jacoby75
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- Mar 11, 2010
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- Endorsing Artist: Mike Lull Custom Guitars, DR Strings
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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison
- Thread starter chadhargis
- Start date
All the RNDI talk is tempting. I should look at the oracle. And then rob a bank for the new board, power supply, etc.
I was majorly against having an external DI as I thought it was stupid. I passed on a LOT of good preamps because they didn't have an XLR out. But I grabbed the RNDI out of the classified used for not a lot of coin. There really is a difference. It sounds fantastic. With the RNDI mounted under my board, it takes up no room on top...just adds a bit of weight.
D
Oracle is the first/first group in each clip. Apologies ahead on time for goofy fretless playing!
Here's the Oracle and Grace through the "first set of settings", which are these: Shaggy's P15-ish Oracle settings, and Scuba's ALiX settings. Swap to the Grace at 1:15... oh my, the noise. That's just my terrible cable needing to be jiggled. Oops.
Using Settings 2 for this short section (I'll cut the demo together tomorrow for this second set)
Setting 2 were mid-heavy for each, Oracle to taste. Kind of hard to dial in because they max out the line input on my laptop. Pup was a little P, and humbucker bridge.
Ah! A clean take on both. I don't think this setting does the Oracle justice, I had the bass too low on these sets. I'll record some more in the morning.
EDIT: Oh my that's a lot of bass on the Oracle + its range... I'm guessing it sounds "clacky" because of the treble being over noon WITH the high switch active.
I used a heavily modified Tony Franklin Fretless P, Nordstrand pups and poly'd fingerboard. Bass settings were as close as possible on each; P/ PJ (J in 70s pole position), Jaco stuff is J in 60's pos. Signal chain for both was direct into Phil Jones Bighead v1, into Logic X. I eyeballed them to level them to similar amounts.
Here's the Oracle and Grace through the "first set of settings", which are these: Shaggy's P15-ish Oracle settings, and Scuba's ALiX settings. Swap to the Grace at 1:15... oh my, the noise. That's just my terrible cable needing to be jiggled. Oops.
Using Settings 2 for this short section (I'll cut the demo together tomorrow for this second set)
Setting 2 were mid-heavy for each, Oracle to taste. Kind of hard to dial in because they max out the line input on my laptop. Pup was a little P, and humbucker bridge.
Ah! A clean take on both. I don't think this setting does the Oracle justice, I had the bass too low on these sets. I'll record some more in the morning.
EDIT: Oh my that's a lot of bass on the Oracle + its range... I'm guessing it sounds "clacky" because of the treble being over noon WITH the high switch active.
I used a heavily modified Tony Franklin Fretless P, Nordstrand pups and poly'd fingerboard. Bass settings were as close as possible on each; P/ PJ (J in 70s pole position), Jaco stuff is J in 60's pos. Signal chain for both was direct into Phil Jones Bighead v1, into Logic X. I eyeballed them to level them to similar amounts.
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So I'm looking for a overdrive to pair with my new preamps. Basically I'll be running this set up.
Tuner-> Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Deluxe-> Eventide H9(for synthy stuff) -> overdrive??? -> Aguilar ToneHammer -> Arkham Oracle -> GFI Cabzeus
I'm wanting something that can tighten up my sound and become very articulate. Not sure what would fit that role.
Tuner-> Origin Effects Cali76 Compact Deluxe-> Eventide H9(for synthy stuff) -> overdrive??? -> Aguilar ToneHammer -> Arkham Oracle -> GFI Cabzeus
I'm wanting something that can tighten up my sound and become very articulate. Not sure what would fit that role.
Great. Its an Alembic tone stack...the od is klone like, the mid boost and bright are very useful
CAL Grizzly (a classic)
Greer Lightspeed (My current favorite. So, so good.)
Paul C Timmy (can get into distortion territory, but doesn't have to.)
Obviously there are a ton more, but those are the three I keep coming back to.
What settings do you have your Lightspeed at? That's currently what I have there!
Drive: maxed
Loudness: about 9:30
Freq: 10 o'clock
Worth noting, I suppose, that I have a Spark Booster in the front of my gain stage (currently: Spark > JAM Bass Rattler > Lightspeed) to give whatever I'm using a bump if I want/need to get dirtier.
Oh, and I'm using passive basses (P's and J's) into a GB Shuttle 9.0. Just to give the whole picture... so much of how any pedal works depends on what comes before and after, right?
And I'm curious about the Timmy. I have one for guitar but kicked it off for a Lovepedal amp 11. What settings (assuming flat amp eq)? Excited to try it.
The Timmy might just be the best of the bunch I listed for "tightening" things up (IMO, of course!), due to the bass and treble cut knobs. It's been a while since I've had it on my board, so this is from memory, but I recall liking both the treble and bass at noon (so cutting a bit of both for a slightly mid-focused sound), gain fairly low, and level to taste (whatever was needed for unity gain). I think I preferred the clipping switch in the middle, but honestly I played around with it a fair amount. Honestly, same with the bass and treble – basically the Timmy functions more than a little like an EQ, so depending on my mood or the room or... whatever, things would change a bit.
Then again, I think that's what I like so much about the Lightspeed. Once I found the sound I liked, I haven't felt a need to touch it!
I'm intrigued by the RNDI, but I often play small gigs with no PA support. Is there any way to get an effected signal out of the RNDI into my combo amp?
One of my amps does have one channel that has a mic input. Sorry for the dumb question.
One of my amps does have one channel that has a mic input. Sorry for the dumb question.
Would you know what equipment he was using for that?
I also loved David Hood when he was with Traffic, and I believe he used an ACC360 then.
The RNDI requires phantom power. Probably the easiest thing to inject 48v power to the lo-z line would be a Mackie M48 which runs off of 9v. I think a One-spot or standard pedal power should power the M48.
RNDI lo-z out to Mackie M48 input. Mackie M48 lo-z output to amp mic input.
Additionally, loudaudio (Mackie Support) provided the following power requirements:
The included power adapter for the M48 is specified as follows:
- Tip negative
- Input: 100v-240v ~50-60Hz 0.2A
- Output: 9v 500mA 4.5w LPS
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