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The search for tighter bass?

#81
danosix said:
Okay - change my quote to "psycho-acoustically" and the response stands - it'll sound more "right" to the ear - and yes many people do dispute the validity of this - on the other hand at least ONE of the thousands of top pro studios that use them on RECORDINGS must know what they are doing.
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Recording is very different than a live mix. For example, scooping can be great on a recording, but will get you lost when done live. Same with other effects. Most psycho-acoustic effects are aesthetic choices, IOW, neither right, nor wrong. The OP may or may not care for the Sonic Stomp, but I do not believe that is the solution based on his description.
 
#83
ric4682 said:
I know that drivers don't decide tone. It just seems that with most conventional cabs the ones with 10's happen to be designed to be a little tighter than ones with 15's. Not because of speaker size, but in conjunction with speaker size.
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Yes and no.

I think working your gain, compression, in conjunction with playing with your pickup outputs will meet your tonal goals. It is just time to play with settings, and it doesnt cost you anything.
 
#84
ric4682 said:
I know that drivers don't decide tone. It just seems that with most conventional cabs the ones with 10's happen to be designed to be a little tighter than ones with 15's. Not because of speaker size, but in conjunction with speaker size.
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I think what you are trying to say is the 10" drivers spec'd for sealed cabs are excursion limited when compared to the super 12's and super 15's. That may help transients, but will severly limit the lows as a result. It's a trade-off. Can't have both.
 
#87
I would say grab a parametric eq and use that to search out the freqs that really make your bass sing and the ones that muddy everything up. I was in a similar position with a PF500 recently that I had been borrowing. The chain went: Stingray 5>pf500>410hlf. The eq voicing on that series I found to be not quite where I need it so I picked up an Empress pedal here on TB and that helped me identify the issues. A markbass compressor eventually helped things even more but being able to deal with the right frequencies was key.
 
#88
danosix said:
...... a lot of "fat/flubby-ness" is in the mids so I stand by my flat or scooped eq recommendation.
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If by mids, you are referring to the upper bass/lower mids, IE, the 250 Hz range, then yes. Scoop away matey. Too much there can make things very cloudy/muddy. But the OP plays a Ric, so scooping the middle mids, around 1K, will fight against the Rics natural character.
 
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#89
Strings: GHS Progressives have great interaction with RIC pickups. I used them on my 4002 for twenty years, through a 2X15 cabinet, and never felt it was "slow." Quite the contrary, it had great response, whatever head I had on it. A touch of compression keeps the spikes out of the signal chain.

One item I don't believe was addressed, and I don't have time right now to read all five pages of posts: infrasonics. Is there anything to roll off the infrasonics, frequencies below 25 Hz (low E has a fundamental of 41 Hz)? That would make everything else much more efficient and increase the responsiveness of the drivers.
 
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#90
bkbrandon said:
I would say grab a parametric eq and use that to search out the freqs that really make your bass sing and the ones that muddy everything up...
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Great suggestion. Unfortunately, there are few choices today in true parametric unless you want to go to a real rack effect unit like an Ashly. The Empress is about it for effects pedals. I have tried the WMD Utility pedal, doesn't really do it. The TC Electronic DPE pedal is great, but extinct. The Boss PG-50 is another great choice, but is micro rack size (1U high x 1/2 wide), and is also extinct. The Boss RPQ 10 is a good one as well, but like the PG-50, it is micro rack size, extinct, and adds a tiny bit of noise when compared to the other ones I mentioned.
 
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#92
iiipopes said:
One item I don't believe was addressed, and I don't have time right now to read all five pages of posts: infrasonics. Is there anything to roll off the infrasonics, frequencies below 25 Hz (low E has a fundamental of 41 Hz)? That would make everything else much more efficient and increase the responsiveness of the drivers.
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Power amps usually have a high pass filter that rolls off these low frequencies. The filter break point will vary from product to product; it is variable on some PA amps. How effective these filters are is a concern.
 
#93
iiipopes said:
One item I don't believe was addressed, and I don't have time right now to read all five pages of posts: infrasonics. Is there anything to roll off the infrasonics, frequencies below 25 Hz (low E has a fundamental of 41 Hz)? That would make everything else much more efficient and increase the responsiveness of the drivers.
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Thus multiple suggestions for F-Deck's HPF. Just search TB for it. Lots of info.
 
#96
Coolhandjjl said:
If by mids, you are referring to the upper bass/lower mids, IE, the 250 Hz range, then yes. Scoop away matey. Too much there can make things very cloudy/muddy. But the OP plays a Ric, so scooping the middle mids, around 1K, will fight against the Rics natural character.
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Yes, I did actually mean in the 250 range - I know that's not the centre for most bass amps with only 3 knobs but it is within the range - also note I said "slightly" scooped - I was thinking like bass 12 oclock mid 10 or 11 treble 12 oclock then adjust to taste - with bass 4 notches higher than the bass that's reasonably drastic for most applications.
I also stand by my statement that while they seem to be wonderful amps (at least by the reviews) the fact that they are called portaflexes and seem to be popular with guys with the old ones it's probably not the bass for the sound he's going for in this situation - it probably IS what I'm looking for.
 
#98
Coolhandjjl said:
Great suggestion. Unfortunately, there are few choices today in true parametric unless you want to go to a real rack effect unit like an Ashly. The Empress is about it for effects pedals. I have tried the WMD Utility pedal, doesn't really do it. The TC Electronic DPE pedal is great, but extinct. The Boss PG-50 is another great choice, but is micro rack size (1U high x 1/2 wide), and is also extinct. The Boss RPQ 10 is a good one as well, but like the PG-50, it is micro rack size, extinct, and adds a tiny bit of noise when compared to the other ones I mentioned.
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There's also the JHS colourbos which has a parametric in it - but it's obscene (like $400) - they call it a preamp (and technically it is) but essentially it is a para with the capability of adding in some THD voiced to sound like (supposedly) a Neve mixer.
EDIT - I LIED - I thought the two rows were for sweep and boost/cut but they are not it is only a three band eq and various gain settings.
 
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#100
CL400Peavey said:
This is factually incorrect. The Ultra low, is a mid cut.
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Surprise: post at 4 am and sometimes you get your facts wrong.

Don't know why I had that backwards.

Apparently it's a notch at 500Hz. Either way, it's always helped me tighten my sound/cut through the mix. But I also generally have the bass knob down nearly all the way and use midrange heavy sealed cabinets. My mids settings are the same as the OP's, though I favor position 1 instead of 2. (Also, SVT instead of Portaflex, but same tonestack).

Worth noting that in recording engineering cutting around the 500 Hz range is one of the rules of thumb for adding clarity to an instrument/mix.
 
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