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super low freq

A DOD Meatbox and a ton of watts are the cheap methods.

The Meatbox enhances subharmonic content at 30 and 60 hz. It is not an octaver at all. Since your sub is able to go down to 8, you should be able to crank that 30 hz knob.

However, you are trying to find that clean booty bouncing bass. Be weary of how strong of a signal you're sending into the Meatbox - a hotter signal such as active pickups will cause the distortion that you want to avoid. This can be bypassed with a softened signal, and you can recompensate the percieved loudness by cranking up the wattage.

This is a cheaper solution, but what you're trying to accomplish will be expensive. Atleast you got the subs, that's half the battle!

Good luck.
 
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Some of your jokes are funny... some not so much... And how do you know you can't perceive below 20hz?... says who? Heck have you ever heard 20hz? Don't you want to know what it is like? We are musicians and engineers, so I suspect our sensitivity is probably better than a general population average... You guy sound like flat earthers....saying " What a fool"..

Ok ,I'm willing to be the fool... And go out on the limb..

As for Amps and speakers that are rated and capable of that low, on paper, the Bag End powered 18 (IPS18E-N) can do it.. and I happen to have 2

How do you measure, freq analyzer...

What will it sound/feel like? I don't know.. but I want to know..

So best I can come up with, since I want to use it for bass, is to take a 4 string bass and a 2 octave down pedal.. with no dry signal , hit a low e and that should be 10hz... a five string bass 2 octaves down is 7.725 hz...

Ha! And they called me mad!
 
No such thing as an 8hz subwoofer that fits in your van.
The 8Hz sub IS the van ;);):woot::cool:

I remember being at the jack singer concert hall for the Calgary philharmonic Symphony and feeling / sensing trucks rumble past outside. Can't say it added much to the music, but the last CPO performance I went to was so bad it will be the last.

I saw a video of a rig rundown of dusty Hill. He has a sub harmonic generator always on except it doesn't operate for notes below a certain cutoff, maybe it was open A and lower, so they don't blow up speakers probably.

Go ahead with your plan and your bandmates will "thank" you when you're all replacing PA speakers :rage::mad::dead::(:crying::rollno: ;););)
Just make sure it's only in the path to YOUR amp and cabinet, and maybe use a crossover that sends the ultra low frequencies to a specially designed cabinet. Then you will be able to rattle all the glasses off the racks in the bar ;);):thumbsup:
May actually be awesome.
 
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Some of your jokes are funny... some not so much... And how do you know you can't perceive below 20hz?... says who? Heck have you ever heard 20hz?

No. I can’t hear that low. Most people can’t.

Don't you want to know what it is like?

Why? If I can’t hear it, I can’t hear it. Anyway, super low sonic pulses or throbs, or whatever you want to call it are nauseating and fatiguing to most people.
 
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Heck have you ever heard 20hz? Don't you want to know what it is like?

Not even elephants will be able to hear your performances. However, a pod of whales could roll up to see what is going down.

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Hearing range describes the range of frequencies that can be heard by humans or other animals, though it can also refer to the range of levels. The human range is commonly given as 20 to 20,000 Invalid Link Removed, though there is considerable variation between individuals, especially at high frequencies, and a gradual loss of sensitivity to higher frequencies with age is considered normal. Sensitivity also varies with frequency, as shown by equal-loudness contours. Routine investigation for hearing loss usually involves an audiogram which shows threshold levels relative to a normal.


Several animal species are able to hear frequencies well beyond the human hearing range. Some dolphins and bats, for example, can hear frequencies up to 100,000 Hz. Elephants can hear sounds at 14–16 Hz, while some whales can hear infrasonic sounds as low as 7 Hz (in water).
 
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Those are notes you don't hear, they are felt. If you want sine wave you can't just use a pedal, you have to:

a) use power amps and speakers able to produce those low notes at equal levels as the rest.
b) stand at least 17 meters, 55 feet away from these speakers.

Otherwise you'll hear upper harmonics only. No low fundamentals at all. You will not even feel it. FOH PA systems and sound engineers doesn't want those low notes on stage anyway, they cut it sooner than that, even at 35-30 Hz pretty sharp. It just rumbling about and no direction, and leaks into everything else. That's even outdoors and large festival gigs. Even if you stand 17 meters from it, before you hear or feel that low note, the fundamental, which means the sine wave of the note, every physical thing in the vincinity will start to rattle and shake before you'll hear anything. I doubt even you can get a pair of high quality headphones on, and detect those low notes.
 
