Sounding good at low volume

[bengreen49]

Hey guys

Needing a bit of advice on my set up. I live in a row of small cottages and need to keep the volume down to avoid annoying neighbours. This means when i'm practising the amp is barely above one and a half and no matter what I change it doesn't seem to make any difference to the sound. (which i would describe as a woolly thump). The amp is a Roland Cube 100 and my bass is an Aerodyne jazz so should sound pretty good. Do I need to get a smaller amp that I can turn up?

Cheers - Ben

[ahpook]

if i'm practicing at low volume, i don't worry about the tone too much, in fact i usually play with no eq or 'tone-sweetening' at all.

it makes me concentrate on the playing more.

i'm surprised you're getting a woolly sound from a fender tho...they're usually twangtastic !

Edited February 15, 2012 by ahpook

[RhysP]

I live in a terrace & only ever play through headphones at home.
The problem with bass is that it really carries even at low volumes.

[Lozz196]

Must admit, whenever I`ve used my live rig at home volumes - whichever setup I`ve had - it never sounds any good.

Get a practice amp - though saying that, my Ampeg BA108 (25 watts) is never on more than 2 on volume either.

With the Aerodyne, if not already doing so, put the bridge pickup on full, should lessen the wool.

[mep]

Headphones all the way in a terrace house. My bass sounds great through my practice amp and headphones. An aux input makes practicing along to songs a pleasurable experiencce.

[bengreen49]

Yeah I thought headphones would be the only easy way. Don't think it has aux-in though! The amp sounded brilliant when the guy demo'd it in the shop...

Thanks for the info.

[clauster]

Have you got the amp against a wall or in a corner?

If so, trying pulling it out into the room.

[Gust0o]

Turn the volume down and flatten the EQ - works a treat for me at home, when using the practice amp without the headphones.

As Lozz says, the bridge pick-up would also be the way to go.

[Happy Jack]

[i][i][url="http://www.philjonesbass.com/pjbdirect/product_info.php?products_id=39"]http://www.philjonesbass.com/pjbdirect/product_info.php?products_id=39[/url][/i][/i]

Most useful single piece of kit I've ever bought.Not cheap, but you [i][b]will [/b][/i]get your money's worth.

Note that - quite apart from the headphones thang - you can also use it as a 10W head to drive a bass cab, for use as a practice amp when the neighbours have gone on holiday ...

[TRBboy]

I've got a Roland bass micro cube which I use for home practice, usually with headphones on, but it also sounds great as it is at pretty low volumes. It's got an aux in, so I plug my mp3/laptop player in to play along with songs I'm learning. It also has built in amp models, effects, tuner, drum loops, etc. Great piece of kit for the money I think. The only annoying thing is that you sometimes seem to get a bit of earth hum or something.

[bigjohn]

My little Ampeg B50R is ok in the house. Sounds nice at low volume.

Although I mostly use a Vox Amplug indoors. Means I can wander about too.

[bengreen49]

I'll try a bit more fiddling around with settings and will move the amp away from the wall, see if that makes any difference. I knew I should have went for a smaller amp to start out with...

Those Amplugs look good. The 'bass buddy' is way out of my budget for the time being.

Next question: What sort of headphones?

[risingson]

[quote name='bengreen49' timestamp='1329324179' post='1540690']
I'll try a bit more fiddling around with settings and will move the amp away from the wall, see if that makes any difference. I knew I should have went for a smaller amp to start out with...

Those Amplugs look good. The 'bass buddy' is way out of my budget for the time being.

Next question: What sort of headphones?
[/quote]

A cheapish pair of AKGs will do the job or you could splurge out a bit more and look at getting some Beyer Dynamic DT770's perhaps. As long as they're comfortable to practice your bass through and you won't be punishing them with too much bass there's a lot to choose from.

[LawrenceH]

If you think about bass on recordings that sounds good at domestic volumes, then you're hearing sub-80Hz roll-off, probably a bit of a boost just above this and a bit more in the upper mids/treble (classic 'smiley face equal loudness contouring) and a generous helping of compression.
Compression in particular will help a lot at low volume.

[Marvin]

Headphones all the way at home, apart from when I know the neighbour is out (end of terrace you see )

I occasionally use my Zoom B3 pedal to practice. It hasn't got an Aux input to put my iPod through it so...I use the in ear headphones connected to the iPod underneath headphones. You can get a bit tangled up some times but it works OK. Mostly though I use either my 35w or 350w combo as both have headphone and Aux in jacks.

[Cygnus x-1]

I've got the same cb100 amp as you, using a CV precision with it and mine sounds superb. There are loads of different settings on this amp and what works in a loud practice may not be the settings to work in a quiet practice at home. I would say have a good fiddle about before regretting buying this particular amp. Also a reasonable set of headphones is fine, I got a Sony pair for about £18.

As a side issue though, I bought an Ashdown Tourbus 15 for quiet practice just for its small size and lightweight, it can stay in the living room and is very easy to pop in the car for a jam at a friends house, this amp was a bargain IMO (£60) and I think it sounds very good, much better than other 15 watt amp I tried. Good luck.

[leftybassman392]

In case it hasn't already been said, your bass will never sound as good at low volume as it does at 'normal' volume (whatever that means to you).

*Dull Science Advisory*

It's to do with something called the Equal Loudness Contour. Without getting boring, your hearing is not as sensitive to lows and highs when the sound is quiet. At one time HiFi systems often used to have something called a 'loudness' button, which kicked in a circuit that progressively boosted bass and treble as you turned the volume down.

Here's a link if you really want to know more: [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour[/url]

The good news is that when you use close-fitting headphones, most of the problems hearing bass frequencies disappear (which is almost certainly why they're so popular among the BC membership for home practice - although the fact that you avoid annoying the neighbours probably has something to do with it as well! ).

[essexbasscat]

[i]A [/i]slightly alternative suggestion ?

There's also the in - line graphic solution, which could be a dedicated pedal, or a rackmounted model, or even a second hand mixing desk.
I have used my 16 track desk at home with monitors to good effect at fairly low volume

[BigRedX]

IMO one of the problems in getting a bass to sound good at low volumes is that the amplified tone no longer masks the acoustic sound.

Personally I don't bother as for me the only tone that matters is having the right one in the context of your band which you can only tell in full rehearsals and gigs.

[Rich]

Cans are very definitely the way to go. I plug into either my old Pandora (bought from fleaBay for two thirds of bugger all) or the Pod XTlive.

Cans-wise, I cannot recommend Sennheiser HD280pros highly enough. Utterly superb.

[Blademan_98]

I too practice with headphones.
Just a word of warning.
Don't turn the volume up as you will damage your hearing.

[guildbass]

A set of nice big headphones and an Ibanez RU10

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/147205-ibanez-ru-10-jam-tuner/page__fromsearch__1"]http://basschat.co.u...__fromsearch__1[/url]



Brilliant little thing and still £19 online...

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Edited February 16, 2012 by guildbass

[JTUK]

Plug in and play.
Always get a sound but can't be arsed to go to the amp... just might have trim a pot or so.
Sounding good at low volume is easy..it is how that amp can handle that sound up through the volume ranges that is the hard part.
Which...IME..is not something the cheaper amps do well, generally, so what you get at low volume and pretty high volume can be completely thrown out.

[ead]

I'm a big fan of my Tascam MP-BT1 Bass Trainer thingy acquired from a BCer not too long ago.

[bengreen49]

Yeah that is the problem. The amp sounded great in the shop at about two-thirds volume. Trying to get the same sound when the speaker cone is barely moving is another story... Headphones it is!

Lots of useful information guys, many thanks.