I know most people would rather not (or can't) buy a preamp just to use as a HPF, but I use my Ashly BP-41 as such. I take the "high pass" output, and run that into my power amp. I should also mention that I still use the rest of the preamp as an actual preamp. The crossover section is just a bonus.The importance of an HPF could not be overstated, and I've read folks here getting into specifics about the frequency and slope of an HPF for the sake of tightening the sound of the band and preserving the life of our precious drivers. For product recommendations, all I've seen so far is fdeck's and Broughton's pedals, which have adjustable freq but a fixed slope. The same is true of my Grace m103, which has a HPF at 75Hz, and shelfing option for the bass eq freq. The slope for the shelving option is also not variable, and takes away the option of boosting a bass freq.
Is there a pedal or single unit rackmount that will do what any generic DAW parametric eq will do: Select the frequency and slope of an HPF/LPF?
If it costs $1000+, it would need to serve as a general purpose bass preamp/DI (or mic preamp, like my beloved Grace). Over $2000 and I'll just replace my speakers from time to time, and wade through the mud that permeates the air in my rehearsal space
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this is a real nice unit that not many people know about...............Invalid Link Removed...........it can be used in conjunction with this...........https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Age-P...d=1533872090&sr=8-7&keywords=golden+age+pre73The importance of an HPF could not be overstated, and I've read folks here getting into specifics about the frequency and slope of an HPF for the sake of tightening the sound of the band and preserving the life of our precious drivers. For product recommendations, all I've seen so far is fdeck's and Broughton's pedals, which have adjustable freq but a fixed slope. The same is true of my Grace m103, which has a HPF at 75Hz, and shelfing option for the bass eq freq. The slope for the shelving option is also not variable, and takes away the option of boosting a bass freq.
Is there a pedal or single unit rackmount that will do what any generic DAW parametric eq will do: Select the frequency and slope of an HPF/LPF?
If it costs $1000+, it would need to serve as a general purpose bass preamp/DI (or mic preamp, like my beloved Grace). Over $2000 and I'll just replace my speakers from time to time, and wade through the mud that permeates the air in my rehearsal space
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I hope I'm not abusing the CUP by providing a bit of background. But it's interesting to think about the issues that guide a design.
You can readily increase the slope of an analog filter in increments of 6 dB/oct, i.e., 6, 12, 18, etc. That's because each RC or RL pair inserts a j*omega factor into the response curve. Curves of 6 and 12 dB/oct are easy with single- and dual-ganged pots. In addition, the Sallen-Key filter topology offers some ways to use two resistors of equal value, lending themselves to 12 dB/octave filters using readily available dual pots available in catalogs. Un-equal resistors, or more than 2 sections, requires getting someone to make you a custom pot, which requires an up-front deposit or a large minimum order.
And as @agedhorse points out, the more elaborate a filter gets, the more prone you are to weird behaviors that stem from small variations in component values from piece to piece.
So I'm doing what's possible using parts that I can buy out of catalogs. I don't really have access to the miracle of Shenzen because I'm just not immersed in that world. Bunnie Huang's book is an eye opener. Also, I can only do things that are within my relatively limited manufacturing capability.
Like you say, demand is a factor in choosing what products to offer. I also have to maintain a reasonable pace of development, since this is a side business, and I have to be respectful of my day job and family life, not to mention playing bass!
You have the world ahead of you, and if you get into somewhat higher-value-added design, then you will have access to much more powerful design tools and manufacturing capabilities. That's pretty exciting. My day job involves that kind of stuff, though I'm not in the electronics design group. But the company that I work for was one of the pioneers, if not the pioneer, of commercial DSP:
The Fourier Revolution and Nicolet Computers
A timely thread for something I've been wondering about: is a compressor or HPF better for taming /eliminating low end peaks? I'm getting an HPF either way for my boomy 810, but will I need a compressor too, or should I just wait and see?
Both a compressor and an HPF will eliminate "bad" lows and peaks. But it's important to understand a compressor works on the dynamic of a signal whereas the HPF will start to cut some frequencies at a certain point.
I use them in tandem with the HPF sitting in front of the comp. Some comps even have "sidechain" where the trigger response is defined by an extraneous / peripheral device such as a HPF. The Fdeck series 3 is a great investment and very reasonably priced.
Riis
D
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Well there's this, slight overkill and pretty expensive, but I guess it would do what you want
Invalid Link Removed
I've used both fdeck and Broughton in live environments. They are both fine products, nothing fancy, and get the job done. I live in the upright world so it's a bit different than what the OP is probably dealing with.
Having said that, I think the amount of adjustability you are looking for isn't necessarily practical for the average Joe gigging. If I'm in the middle of a set, and I'm pushing my rig to the point that I need to adjust my HPF - then I'm just going to turn the knob until my problem goes away. There is no "set it and forget it" in my world. I've seen guys fiddle to no end with parametric and graphic EQ's in bar bands, and it makes little to no audible difference to the crowd.
Of course the same can't said if you are using this for recording, or truly professional gigs.
Having said that, I think the amount of adjustability you are looking for isn't necessarily practical for the average Joe gigging. If I'm in the middle of a set, and I'm pushing my rig to the point that I need to adjust my HPF - then I'm just going to turn the knob until my problem goes away. There is no "set it and forget it" in my world. I've seen guys fiddle to no end with parametric and graphic EQ's in bar bands, and it makes little to no audible difference to the crowd.
Of course the same can't said if you are using this for recording, or truly professional gigs.
scotch
It's not rocket science!
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"The importance of an HPF could not be overstated..."
I don't know,.. in terms of bass guitar stage amplification I think that very often pedal hpf's are redundant. I'm pretty sure I've read on these very pages that virtually every amplifier built in the last few decades has high pass filtering built in. No doubt there's a huge trend on talkbass the last few years, but I wonder.... (Amplifier engineers, please correct me if I'm wrong here!)
