Owen Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 (edited) I am sitting at home on half term and doing some recording and sorting out. I have 3 DI boxes and two preamps sitting in front of me. I am NOT going to get into the ins and outs of which is which because I am not into dissing anyone's kit. However the price differential is frankly ENORMOUS here. I mean REALLY MASSSIVE!!!!! Is the sound different? For me, on one of them yes. For the rest they are really much of a muchness. The bass is a Korean MTD with an Armstrong pickup in it. It has very dead strings on it and the tone is rolled halfway off. The gain on the interface has been adjusted so that the recording level is there or thereabouts. Edited February 19, 2020 by owen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GisserD Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 i like number 4. the rest dont really stand out in any way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudpup Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 2 or 4 for me..... Both sounded a tiny bit fatter in the low mids maybe? I'm curious to know what they are though. I'm guessing number 3 may be a BDI21 🤔 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Number one and three lack of definition, number three has even digital noises and peaks, and an even worse lack of definition, whatever it is, throw them in the bin. Number two and four sound like transformers D.I., too mellow in the mid bass region and cutting all edge of the high frequencies, making your recordings a nightmare to cut though any mix, and with a mid scoop like all American products tend to have. Number four is compressing too much compared to number two, but these two have quite similar sound, number four being a bit more mid scooped. I would discard them for these reasons. Number five seems to be the most even across the whole range with harmonics being present and it will be the one allowing you to post EQ very easily. But they do all sound very different, the first four being non natural and having a strong signature. The fifth being the more neutral and even. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppet Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 I think you're going to have to say which is which! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 I am not going to say which is which becaue we all listen with our eyes and we all percieve things differently anyway. It was purely for the excercise of "wow the difference is not how our eyes percieve it to be". I freely admit to not hearing the detail that others have alluded to. I will confess that there was a slight LF bump in the EQ of number 4 which I only noticed as I carried on recording what I set out to do originally a couple of hours after posting. Sorry about that - what an amateur. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GisserD Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 22 minutes ago, owen said: I am not going to say which is which becaue we all listen with our eyes and we all percieve things differently anyway. It was purely for the excercise of "wow the difference is not how our eyes percieve it to be". I freely admit to not hearing the detail that others have alluded to. I will confess that there was a slight LF bump in the EQ of number 4 which I only noticed as I carried on recording what I set out to do originally a couple of hours after posting. Sorry about that - what an amateur. that will explain why i liked it. i like bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 1 minute ago, GisserD said: i like bass. You and me both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 Don't worry Owen, I've been through this kind of feeling more than often. Sometimes I have to admit that the one my eyes love is not the best one... And I like neutrality sound wise speaking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 I am editing it now and doing the 4th without the LF bump. I am ashamed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 Here it is again. This time I have normalised everything to try and get levels more equal - there is a little clipping but I am not going for broadcast quality! The bass itself is not sounding awesome. It is a candidate for new pickups but that is a story for another day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 I'll listen tomorrow, I have to go now for a nice meal with my wife at one of our favourite restaurant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GisserD Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 (edited) your D and G strings are louder than the E and A strings. pickup height maybe? Edited February 19, 2020 by GisserD Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 57 minutes ago, GisserD said: your D and G strings are louder than the E and A strings. pickup height maybe? Yep, this excercise is telling me all sorts of things about that particular bass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 2 minutes ago, owen said: Yep, this excercise is telling me all sorts of things about that particular bass. Wonder how the pres might perform with a different bass, as above the string balance both in volume and timbre is the most prominent feature to the casual listener (and I'm pretty casual in this context)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Owen Posted February 19, 2020 Author Share Posted February 19, 2020 I shall dig out a better bass and do it again. I will also balance the pickup on this one. And then I will find a pair of Smith - alike humbuckers and plumb them in. Obviously, what I mean there is get someone else to plumb them in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGBrown Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 No 5 for me. More harmonics & 'life'. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beedster Posted February 19, 2020 Share Posted February 19, 2020 And of course, the tone underpinning many of the world's most iconic bass lines is infinitely worse than any of the above tones when isolated Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellzero Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 I still can't stand number 2 and 4 for the same reasons. Number 3 is better now, but still a bit lifeless like number 1. Number 5 is still the best sounding, the more even in the response and the more "transparent". So number 5 again. Can you please tell me by PM what preamps are these, even if I'm pretty sure for number 2, 3 and 4 ? So, I can delete the 4 first from my list. Thanks a lot Owen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jay-syncro Posted February 20, 2020 Share Posted February 20, 2020 19 hours ago, Beedster said: And of course, the tone underpinning many of the world's most iconic bass lines is infinitely worse than any of the above tones when isolated Absolutely, there're loads of isolated bass tracks on YouTube. A couple of eye openers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamg67 Posted February 26, 2020 Share Posted February 26, 2020 (edited) How do they make those isolated bass tracks? I'm assuming they're not from the original multi track, and done with some kind of processing of the whole song? If that's true I doubt the original tone has survived intact. Edit - the Flea one sounds much too clean to be anything but the actual bass track. Edited February 26, 2020 by adamg67 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinB Posted February 27, 2020 Share Posted February 27, 2020 (edited) A lot of the tracks come from the Guitar Hero / Rock Band video games of the late 2000's - people figured out how to decode the individual vocal/guitar/bass/drum stems that were included for each song, and made whole collections available on file-sharing sites 🤫 edit: To clarify - yes. the stems were taken from the original masters. Edited February 27, 2020 by MartinB 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 surprisingly varied for what is meant to be a flat response, I actually thought no 1 was the most 'honest' but of course that might be because is sounded most like my bass, we don't really know what your bass sounds like. 4 sounded a bit lifeless to me but more bassy due to some top/mid end missing, I can see why some like it but it's a sound I think would get lost in a mix. 5 sounded quite coloured but was my preferred sound. It's interesting that they were so varied but I suspect you would notice very little of this in a live performance. It would be good at some stage once everyone has had a blind listen if you could put up what the runners were. If people are about to make a purchase I'm sure they would like to know the identity of a good cheapie and if people really did get the identities right or wrong it will help inform their opinions. It'll be fun too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigwan Posted February 28, 2020 Share Posted February 28, 2020 This exercise just brings home to me how rubbish my ears are... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted March 1, 2020 Share Posted March 1, 2020 The recording just sounds as if you've used them as a straight DI into your recording source with very little EQ. I doubt whacking your bass through a cheap or expensive pre amp is going to make an awful lot of difference, especially playing clean (with no gain or overdrive) and with dead strings. What were you expecting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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