Dood

My band, within The Void, have an artist deal with Toontrack - and have been using Superior 2 (the newer EZ Drummer package) - and all of us think it is brilliant. I love slapping down a loop in my DAW and jamming to it too. The more realistic drums (and the infinte editing of S2) makes the whole experience far more enjoyable.. Especially when coming up with new song ideas. I get the toontrack newsletter through - and it's interesting to see how many artists have had chart releases with their products taking up the rhythm section job!

Yeah, I got a good one - nothing special - but it looks good on stage. I used to be in a band where the singer was (and still is) a crackin' bass player too. We used to play a song that featured a second guitar harmony - but we had just the one guitarist - So, when the part of the song came along - my singer would reach over and play the bass line and chords on my bottom 3 strings - I'd play the harmony lead guitar part on the top three, leaving the guitarist to take the main solo part. I think it sounded great! Though I also think it was wasted on the audiences, as are many musical devices, such a crazy jumbled up compound time sigs!

Hmmmm - I'd like to hear the two - but as far as I can tell on the likes of You Tube, the Para driver seems to have a lot more distortion gain than the BDDI. Am I wrong? I was seriously thinking about buying the RPM (the rack version of the Para Driver) - but if there's not much difference, then it'd be a waste of time - as I don't personally like the type of drive available from the BDDI - I think it disturbs the bottom end and makes it woolly. Your thoughts greatly received!

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='707958' date='Jan 10 2010, 06:16 PM']I've got the whole performance on DVD, Mick Karns playing on Colin Vearcombe/Black singing Wonderful Life is really nice too.[/quote] Steve!!! PM coming your way!! - I remember we discussed this ages ago - but I LOVE Colin's performance - and Brian May's guitar solo in the song is still one of my favourites, ever!

I maself have been toying with the idea of doing some sort of Bass Camp - or at least something accessible to everyone, everywhere - be it a DVD 'Bible' or Online resource. Time has been a bit against me at the moment - but I hope that I can pull my finger out and at least get the ole vid cam out for some Bass action!

You should read the Line6 forum! Same problem there - now - to an extent, the Vista driver *will* work with Windows 7 - but as I have found with the line6 gear - it does treat me to a BSOD every now and then - which is very annoying when in the middle of a recording project! I have to air my views - I find it really annoying that any high profile company that doesn't keep up with the OS's they say they support - is a bit pants really. Windows 7 has been out long enough to have written a driver and tested it in my opinion. (That's including Beta and RC versions of Win7 too).

[quote name='ezbass' post='708557' date='Jan 11 2010, 09:29 AM']This is definitely what I found when I demoed them side by side.[/quote] Agreed - I loved my F1 - I'd have another tomorrow if I needed it - but alas - my amp is now inside my speaker cabinet!

[quote name='Al Heeley' post='705383' date='Jan 8 2010, 12:47 PM']Can you tell me how the Hartke 4 x 10 cabs are normally wired? (eg: 400W Hartke 410XL cab) Is it 4 x 8ohm speakers wired in S+P to give 8 Ohm total resistance? Is it possible to rewire them to give a total 4 Ohm impedance thus get more power from the amp?[/quote] Hey Al! Being an ex-Hartke cab owner, I can tell you: Yes it is as you describe and no, I'm afraid you can not get a 4 Ohm impedance from any config using all 4 speakers.

[quote name='silddx' post='705491' date='Jan 8 2010, 02:08 PM']Now I understand! I'm going to have a crack at that, I'm not completely happy with the couple of maxed out distortion bass tones I've set up but I've been using the Drive and the Bronze Master. Don't know why I didn't think of using guitar amp overdrive. Cheers.[/quote] I got so fed up with losing a decent bass tone everytime I added distortion - and guitar amp distortion is always better - so figured I'd mix the two. You may find that on the new distortion patch, you mighyt want to add a little more bottom - or take a bit of top off the bass tone sound - as I found that sometimes it can sound like two instruments playing as opposed to one integrated tone. I guess it depends on how you want it to sound, but try it! I had an e-chat with Dave Meros ages ago about how he sets up his gnarly bass tones and the X3 appears to be a simple way of using as little gear as possible. - I've just been taking a look at the Boss GT Pro rack and it looks like that does some nice 'dual path' stuff too - but haven't seen many samples of how it sounds.

[quote name='silddx' post='705442' date='Jan 8 2010, 01:29 PM']Thanks dood. I adore the POD, only issues for me are volume balancing between patches and getting EQ right for PAs. Other than that, I doubt I'll ever want an amplifier as such. Superb bit of kit. You only use guitar amp sims?[/quote] T'is ok! Well, what I meant is that I use the Dual paths all the time on the X3. Tone 1 is usually my bass tone - pretty much I would say was the equivalent of a DI only signal path from a normal bass signal chain - ie - no mic'd cabinet sound. It's just what I prefer. I think Guy Pratt does, or at least used to much prefer it too. However, when it comes to adding dirt to the tone - Well - despite being virtual - I like to emulate the recording method of feeding the bass through a guitar stack as well and then mix the two together in stereo. Duff McKagan, Tye Zamora and countless others use this method. Thing is, to get that nice amp tone that I want takes a bit of fiddling, but I can get what I want eventually!

The one I used for my SVT2Pro was bought from...... wait for it...... Maplin!!!!! - Not sure if they still do them now though!

[quote name='silddx' post='705350' date='Jan 8 2010, 11:59 AM']I don't really need a fully featured preamp (is it possible to go direct to a power amp from a POD? I believe so but not sure of the implications).[/quote] Yup! - There's info' in the manual about how best to achieve that. I don't use any bass amp models on my X3 for bass tones - only guitar sims, if needed.

edit: Sorry - I missed the budget bit - you may be able to pick these up as a pair second hand for 500 mebbe.