As far as the signal that hits the front-of-house desk, yeah- there's extra hpf going on! However, every engineer I have ever worked with likes to have that control themselves.
Maybe I'm way off base in this, and I'm in no way trying to be "snarky", but I rarely see a pedal hpf used by an experienced touring professional. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea to use one, but I do wonder if this is an internet forum-nursed "necessity".
***All of the above does NOT apply to amplifying an upright bass! That is an entirely different animal!***
Expecting some arrows, but just trying to have an honest (and respectful) relevant discussion.
I don't know,.. in terms of bass guitar stage amplification I think that very often pedal hpf's are redundant. I'm pretty sure I've read on these very pages that virtually every amplifier built in the last few decades has high pass filtering built in. No doubt there's a huge trend on talkbass the last few years, but I wonder.... (Amplifier engineers, please correct me if I'm wrong here!)
As far as the signal that hits the front-of-house desk, yeah- there's extra hpf going on! However, every engineer I have ever worked with likes to have that control themselves.
Maybe I'm way off base in this, and I'm in no way trying to be "snarky", but I rarely see a pedal hpf used by an experienced touring professional. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea to use one, but I do wonder if this is an internet forum-nursed "necessity".
***All of the above does NOT apply to amplifying an upright bass! That is an entirely different animal!***
Expecting some arrows, but just trying to have an honest (and respectful) relevant discussion.
This reflects my experience as well. My stage sound is perfectly fine coming out of my amp (minimal eq and some compressor built in) and I would never dare to give FOH anything but the plain signal -- as you say the sound engineers like to have the control, which I fully respect.
Passinwind
I know nothing.
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Maybe @agedhorse @Passinwind @fdeck @Azure Skies may chime in. Straight from the designer's mind. Thanks in advance.
Don't forget Max at SFX too: @Silent Fly; and then the German kit linked in the long HPF/LPF thread looks like a cool thing for DIY'ers too.
For a standalone digital solution the MiniDSP products can work pretty well. I probably posted my DIY build here on TB several years ago, I'll see if I can find that in a bit. For a rack mount solution I used a Rane RPM26z for a while, which is hilarious overkill. Need 150 bands of full PEQ? Covered! But for this purpose one can various cascade classic filter alignments and slopes, but did ant yone mention "overkill?"
As far as simple analog solutions, I just build something fairly similar to @fdeck's v3 spec into most of my own amp builds. I'm not really into pedals much at all, but if I did one it would most likely be a full preamp because integration with gain staging and tone controls is a big part of my design brief.
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"The importance of an HPF could not be overstated..."
I don't know,.. in terms of bass guitar stage amplification I think that very often pedal hpf's are redundant. I'm pretty sure I've read on these very pages that virtually every amplifier built in the last few decades has high pass filtering built in. No doubt there's a huge trend on talkbass the last few years, but I wonder.... (Amplifier engineers, please correct me if I'm wrong here!)
As far as the signal that hits the front-of-house desk, yeah- there's extra hpf going on! However, every engineer I have ever worked with likes to have that control themselves.
Maybe I'm way off base in this, and I'm in no way trying to be "snarky", but I rarely see a pedal hpf used by an experienced touring professional. That doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad idea to use one, but I do wonder if this is an internet forum-nursed "necessity".
***All of the above does NOT apply to amplifying an upright bass! That is an entirely different animal!***
Expecting some arrows, but just trying to have an honest (and respectful) relevant discussion.
Part of this is my fault, since I didn't really go into detail about my situation and goals. I've found that the less I put between my bass and my power amp (GX7), the better. The only problems I've run into is that the preamp gain in my bass is insufficient, so I need some kind of preamp, I do need better eq control than the knobs on my bass, and I crank out noise and destruction-producing frequencies down to negative infinity. I like the sound of my MXR bass DI, and I have an MXR 10-band eq pedal that gives me a little more control, but I want to both boost the bass and at the same time cut bass below a certain level. Cutting bass using the 10-band eq carves too much out of adjacent freqs, as far as I can tell.
When playing live, I don't really worry about FOH, because either they know what they are doing, or they don't, and either way all I can really control is the sound and safety of my own rig. I just point to the direct out on my pedal. Really, I'm either looking for a stand-alone HPF, or a replacement for my preamp that offers control over where and how much I cut bass frequencies.
To belabor the point a little (sorry), take for example how compression is built into many preamps at this point. However, compression is usually relegated to one knob called "Amount". Sure, mabe in all reality this works just fine, but dammit I want to fiddle with the threshold, attack, release, input gain, output gain, and knee separately! I would rather have a preamp with only one knob called "Gain", outsourcing eq and compression. I feel the same way about HPF/LPF, although I do feel someone should be able to squeeze this into a nice parametric eq.
That seems to be going on with fdeck's third gen box. Got me thinking exactly what you are describing here. So, for example, if I got 2 of Broughton's High Pass filter pedals (out of stock
), I could basically create a 12db/oct rolloff with a "knee" to a 24db/oct roll off wherever I want. Sounds like a winner!Or, with 2 fdeck boxes I could do the same thing, except I would be crushing everything below 35hz to the tune of 48db/oct.
Even if this is WAY more control than I actually need, at least I wouldn't be complaining about not having options.
BONUS: If I don't really need both boxes, I can sneak one into my guitarist's signal chain to keep him out of my sonic space!
After playing one, I am ordering the #3 shortly. The 35hz corner filter is perfect for my 15" cabs, tuned to 40 HZ. The variable EQ that steepens the slopes and gives you a desired freq adjustment.
Fdeck has done smashing with this one.
