Double Bass Realist vs. Full Circle audio sample

[Barcza]

I use FC for years. I get a Realist pickup to tryout. So I installed the realist and made record with both of the pickup, with my soundcard ( Focusrite Saffire Pro 14 ). The soundcard has 10Mohms input impedance by luck, so no impedance mismatch here. Honestly I couldn't installed perfectly the realist, because I didn't want to modify my bridge, so there a little gap on the corner, between the bridge and the pickup, just a little at the corner. Please listen the track, I curious that your realist or FC sounds different on your bass?

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[Barcza]

 

[IanMartinAllison]

Man - thank you so much for taking the time to do this! What a treat to listen to. Your playing is beautiful and I was surprised with how much more top there is on the Full Circle. I have a carved bass with a Realist and do a moderate amount of arco plugged in :/

So although I LOVE the pizz sound of the FC, you've helped me decide to stick with the Realist for pizz/arco work.

Thanks again.

 

[Franny]

Thank you for posting this! As a soon-to-be college student, I'm looking at different pickups, and this is exactly the kind of thing I need to hear. Thanks again!

 

[engedi1]

Very nice playing! Thanks!

 

[Dave Irwin]

Thanks for posting. I have a Realist and never tried the Full Circle. From your sample I think I'd prefer the Realist. The Circle is a clearer sound but I kind of like the thuddier sound.
I've started sending a clip on mic to the PA mains and using the Realist/AI for the stage monitor and it seems to be working well.

 

[thehoach]

Thank you so much for laying this out.
Wonderful playing, too.

 

[Barcza]

I'm happy, that you like the clip! Both of the pickups could sound different on different instruments. I like so much the woodiness of Realist, but it has a significant low end emphasis, you can see the freq analysis @ 40hz-100hz, I didn't try live yet, but that could cause problems. I will report, after when I tired live. The FC sounds more open and clear, but with a little more unnatural piezzo character. I can not say one is better than the other yet!

 

[Les Fret]

I also have tried both pickups and did an AB test for myself at home. I have a FC now.
The sound clips represent the sound of both pickups well.

The Realist has more lows/bottom and less highs. It sounds muddier and duller.
The FC has a more clear sound with more mids and less low. It sounds more woody and bright. It can be too bright and middy. But you can adjust this to your taste with your EQ.

If you want a clear sound I would choose the FC. I think the FC is more versatile because it is easier to EQ. It is difficult to dial in highs in a duller sound like the Realist because you can not dial in what is not there.

 

[raymondl3]

I also have tried both pickups and did an AB test for myself at home. I have a FC now.
The sound clips represent the sound of both pickups well.

The Realist has more lows/bottom and less highs. It sounds muddier and duller.
The FC has a more clear sound with more mids and less low. It sounds more woody and bright. It can be too bright and middy. But you can adjust this to your taste with your EQ.

If you want a clear sound I would choose the FC. I think the FC is more versatile because it is easier to EQ. It is difficult to dial in highs in a duller sound like the Realist because you can not dial in what is not there.

But can you dial in the lows if they're not there?

 

[kurt]

IME The FC has more than enough lows. It is kind of a middle ground between the realist and wing pickups like the underwood, bassmax, revolution solo etc. I find it easier to add lows and warmth to a bass signal than it is to add clarity. In live settings I usually end up dialing lows out of the full circle as well.

 

[Uncletoad]

I also have tried both pickups and did an AB test for myself at home. I have a FC now.
The sound clips represent the sound of both pickups well.

The Realist has more lows/bottom and less highs. It sounds muddier and duller.
The FC has a more clear sound with more mids and less low. It sounds more woody and bright. It can be too bright and middy. But you can adjust this to your taste with your EQ.

If you want a clear sound I would choose the FC. I think the FC is more versatile because it is easier to EQ. It is difficult to dial in highs in a duller sound like the Realist because you can not dial in what is not there.

I agree with this completely. I have both installed on my bass all the time and have moved back and forth between them on gigs in a variety of different places. Generally I use the FC more often than not because it's clearer and more present in a mix than the realist and the gain before feedback is way better. Only when I'm doing really quiet gigs where the darkness of the bass works in the mix or I'm doing a bunch of arco do I use the Realist.

 

[Les Fret]

But can you dial in the lows if they're not there?

