and Walrus, all of which FOH engineers have been happy with! The couple of times I've maybe considered the Noble I go back to this video and remind myself it's not a necessity:
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Yeah, that's a very good comparison video that shows how marginal the differences can be. The cheapest one sounded like garbage and a couple of the others were a bit too colored/dirty/weird for my taste but once you hit a certain price point the differences are relatively small. Having said that, the Noble is easily at least top3 for MY taste in that video. It certainly a great little box. But at that price? No thanks, even a gear nut like myself has a limit. I could buy some SERIOUSLY good studio rack gear for that price! Or even a REALLY good used tube bass amp.
 
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#49
Jed Green said:
Hi all first post here in talkbass. My apologies if this thread already exists.

At the moment I can only afford to get a Noble or a new amp rig (looking at making the switch to Aguilar from Markbass).

So my question is.
Is it worth getting a Noble or a new amp of some sort. Any amps that you think can do the Noble sound and more? Perhaps the Aguilar DB751?

I'd love the hear your thoughts.
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I would love to own a DB751 for gigging, but my band does not use amps on stage anymore, nor do I want to carry that head around on my own, because I travel a lot by train.

As a solution, I use DB751 Neural captures of the Neural DSP Quad Cortex paired with the Noble :bassist:

The Noble is amazing for recording and also live playing, specially if you play with in-ears. However, as much As I love mine, I know one can get great sounds live and in the studio without it.
It might be more worth it to invest in other pieces of equipment to upgrade your rig/setup first, than to get a new DI.
 
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#50
Reading this thread, I'd like to add one thought:

The Noble is the thing you get when there is no bottleneck in your signal chain and you're still looking for that little extra.

It is by no means a cure for bad tone disease.

When you're playing your Harley Benton (no offense, Harley Benton fans!) into your Behringer compressor (sorry Behringer fans) into your Rumble 25 (sorry, Rumble 25 fans), adding a Noble will not magically cure the shortcomings of those devices - and your 1200 bucks are better spent upgrading those components.
 
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#52
el murdoque said:
Reading this thread, I'd like to add one thought:

The Noble is the thing you get when there is no bottleneck in your signal chain and you're still looking for that little extra.

It is by no means a cure for bad tone disease.

When you're playing your Harley Benton (no offense, Harley Benton fans!) into your Behringer compressor (sorry Behringer fans) into your Rumble 25 (sorry, Rumble 25 fans), adding a Noble will not magically cure the shortcomings of those devices - and your 1200 bucks are better spent upgrading those components.
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Agreed. One more point: investing in lessons is also worth it
 
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#54
One thing I learned and decided last summer is that, if I’m gonna spend Noble money, I’ll buy a Summit TL100 tube DI. To my ears, it’s the most drastic, most notable difference and improvement in my bass tones I’ve ever experienced. And I just saw a listing for it for $899.

IMG_2670.jpeg


(Gee, Summit, is that the best pic ya’ll could get?)
 
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#55
Geri O said:
One thing I learned and decided last summer is that, if I’m gonna spend Noble money, I’ll buy a Summit TL100 tube DI. To my ears, it’s the most drastic, most notable difference and improvement in my bass tones I’ve ever experienced. And I just saw a listing for it for $899.

View attachment 5271872

(Gee, Summit, is that the best pic ya’ll could get?)
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Haha! That must be one of the cheapest things they make. For that, you get a small photo...
 

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