[quote name='paganskins' post='705373' date='Jan 8 2010, 12:31 PM']A lot of the guitarists who use modeling based setups go straight into powered full range speakers like a pair of [url="http://www.mackie.com/products/srm350v2/"]these [/url][/quote] Similarly, I was impressed by these [url="http://www.wharfedalepro.com/Home/Products/POWEREDLOUDSPEAKERS/EVPXPSERIES/EVPX15PM/tabid/165/Default.aspx"]http://www.wharfedalepro.com/Home/Products...65/Default.aspx[/url] for monitoring. A Pair would certainly give you enough volume under your nose!

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='705325' date='Jan 8 2010, 11:41 AM']Hi Dood, It certainly does. There are preset algorithms for both guitar and bass, with different options for each. The guitar ones have a variety of pretty common amp models/distortion preamps, while the bass one has "Ampeg" and "Vox" (I think) amp models, as well as a bunch of distortion box models. They work for me, although I use it mainly for home practice through my hi-fi and a bit of recording- not used them live yet. Maybe one of these days...[/quote] Thanks! I'm on the look out for a MIDI controllable distortion I can put in my rack system - and basically seeing what's out there that will integrate in to my gear. I'll have a look a bit closer at this one! - I like that it is a half rack size!

Hmmmm - tough one! I have a Pod X3 - and found that all the factory presets needed tweaking, so I have just built my own with really unimaginative names. The one I use the most at the moment has the following signal chains: input> Tone 1 (on) > Wah > Vetta Juice > Modern Console preamp > TL Compressor > post EQ > (VOL) > LOOP > Random Chorus (off) > Ping Pong Delay (off) > Plate Rev (off) >Stereo Out L+R .......> Tone 2 (off) >Wah > Vetta Juice (off) > Metally guitar amp mebbe Diezel sim (no cab) > TL Compressor > post EQ > (VOL) > LOOP > Random Chorus (off) > Ping Pong Delay (off) > Plate Rev (off) >Stereo Out L+R It does change a lot - but one thing to notice, despite using the POD - I don't add any amp sims at this point. Certainly no point doing that if I'm plugging in to backline, but in the case of the guitar amp signal - I use the post EQ to 'shape' it so that it sounds a lot nicer going in to an amp. Where pedals are marked as off, they are ready just to be stomped on when needed - either for boost of instant tone variation. Finally, for recording - the USB output automatically sends my DAW a tone 1 Dry, Tone 2 Dry, Tone 1 L+R Wet and Tone 2 L+R Wet. This means that I can reamp or play with any of the individual paths without affecting the other. Tone 2 will probably get a speaker sim added for a bit more 'room' effect - I've been introduced to 'impulses' for cab simulations - there's loads of info' on the net about it all - but even the 'sims' that peopole have made themelves are really effective in bringing life to a mix. edit: I realised I have some presets on my rack rig - but as it took ^^^ this much to explain the X3 - I'd shy away from spending the rest of the morning explaining my other gear's patches!! oppphhh!!!

[quote name='velvetkevorkian' post='704546' date='Jan 7 2010, 06:15 PM']I dig the "5150 Drive" patch on my VF-1 for both guitar and bass, although I've now moved more towards using the "Hyper Metal" preset.[/quote] Hey matey! Does the VF-1 do distortion and drive presets then?

[quote name='mcgraham' post='703041' date='Jan 6 2010, 04:24 PM']Woah! The G-Force is[i] ridiculous[/i]! I'm absolutely boggled by how many effects and options there are in there. The G Major isn't bad, and isn't that expensive either... but man, that G-Force is something else.[/quote] I ridiculously sold my G-Force thinking that the line6 X3 would replace it - momentous fail!! - So I ended up buying the G-Major 2 as well. The GM2 has some great functions, like being able to switch external amps/pedals as part of a patch change / midi message which is great - but it doesnt have the infinite routing options of the G-Force, which I do miss.

[quote name='jonthebass' post='702879' date='Jan 6 2010, 02:31 PM']Is everything OK over there? Anyone know? Regards, A curious Jon.[/quote] Alex has posted a message in his sticky at the top of the forum [quote]This post has been edited by alexclaber: Today, 01:17 PM Reason for edit: Forum is now closed to free posting. New questions sent via pm/email will be posted and then answered here for all to read.[/quote] The moderation team are not aware of this decision.

[quote name='mcgraham' post='702864' date='Jan 6 2010, 02:22 PM']Thanks Dood! I have a couple of different tones I like that I achieve using my preamp, but I have to adjust my eq between these on the fly when playing live - not ideal. I'm not too fussed about effects as it was primarily to shift tones using eq, but I imagine once I establish some nice eq patches, I'd end up adding some subtle effects to benefit them. How are the TC Elec G-Force or G-Major at that sort of thing?[/quote] The G-Force has a better EQ section, being a 4 band parametric, Vs the G Major's 3 band Para - but even so - they are brilliant - but obviously, the units are fully featured effects units, not just EQ and hence are very powerful. I use my GM2 to shift my EQ curves depending on what I am playing - so a standard tone mimics the '12 o'clock' controls of an Alembic/BBE/Trace V-type tone stack - solos I can pop in a bit of mid - and other noises, such as distortion can be kept under control by rolling off the tops a bit. Actually, i think TC are fantastic and am toying a bit with trying out their Nova Drive - as it will pair nicely with the GM2 - IF it makes the right noises of course. (The Nova Drive is a programmeable Analogue distortion)