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Thumpinator: day 1

#21
hmm...
Its one thing to roll your eyes at teacher.. its another to turn around to make sure the whole class sees


I think this website needs more reality checks with gear, and I am sure I was a little lavish with praise- the sound could have just been extra good that day. but to continuously divebomb like an angry sparrow mother is a little silly without having tried the gear, nor having any reason to write it off in the first place.

It is not a complicated issue, and not a complicated 'effect,' so-to-speak. Low freq overexcursion and wattage-waste are problems. Too much thump in the zealous front-of-house is a problem. I do not see what is hard to believe about a well-engineered filter doing its job. We have digital tracking, super powerful parametric eq's in a tiny formfactor, the rainbow machine, amp emulators, you name it. If this thing is somehow ridiculous for claiming to do something simple, then I guess I'll bask in ignorant bliss with my super-affordable functional box.

I understand wanting decent proof, but without personally having it fail its job for me, and without the concept being unbelievable, I would tend to just NOT buy it if I thought it was useless

I ended up in more of a rant than I meant to, but I certainly stand by what I say.
 
#23
eddododo said:
hmm...
Its one thing to roll your eyes at teacher.. its another to turn around to make sure the whole class sees


I think this website needs more reality checks with gear, [...] to continuously divebomb like an angry sparrow mother is a little silly without having tried the gear, nor having any reason to write it off in the first place.

I understand wanting decent proof, but without personally having it fail its job for me, and without the concept being unbelievable, I would tend to just NOT buy it if I thought it was useless.
Click to expand...

Who was divebombing or saying it was useless? Speaking for myself, I'm only curious as to the facts of its inner workings. I could use something like this but I like to be well informed before making any purchase decisions, especially when buying things online with only the recommendations of internet personalities to go on.
 
#24
I had a micro-Thumpinator for a bit.
It did help articulate the low end a bit, but
My gear is VERY punchy.
Thumb bass into Mesa M9 is PUNCHY!
Plus the M9 has a natural 30Hz cut (similar to the Thumpinator) that I can turn off if I want (I never do)
So ultimately, I found the effect redundant (for my particular setup).
But...
If I had, say, a bass/amp/cab that I found muddy or boomy...
The Thumpinator would be an excellent buy.
The soundman will appreciate it as you save him from having to dial out a ton of your bass tone to save his PA speakers from flubbing out.
It isn't smoke and mirrors
It's a specific tool for a specific purpose.
My gear doesn't need it.
But I did notice a bit of a difference.
Just not enough to keep it.
Like I said, if I had a bass/amp/cab combo that was too muddy or boomy...
A Thumpinator would be first on my list of new effects to buy.

It cuts out the frequencies you wont hear, but your amp will still struggle to, um, amplifiy. So yeah, you get more hearable volume out of your rig, and your speakers become more efficient relative to what you're putting through them... just the frequencies your strings are producing, without the lower order harmonics that waste your amps power.
 
#25
pacojas said:
can't a parametric EQ do the same thing? set it to a narrow Q and cut the dB's below 50Hz?!!:confused:
Click to expand...

Kind-of.. maybe even yes, but...

I was using one channel of my empress like that, but comparing a-b, the empress set like that sucked a little more lows than I wanted..

I am not sure, but I feel like too sharp a Q on most eq's could possibly, as a simple example, cut 20hz, and let 10-hz pass. Don't quote those numbers for any reason ;). Too wide a Q and the filter would obviously be less adept to the job it is assigned.

now, maybe a 'parametric high pass' , ie variable freq, variable depth, would work, but I am not sure that would even be the best way to do it.

I like knobs to tweak, but I get the impression that, to get a filter approaching an ideal brickwall, the components have to be 'balanced' a certain way, similar to a simple bridged-t notch filter, and therefore would be ruined by knobs; granted, I have not seen the guts and I don't think any schematics for it are floating around, so who knows.
 
#26
superHEAVYfunk said:
Who was divebombing or saying it was useless? Speaking for myself, I'm only curious as to the facts of its inner workings. I could use something like this but I like to be well informed before making any purchase decisions, especially when buying things online with only the recommendations of internet personalities to go on.
Click to expand...

No you definitely gave a couple of excellent points; you were ABSOLUTELY not the post(s) I was referring to :)

That's the reason I start posts like this. I am not the oldest bass player, and gear and circuits are a VERY NEW (but VERY ACTIVE AND INVOLVED) hobby for me, but I have VERY experienced ears, and when something does a great job, I want to praise it. The thumpinator is shrouded in mystery, and I really intend this thread to be a firsthand exploration of MY experience and uses of a piece of gear that, on paper, could either be super-great or super-useless
 
#30
ugly_bassplayer said:
I'd like to see that thing on a Spectral analyser........
Click to expand...
I've posted a spectral analysis of it at least a dozen times. Do a minimal search to see.
superHEAVYfunk said:
itd be nice to know whether or not its a finely tuned device, or if its just an overpriced hpf.
Click to expand...
It is a finely tuned device.
eddododo said:
It approaches a 'brickwall' filter.. Much harder to accomplish than a 1st or 2nd order filter, which 'only' cut 6 and 12dB per octave respectively
Click to expand...
Exactly! It is not "just a simple HPF", because it takes more than just a few parts in one stage to get as steep of a cutoff as it provides.
ugly_bassplayer said:
Common, are you serious.....
Click to expand...
Yes, are you?
Downunderwonder said:
Parametric cuts equally above the centre point, so that would be a no.
Click to expand...
Correct--most para EQ's do not have a steep low cut option; most cut on a bell-shaped curve. But there are a few (like a Rane rack unit I used to own) that have both kinds of filter.
 
#31
Well, I'm definitely curious about this thing, but I'm wondering, as most people (even in the review by Paul Reich - link below) are referring to frequencies put out by a low B string. Are there any benefits to using this device with a traditional four string bass? (I mainly play an active Stingray).

Also, what is the difference between the Thumpinator and the Micro Thumpinator, is it just the size of the box?

 
#33
Yango said:
I'm wondering, as most people (even in the review by Paul Reich - link below) are referring to frequencies put out by a low B string. Are there any benefits to using this device with a traditional four string bass? (I mainly play an active Stingray).
Click to expand...
Actually, most people are referring to frequencies below the low B. The Thumpinator doesn't do much of anything within the normal frequency range of a 4 or a 5 string. It only cuts junk (thumps, rumbles, pops) below about 30 Hz. These occur with any number of strings, any tuning.
Yango said:
what is the difference between the Thumpinator and the Micro Thumpinator, is it just the size of the box?
Click to expand...
The bigger one also converts between balanced and unbalanced, like a DI.
 
#36
bassboysam said:
I also found that some pedals benefit from the HPF. So you can place the HPF before some or all of your pedals and it will change how they sound and behave. OD become less fuzzy, compressors become less sensitive to inaudible frequencies same thing with envelope filters. there really are lots of uses and benefits to a tool like the thumpinator.
Click to expand...

Some octaves seem to track better as well although many octaves have a HPF filter built-in.

I place my Thumpinator early in the signal path at a point where it is physically convenient to add it. It doubles as a buffer to eliminate the additional capacitance of the wiring on the pedalboard and the cord to the amp. That definitely helps restore the high end when using passive basses.
 

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