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IEMs aren’t for everyone. Just like 5 string basses, valve amps & dirt pedals. They’re just a tool. Most professional players use them, even if it’s just for a click & audio cues. I don’t mind using them, but I prefer fold back or backline to hear the mix.

I played ampless at church when I was a Christian too. DI box at the end of the pedal chain & straight to the desk. Used IEMs. With my band (jazz, trip hop, soul, kinda thing), I do pretty much the same, but I have an active PA cab for my backline rather than IEMs & waiting on a Bassics preamp arriving to replace my DI.

Got some time tonight to put something together... Everything is played on the Roland Jupiter X & includes me singing (thankfully through a vocoder). Story: Alone & broken hearted, he sees the demon in the sky that took his love away. The song is about the dark side of a beautiful day.

I’ve got an idea, just struggling for recording time.

The Aguilar pickups & preamp sound fantastic, don’t they. Got the PJ set & OBP2 in my SR.

Update: I ended up going for the RCF 915a & picked it up on Thursday. Only used it in the house, but it sounds fantastic. Looking forward to getting it out & into the band, give it some volume.

None of those features you mentioned are a requirement, having or not having them has no affect on me, though the cab sim might be a handy thing. At home, I tend to go through the laptop/audio interface & into either studio monitors or headphones. Preference is to have XLR out, but not essential. I don’t play hard rock or metal, so a preamp that’s great for those genres only is what I want to avoid. If it has a drive section (which most do), I can make use of it though.

EBS are a good shout, but as the bass has an Aguilar preamp in it, the Aguilar is off my list.

As it says, I’m looking for a good preamp pedal to replace the laptop virtual rig. Bass is an Ibby SoundGear strung with Chrome flatwounds. Bass has Aggi pickups & OBP2 pre & shall be going into FRFR (small Yamaha desk to RCF 915). My current virtual rigs are either a GK rig or an Ampeg b15. Been looking at the Two Notes pres, the Ampeg pres & the Sansamp. But what’s folks opinions & what are you finding good for a good Bassy, but clear sound?

Just realised I’ve been playing bass for 40 years too! 😎 My main instruments of choice are: Ibanez SR1000 bass that I got new in 1990. It’s had quite a few mods & plays like a dream. Roli Rise25. Fantastic bit of kit for getting those expressive synth bass lines that you can’t do on a regular synth. Roland Jupiter X. Just got this last month & had its first band outing last night. Mostly bass duties, but doing some simple right hand work too when the pianist wants to play clarinet. It’s a beast of a synth.

I'm in. The hats is an Apple loop that I manipulated a little & the final boom is a sample. Everything else played by hand on the Jupiter X. Just need to get a mic so I can make use of the vocoder! That'll be next month's entry. 😎

Yes. I used the Moog filter on an RD piano along with a little Juno chorus & Integra7 reverb. The result was a superb moody dark piano. I looked at a few other synths before settling for this. The Arturia Polybrute was a serious contender, as was the UDO Super6.

Yes. The front panel is very similar to the Jupiter 8, but is designed for the Jupiter X engine. So some controls get reassigned or become inactive. E.g, the J8 is a 2 oscillator synth, so the slider for osc3 is for PWM & osc4’s for cross modulation. The LCD shows what it’s assigned to the moment you touch it. On the 106 osc 1&2 sliders turn into on/off switches for PW & Saw respectively, whilst 3&4 are level sliders for sub & noise. Same with the buttons, a 106 doesn’t have ring mod, sync or xmod, so when you press one of the corresponding buttons, they do nothing. What you can also do is change the filter section to a Moog or Sequential filter. So if you’ve ever wondered what an SH-101 would sound like if you replaced the filter with a Moog ladder filter, then this lets you do that. 😎

I was considering getting a Juno 106 just before Xmas & saw the Juno X, which looks so at home, then discovered this. The fact that it comes with 6 pre loaded synths, an RD piano & a vocoder made it a better option than the Juno X. And you can layer any 4 of them! The ease of creating or tweaking sounds is superb. Took me less than 30 mins to recreate the piano sound on “One more smile” by Yebba.

That’s a cool pic for writing to. I got a new synth yesterday, so it’s a good excuse to try get something recorded for this month. 😎

At last the day has arrived & I’ve taken delivery of a shiny new Roland Jupiter X. been playing with it for the past hour or so & what a superb bit of kit it is.

It doesn’t have to be the Moog, any decent low pass filter should do. After selling the Moog, I did similar using a Source Audio filter (which are about £100 or so). It’ll give you a very synth like sound. But at the end of the day, the Roli Rise does a far better job & is just as expressive as playing bass.

I used to get my sub bass sound by using a Boss OC3 with just the -1 oct & then into a Moog MF-101 low pass filter. Now I get it with a Roli Rise & Equator. If you’re determined to use bass guitar & FX, then a -1 octave into a low pass filter with the cutoff dialled back a good bit should get you very close. You can add dirt & chorus just after the octaver if you want a thicker sound.

I have a bass that was black… Been stripped & modded since then. A bit like me.

Cheers Al, I’ll get a listen to those with my earphones. 🙂

Sorry. If you’re playing festivals, then a 4x12 or two is fine for visual impact, but if it’s in the rehearsal room or a venue, then it’s just an bit overkill. If you’re trying to get a good controlled sound, then it’s not gonna be easy with a 4x12 in the room unless the guitarist is really on the ball. Your chap may well be, but most guitarists I’ve played with are only interested in their sound being the most prominent (not all though, just most).

“That sounds like fun” Said no one ever. 🤣

There’s loads of guitar preamps that can easily do the job. Sansamp & Two Notes make great affordable examples.

That’s not an old SR1000, mine’s a 1989 model. Try changing the strings first. I’ve become a fan of flatwound strings. The other thing I did recently was change the pickups & preamp for Aguilar ones. Big change & sounds fantastic.

Me, the keys & the drums (e kit) all go through the PA. Guitarist is determined to use a wee laney 1x10 & being an old rocker, thinks that the sound he wants can only be gotten from using an amp. Ive played with a few guitarists that use Kemper modelling & another who, like me, plays a virtual rig on his laptop & they sound far better.