As an owner and former dealer of Bag End equipment, my advice would be to go into it with managed expectations. One of my bass rigs consists of a Bag End Q10BX-N and a pair of Bag End S18I-D subs with an integrator and a pair of Crown XTi4000 amps. I also own a pair of Bag End InfraSub powered 18" home theater subs. Will they go down stupid low? Absolutely! Will they do it cleanly? Also, yes. Will it be painfully loud and shake an entire venue apart? Probably not. They are awesome subs and a lot of fun to play with. When you try it out, find the low note you're going for and slowly ramp up the volume, stepping back occasionally to listen. You'll most likely find that it can produce those notes, but not with the window flexing authority you may be thinking of. Again, start with the output low and find out it's limitations. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle replacing cones.

As far a source goes, I would get a Roland PK-5 and an analog sound module for the purest analog tone I could. That way you don't have to rely on poor tracking on already low notes. There's nothing worse than a tracking hiccup in the middle of your 20hz overture!
 
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Not to put a damper on things (yuk yuk yuk) but Bag End is playing very fast and loose with their specs. I took a look at the double 18 version of this cab ([Invalid or Expired Link Removed]), which would be able to go just as deep and maybe deeper than a single 18. The sensitivity specs tell the entire story:

Half Space @ 1 Meter
10 Hz - 96 dBSPL
20 Hz - 108 dBSPL
40 Hz - 124 dBSPL
80 Hz - 130 dBSPL

So at 10 Hz it is 34db down from it's highest sensitivity rating at 80 hz. Simple math shows this is simply not 8hz-95hz +/- 3db (which they also list on the same spec sheet). This is 10hz-80hz +/- 34 db. In other words it is over 11x quieter at those low frequencies than it is at 80 hz. I'm afraid this cab cannot reproduce those frequencies despite their wild frequency response claims. They are false. Shame on Bag End. They have, apparently, let their marketing department specify what gets listed in the specs.

All is not lost though: What we typically think of as the note we hear is actually the second harmonic. 40 Hz sounds REALLY low and deep if you can get it at full volume. So I would search for ways to get that first harmonic at 40 hz out clearly and see how that sounds. Usually subwoofers have a hard time getting notes out even at that frequency, so if this one can get a clean 40 Hz tone out you will probably be more than satisfied. Start there. You're just never going to get 8hz out of this or any other cab this size.

Tom
 
The best thing I've found for this effect is an EQ pedal, preferably parametric but not necessary. Boosting frequencies around 70Hz works for me, but I still like clarity so I also slightly boost a high mid/low treble range when I drop those massive low bombs.

Not strictly necessary but very useful, esp when boosting lows like that is having a HPF. Broughton makes one that's very popular here. I use a Rane PE-17 that works great for keeping low end clarity and power
 
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I have just built a self amplified woofer that plays 1Hz. The cost is $12000. Results guaranteed. (If you can prove it doesn’t work)

These ones are the most bang for the buck, can be driven by a mere 50W amplifier, domestic hifi stereo one:

trw17-opener.jpg


Still you have to place it in a sealed room, using the room as a speaker enclosure. And still stand further away than your 17 meters...if you're just aiming for that brown note.

ROTARY SUBWOOFER
by Eminent Technology. Installation :

trw17-manifold.jpg


Full installation, renting the house needed excluded, goes for USD 26000$. Yes, not too many zeroes. A steal! I must buy one for my summer house too, or cabin! But what lengths don't you go just to drive them with a mere 50W amp, or 100W domestic Stereo amp and do drop that below 20 Hz note? Yes, these are built in those large theatres as Disneyland, or amusement parks, iMax cinemas and the like. To simulate the feel of a real earthquake. Goes down to 1 Hz and below. Elephants beware, especially those in the room....(ha!) :smug:

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How does one drop super low frequency bombs... ?

I have 2 - 18" powered cab.. capable of a lot, with a low freq capability of 8hz


At this moment I am playing a 4 string(approx 40z low e). although I own a 5 string (approx 31 hz low b)...

But how does one drop the clear tone bomb???

Octave pedals seem a bit gritty and robotic... What is the effect that Phil lesh or Mike Gordon use to get the Uber low vibration... Or anyone else...

Subharmonic synth?

Thanks in advance
I've used various tunings over the years I don't really think What your talking about is really about the tuning. Even low f# which is super low can actually be clear and articulate. The big bass drops you here at big concerts are not usually the bass guitar. Although some pedals like the dod meatbox can get close and are cool in their own way they are also a sure way to get an inexperienced sound guy to lower the bass a lot in the mix. My band does it with samplers. I had a digitech jamman stereo on my board running to its own DI and the jamman has memory to save samples and "one shot" mode which means you step on the pedal and it plays once and then stops. More recently I've gotten more into pedals and because it got to be too much tap dancing our drummer now uses an Alesis sample pad thing to trigger them. you can see it here next to his hi hat.
IMG_3619.JPG
 
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