Spatialisation

[-Asdfgh-]

I am not sure which forum this is best in. Mods advise...

When practising over headphones, using a DAW and modellers as VSTs what I miss over an amp in the room is the sense of location and separation. Has anyone tried using HRTF/spatialisation software to 'place' their bass in the room in a specific virtual location?

 

[silky smoove]

Headphones are binaural devices, not true stereo as there's no means for your left ear to hear content on the right side and vice versa. Implementation of a crosstalk plugin like Canopener, dearVR, or a purpose-built solution like VSX will be your best bet. Put that on your monitoring channel, change the default balance knob to a true stereo panner, maybe add a room reverb with a good mix control, and then tweak the pan and reverb until you get the results you're looking for.

 

[wompwomp]

take a can off?

 

[-Asdfgh-]

take a can off?

I'm not sure what that would achieve other than reducing the audio to mono in one ear and make it even less possible to give a sense of space as even panning bass left or right wouldn't work. Am I missing something?

 

[wompwomp]

I'm not sure what that would achieve other than reducing the audio to mono in one ear and make it even less possible to give a sense of space as even panning bass left or right wouldn't work. Am I missing something?

so you didn't take the 2 seconds to simply try it? no prob, good luck!

 

[-Asdfgh-]

so you didn't take the 2 seconds to simply try it? no prob, good luck!

OK, now I am utterly baffled. The things I am practising too are stereo. My bass is mono, centred. I've not had chance to fire up the DAW and connect a bass today.

 

[wompwomp]

OK, now I am utterly baffled. The things I am practising too are stereo. My bass is mono, centred. I've not had chance to fire up the DAW and connect a bass today.

it's really not that complicated. good luck!

 

[-Asdfgh-]

it's really not that complicated. good luck!

So what is it supposed to achieve relative to my original comment at the start of the thread?

 

[ardgedee]

It's not really spatialization, but when using headphones (which I do almost all the time) I've found that panning my bass to both hard-left and hard-right gives me enough sense of presence that I don't need to bump it up in the mix as much to hear over what I'm playing with.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

It's not really spatialization, but when using headphones (which I do almost all the time) I've found that panning my bass to both hard-left and hard-right gives me enough sense of presence that I don't need to bump it up in the mix as much to hear over what I'm playing with.

I've tried something similar in the past, in the sense of running it through two slightly different models of bass amps (or amp model and same amp model plus cab model) and panning left and right. I haven't tried that in a while. That seems to create more of a sense of 'placement' than running through a stereo impulse response cab model with some ambience or even just an impulse response capture of an ambient space. An ambient space impulse response is good on its own for making bass played through it sound more 'in the room' or in a room since it's not a capture of my man cave, but not so much when playing along with material that's not also going through it.

 

[ardgedee]

Try the Box of Bass plugin. Freeware, both as a DAW plugin and as a standalone app, so all it takes is your time. By @boxofrules , who has a couple threads about it here. The standalone version has been my regular tool for playing along with music on my computer. I have it configured for a pretty clean simple signal with, like I mentioned, some hard right/left panning.

 

[wompwomp]

So what is it supposed to achieve relative to my original comment at the start of the thread?

not trying to baffle anybody good luck!

 

[ChrisAlan]

I am not sure which forum this is best in. Mods advise...

When practising over headphones, using a DAW and modellers as VSTs what I miss over an amp in the room is the sense of location and separation. Has anyone tried using HRTF/spatialisation software to 'place' their bass in the room in a specific virtual location?

Please explain in detail why when practicing this matters to you.

Also, where are you playing live that you are trying to replicate?

What kind of strings (flats/rounds) do you use on what kind of bass and brand with what type of pickups and brand of those pickups?

Finger or pick?

These things can all be factors given the non-directionality of frequencies below a certain point.

 

[wompwomp]

btw OP if you try 'one-ear-off' i'd suggest trying it on one side and then the other but i'd try them both, it can really differ which ear is open. it will take you less time to try than for anybody to explain

 

[silky smoove]

The OP is not using an amp. They're playing through a VST in headphones. I'm struggling to understand what benefit there would be in taking a can off to achieve spatialization within a set of cans. If anything, removing one can will have the opposite effect of the OP's stated goal.

 

[tothemax]

I practice with headphones quite a bit... I use my DAW interface but unless I'm recording I leave the DAW out of the equation. Usually I'm practicing with a YouTube or recording of the original so I'm more interested in simply hearing myself than using any plugins. I just run my bass through a DI pedal into the interface... When I'm recording I'll use a few plugin's, never thought about using these while recording. I generally use them for mixing and mastering, might work for practicing. These might be helpful for what you are going for

Hope it's helpful...

• Abbey Road Studio 3 from Waves: Abbey Roads Studio 3

​

• Sound City Studios from UA: Sound City Studio

​

 

[wompwomp]

The OP is not using an amp. They're playing through a VST in headphones. I'm struggling to understand what benefit there would be in taking a can off to achieve spatialization within a set of cans. If anything, removing one can will have the opposite effect of the OP's stated goal.

OP is asking for a way of placing his live signal specifically in a soundstage via headphones. and good luck with that, realistically you are sending an analog signal through an interface and then loading it up with effects and now soundstage.

imho the simplest way to achieve the idea as I understand it is to put the reference in one ear and leave the other open to the room you are sitting in. then you can hear your instrument (it does not matter in the slightest whether it's an electric or acoustic instrument for this purpose) with zero latency and quite locally AND you can the hear the room. there's your soundstage. no amp needed.

anyways. folks they make one-ear headphone monitors for a reason. I record with a can off with my electric instruments for immediacy and feel, I would say it's a better practice than using both tbh but hey I didn't ask the question i'm just offering an idea.

i'm not quite sure why OP needs all this to happen through the DAW and full cans. maybe he should get a VR helmet

 

[5stringedfrenzy]

OP is asking for a way of placing his live signal specifically in a soundstage via headphones. and good luck with that, realistically you are sending an analog signal through an interface and then loading it up with effects and now soundstage.

imho the simplest way to achieve the idea as I understand it is to put the reference in one ear and leave the other open to the room you are sitting in. then you can hear your instrument (it does not matter in the slightest whether it's an electric or acoustic instrument for this purpose) with zero latency and quite locally AND you can the hear the room. there's your soundstage. no amp needed.

anyways. folks they make one-ear headphone monitors for a reason. I record with a can off with my electric instruments for immediacy and feel, I would say it's a better practice than using both tbh but hey I didn't ask the question i'm just offering an idea.

i'm not quite sure why OP needs all this to happen through the DAW and full cans. maybe he should get a VR helmet

ok now I want a vr helmet to go with our multitrack rehearsal recordings, which are somewhat spacialized due to the single stereo mic for drums and panning for everyone else

 

[Podgorny]

folks they make one-ear headphone monitors for a reason.

That reason is so that you can play or sing in an ensemble, but be able to monitor a backing track or click.
This won't help with the OP's problem.

 

[Podgorny]

To the OP, any convolution reverb plugin with an impulse of a domestic space would probably get the effect you're thinking of. But I don't think it will increase your enjoyment greatly. Whereas a Subpac could get you some of the visceral feeling of using a real amp, while monitoring on headphones.