Your Suggestion As The Best High-End Bass Preamp for Recording - 2017

[J.Wolf]

FWIW, This seems like an unnecessarily complicated way to get great recorded bass tone. Maybe I'm missing the nuance of it, but I'm picky as hell about my recorded tone and I've found that a great tube DI (of whatever flavor floats your boat) straight into a great converter/interface like the metric halo (for example) is just fine for my picky self. Obviously YMMV but if you need $5k in preamps and another $$ however much in plugins to get highly rewarding recorded bass tone, something doesnt add up for me.

Not that anyone asked

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

You can be as picky as you want depending on how many digits are in your bank account (or credit limit).

 

[J.Wolf]

And as long as you calibrate your expectations to diminishing returns. I mean, you don't have to, but in the spirit of being realistic....

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

Sadly, as you get older it becomes physically difficult to hear all the nuances of the highest of the highest end gear - and that's when you're most likely to be able to buy it. And most of the consumers of this music are listening on ear buds while people jabber in the background etc. Whatever. It's the same thing in other areas. Some people spend $5K on a car. Some spend $30K. Some spend $300K. They all have four wheels and get you from A to B. As for the vehicle "experience" ... it's a matter of preference ... and bank account.

 

[J.Wolf]

true that. I guess I'm reaching a point in my life where I'll take 94% awesomeness and move on to more important things like playing. I used to be the guy who would chase that last 5-6% with time and lots of money (relatively). I found it to be less than rewarding for the input vs output of that equation, and have been much happier.

Not telling people to shut up and just play or anything like that, although I'm sure it sounds like it. People are welcome to pursue whatever they want, as long as they're not hurting anyone. I should probably follow my own advice and stop b*^@ing about it.

 

[Ethereal Thorn]

I guess I'm one of the guys that the tone chase is a big part of the fun I love trying new gear.

 

[JimmyM]

Sadly, as you get older it becomes physically difficult to hear all the nuances of the highest of the highest end gear - and that's when you're most likely to be able to buy it.

I think that's true for those who have spent a lifetime toasting their eardrums to a crisp golden brown. For the rest of us, not so much.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

I think that's true for those who have spent a lifetime toasting their eardrums to a crisp golden brown. For the rest of us, not so much.

Wishful thinking my friend! Eventually, hearing loss hits virtually every aging adult. The stupid loud gigging accelerates hearing loss, but losing the ability to distinguish higher frequencies etc. eventually hits everyone.

Age-Related Hearing Loss

 

[Feral Feline]

What?

 

[BassHappy]

Mission accomplished, happy ending.

By way of an update, I activated the Trident A Range plug in tonight. So you know, I had the 1176SE and the LA2A already as they came for free as part of my UA thunderbolt interface package. The Trident was $249 but I had a $50 bucks off coupon, so I am out $199.

To be perfectly honest, I am completely blown away. In heaven as they say, it's totally drool-worthy. It brought me right back to the Trident A Ranges we used at A&M "A" and Chateau Recorders in LA. It took me all of about 30 seconds to dial in the Trident sweet spots. They are burned into my memory bank forever.

I can't really put it into words, but I will try. You start with just a pinch of cut and boost here and there on that warm and oh-so-musical Trident overlapping EQ. Then bump it over to the super clean solid state nature of the Urie 1176SE clipping off only the hardest of the peaks. Then the LA2A warms everything up right under that - but still keeps the playing dynamics completely intact. To me, it's nothing short of remarkable. It's what I have been craving and it's just superb for my playing style. What I don't understand is how it totally changes the feel of the bass and the way I attack the strings. But it does. It's almost feels like there are big pats of butter laced to the strings when I dig in. It was deja vu as I realized how much the sound can effect the feel, and the way you play.

Thinking of doing a shoot out when my other basses have the electronics installed and dialed in. All 25 basses back to back through that same chain playing the same ditty. Hmmmm, maybe a little something in 11/8....

Maybe it should be a little contest, you folks hearing it and try to tell which bass is which?

Again thanks to all for the remarkable wealth of interest, opinions and suggestions. Much appreciated.

If anyone is looking for an Aguilar db680 or a Summit Audio TLA50 limiter you know where to find me....

