question about Bass Player interview

[7thbass]

In the article you mentioned that your SVT sound now comes from a preamp. I also see that you are using the new Tech21 VT Bass pedal. How much does that figure into your live sound? Seems too good to be true.

Good interview, by the way.

 

[jmjbassplayer]

That's exactly the entirety of my live sound. Well, there's a Palmer speaker simulator and a bunch more effects. But that's the core. Perhaps even the Sans GT2 is even more of my actual "SVT style" tone during the current gig I'm doing, with that driving the PSA 1.1.

Thanks!
JMJ

 

[johncg]

I've been hearing a lot of pros giving props to these newfangled digital thingers.

I am really skeptical, I'm sorry. I can't imagine a little box sounding as good as a cranked SVT rig. Something about the crackle of the speakers and the feel of real tubes getting hot just seems impossible to reproduce.

On the other hand, people like you probably know more about tone then me. I just don't know...it seems...weird!

 

[JimmyM]

I've been hearing a lot of pros giving props to these newfangled digital thingers.

I am really skeptical, I'm sorry. I can't imagine a little box sounding as good as a cranked SVT rig. Something about the crackle of the speakers and the feel of real tubes getting hot just seems impossible to reproduce.

On the other hand, people like you probably know more about tone then me. I just don't know...it seems...weird!

Weird, but true. Obviously you're not going to get the response of a tube amp the way it opens up as you crank the volume, and you're not going to get the physical aspect of the sound traveling through tubes and moving the air the exact same way. But I have thrown a 64 B-15N, a 77 B-15N and a 69 SVT at my VT pedal, and the VT imitates every tone they get so well that it's incredibly difficult to tell the difference on a recording or through a PA. It's a little difficult to make tonal changes on the fly with the VT, whereas with the real thing you just turn a knob. But it will cop every sound. It even does reasonable imitations of mic'ed amps.

I was as skeptical as you were, but I think modeling has made huge leaps and bounds in quality, especially this year. But even if you don't buy the VT's modeling, it makes a nifty bass overdrive pedal that has a ton of shades between subtle tubelike edginess and SVT-on-11 cranking.