I have a huge (and heavy) cab in my living room. But the question is elsewhere.
I’m embarking on the B2B course and I’m looking to set up a practice space in my office.
So I think these are some needed characteristics :
Portable
possibility to put a jack on (thanks Captain Obvious)
Send everything to the computer (Mac)
Possibility to play (somewhere) the song without the bass line.
Some effects
Do you need a small pedal (with or without DI)?
The head amp and DI look overkill, don’t they?
DI alone (as Focusrite) doesn’t have some essential effects.
I’ve been researching online, but the variety of opinions in different threads has left me feeling a bit lost.
While I’m open to different price ranges, I’m a firm believer that quality should always come first. So, if you have any recommendations that fit this bill, I’d love to hear them.
Definitely recommend the Spark.
Spark 40 is good
Spark mini is smaller and the speaker provides low volume practice
Spark go. The smallest speaker and great package.
All features headphone and positive grid legendary multi effects and class contending practice app.
I was quite happy with them until I noticed that both have severe latency via USB and the Spark MINI via aux-in in (the GO has only USB).
That’s an issue if you go through a DAW etc…
Therefore, I would NOT recommend those anymore!
Also, don’t expect to much bass. The MINI is ok-ish, but the GO is really only good enough for playing silently on a terrace of a café at the French Provence (as I have successfully tested ^^).
EDIT @Laurent_LG: I will sell both Sparks. If you want one (despite my advise, NOT to get them) - I am in Germany, so sending to Belgium would be easy.
I will also sell my Boss Katana GO. This was my favourite mobile device … before I got the AMS 24!
@Al1885, our B2B bass God, will say many positive things about the Boss Katana GO, I guess
This would be a DAI (Digital Audio Interface). Some devices have one built in.
A DI (Direct Interface) can be used for connecting to a DAI, but you don’t need it. Modern DAI’s use combo comections that can take either a DI connection or a regular 1/4" cable connection.
For playing along with a song, anything with an AUX IN will let you play the song from a source to whatever other gear you’re using.
Removing the bass line from a song, for play along, can be done using Garage Band on your Mac.
No effects. It just lets you get your signal in to your Mac. It does act as a headphone amp. Plug into the Focusrite (or any DAI) with your bass and you can hear it through the headphone out.
There are preamp pedals with built in headphone amps and aux in.
Not necessarily. For instance, a Rumble 40 isn’t very big and has aux in, headphone out, a DI if you want to connect to an audio interface, and it makes for a very functional practice amp.
Yes! The options are mind boggling. There’s 50 different ways to do any set up at this point.
If you’re looking for a “do anything” setup, The HX Stomp is small, acts as a DAI, and has a headphone out. However, it’s expensive, and you have to be willing to setup all your effects and such through either a menu or with a computer program.
Part of deciding how you want to build your setup is deciding how much time you want to spend with computer interfaces and how much time you want to spend with buttons and knobs.
For me, I prefer to keep my music time and my computer time separate. I have a pedal board, use my amp head for my headphone connection, and have a DAI for when it’s needed.
Yeah the spark 2 is also pretty awesome. If money is not an object but sizes and portability is priority then the Spark EDGE would be my first suggestion it’s $100 more tha spark 2 but man you get a lot from that.
I also have the boss dual cube bass it’s one of the best battery powered amp I own but the tone will hold it back a bit.
After I managed to get my hands on a boss katana go I’ve sold everything else (spark go / spark 40 and a fender mustang). For me it’s the perfect practice device. I use it most of the time with headphones but it also works great over aux in with an old JBL Bluetooth speaker.
I don’t record, so I don’t know how good it is for recording, but for practicing it is great.
I picked up the Positive Grid Bias FX 2 Elite recently for cheap (on sale through November for 50% off, plus I jumped on an earlier option to pick up the Basic version for free, which gave me another $30 off). So, my current set up is: DAW (Reaper - it has free trial use), Bias FX 2 and my DI - plus computer, bass and headphones). Working excellently for recording and headphone practice at the moment, I’ll report back if I encounter any hangups.
I’ve also used the NUX Mighty Pro with a Zoom pedal and DAW in the past and had pretty solid results. So yeah, numerous options depending on your budget and time to learn.