Yes of course, dialing in lows works much better then dialing in highs in a dull sound

 

[Jaromir]

I use a Realist, the "originally" sounding one (not the hot and trebly modification) and I usually cut the highs a bit. I also use it in quite loud settings.
When I need to get even louder (with electric instruments) I prefer the Planet Wing though.

 

[Barcza]

Yes the the FC seems more versatile, but the realist worth a try in live for me. In my impression, one think is better with the Realist than with any other pickup I ever try or heard, is the transient information, the attack. It's more natural mic like than other pickups. I tired few EQ tricks with the realist record, with Waves API eq, it seems the Realist not lacks the highs at all, but the bass is far boosted between 50hz and 100hz if you cut that, you start to hear the highs. I think Fishman finds a good balance between, natural ( for piezzo ) sound, clarity and gain before feedback. In my experience the piezzo is still piezzo, never sounds as an acoustic bass. I think when you go with piezzo you can choose max two of the three: Clarity, Natural attack, Gain before feedback.

 

[raymondl3]

...the bass is far boosted between 50hz and 100hz if you cut that, you start to hear the highs.

Good tip. I'll try that.

Your graphs seems to confirm what you said..sort of. The Realist appears to have more highs above 4K, but the FC has more in the upper mids, on up to about 2K, which could be one reason is sounds clearer...because it cut through more in the range of human hearing.

The amplitude of both wave forms is not identical, but close enough I guess for a quick comparison.

 

[tstone]

Barcza, could you please briefly describe the methodology used to get the frequency response plot in your second post?

 

[Barcza]

Barcza, could you please briefly describe the methodology used to get the frequency response plot in your second post?

I used the Waves frequency analyzer ( that's a professional tool ), it can freeze the highest db point of the audio. I just play once the file, and the graph is ready. May be play a chromatic scale over the entire fingerboard makes a more detailed graph, but that would be boring for me and takes to much time. The graph is not representative , but I think it looks like what we hear. The FC much more emphasized at 1khz, ( could help to cut through, but sometimes produce piezzo nasality), and at 4khz ( add clarity and detail, but sometimes produce harshness and plucknoise ). The best think in FC, it seems very flat between the most critical 30hz-60hz ( unlike Realist ), but if you like to get a little more mic like sound, you have to boost at 100hz 3-5db. I tired few eq setings with waves q4 ( full parametric, low shelf, hi shelf, variable q, high pass, low pass, etc. everything ), the FC much easier to eq, possible to make wonderful, warm, meaty yet clear sounds. I think we piezzo users needs way more flexible and smarter eq than our amps has. Do you know this? [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

 

[GrowlerBox]

I think we piezzo users needs way more flexible and smarter eq than our amps has. Do you know this? [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

A great comparison, thanks for the effort.

You're right about the need for flexible EQ -- that Empress pedal looks good; I wish they'd build that into a preamp/DI! As far as on board EQ goes, I've found my TC Electronic RH450 has a good EQ for URB -- 4 semi-parametric bands. The "built-in" high pass filter is set a little low (15 Hz), and there's a bit of a gap between that and the bottom of the bass frequency sweep (71 Hz), but it's very useful for all that.

For the Realist SoundClip pickup, I set the bass shelf low down and cut, roll the low-mid control down and boost a little, and fiddle the high-mid and treble to taste (for the room, etc).

TCE doesn't seem to get a lot of love on this side of the board -- it's certainly not one of the hi-fi type amps generally favoured for URB, but for piezos, I think the rather more "old school" voicing and great EQ section (not to mention the 1 MOhm input impedance) works rather nicely. I imagine if I used mics, the story would be different. All usual caveats apply, of course.

FWIW, I also found the Aguilar Tone Hammer to be quite usable with this pickup -- the bass control is at 40 Hz, and it has a (single) semi-parametric mid. It also has enough juice to push any power amp, and also has a 1 MOhm input impedance. I'm sure there are many better preamps around for bass (could do with a notch and a high-pass filter, for starters), and one of these days I'll pick one up, but this does the job surprisingly well.

 

[mattebass]

hello, this is a confrontation (sound confrontation by mattebass on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free) I've made for my own some days ago, unfortunately, making It at home some tracks are slightly distorted, but is quite clear that, at least on my bass, the realist seems not to be right pick-up. During this period I've also tried this heads: aguilar AG 500SC, Ampeg VT3, Tecamp 900 ( the new one) also coupling with an Epifani 2x10....
NOw I'm quite convinced that is a pick-up problem, because the acoustic sound I like it very much