 

[EastCoastThump]

Happy for you, that your search has ended well.

 

[Xandrell]

I think that's true for those who have spent a lifetime toasting their eardrums to a crisp golden brown. For the rest of us, not so much.

We're doing a song, Let Them Stare by Julia Michaels. This obscure song from 2010 is for some reason a crowd favorite but the song makes me think an older mastering engineer mastered it because everything is perfect except her vocals treble frequency hurt my ears. I had to remaster it myself and is much better.

 

[donCameron]

I normally use one of my UA 6176s (which is a UA610 tube preamp with a 1176 comp. Or I use a Focusrite ISA one with an Emperical Fatso Jr. However. The DI out on my Carvin MB210 is really nice, so I might try using that soon.

 

[mobdirt]

These days i'm using the api tranzformer, A/B'd it to a lot of stuff and it won, especially in the studio, it outright beat api's own 500 series.

 

[mobdirt]

..also used as the preamp for my rig at home (preamp to power amp balanced input and 210 cab)

 

[Phat Ham]

I'm glad the plug-ins are working for you. if you decide you'd rather have hardware and have $4k burning a hole in your pocket Trident makes an A range channel strip: https://vintageking.com/trident-a-range-mic-pre-eq

I wouldn't be surprised if there are others out there making channel strips that are either clones or inspired by the A range. Probably worth a trip over to gearslutz to ask around.

 

[Mario Molinari]

Mission accomplished, happy ending.

By way of an update, I activated the Trident A Range plug in tonight. So you know, I had the 1176SE and the LA2A already as they came for free as part of my UA thunderbolt interface package. The Trident was $249 but I had a $50 bucks off coupon, so I am out $199.

To be perfectly honest, I am completely blown away. In heaven as they say, it's totally drool-worthy. It brought me right back to the Trident A Ranges we used at A&M "A" and Chateau Recorders in LA. It took me all of about 30 seconds to dial in the Trident sweet spots. They are burned into my memory bank forever.

I can't really put it into words, but I will try. You start with just a pinch of cut and boost here and there on that warm and oh-so-musical Trident overlapping EQ. Then bump it over to the super clean solid state nature of the Urie 1176SE clipping off only the hardest of the peaks. Then the LA2A warms everything up right under that - but still keeps the playing dynamics completely intact. To me, it's nothing short of remarkable. It's what I have been craving and it's just superb for my playing style. What I don't understand is how it totally changes the feel of the bass and the way I attack the strings. But it does. It's almost feels like there are big pats of butter laced to the strings when I dig in. It was deja vu as I realized how much the sound can effect the feel, and the way you play.

Thinking of doing a shoot out when my other basses have the electronics installed and dialed in. All 25 basses back to back through that same chain playing the same ditty. Hmmmm, maybe a little something in 11/8....

Maybe it should be a little contest, you folks hearing it and try to tell which bass is which?

Again thanks to all for the remarkable wealth of interest, opinions and suggestions. Much appreciated.

If anyone is looking for an Aguilar db680 or a Summit Audio TLA50 limiter you know where to find me....

Try the hum of tla 50 before...

 

[MDBass]

Hey Good Folks of the TB

I have been using a tube driven Aguilar db680 for quite a few years, which directly outputs a tube driven Summit Audio TLA50 limiter, then directly into my United Audio interface to my Imac and into Logic X. I love the sound. With the Aguilar, Dave basically optimized a Neve module for bass guitar. But it has been around for years and I wonder if I am falling behind the times.

View attachment 2795257


View attachment 2795258


I read a lot about other recording preamps folks are using that are much newer and I wonder if I should upgrade? Been looking at the Sonic Farm Tantra and the Milennia TD-1 for example. Not a big fan of the Avalon stuff. Any other suggestions welcome.

Also, have not experimented seriously yet with the UA Interface plus-ins. How are the LA/2A and Urie ones? Any thoughts as to how they might compare to the Summit Audio TLA50 box? I don't use compression, there are a lot of dynamics in my playing I don't want to alter or squash, but I do like to use peak limiting in case I dig in a little harder than expected - to prevent overload or distortion.

Thoughts welcome.....

Jule Monique is my recommendation, hands down.

This is my direct signal through my pedalboard and Monique, zero post processing: