I have to admit that I have a serious desease. While there are frequent cases of GAS and MBD in this forum, I got infected with MAD (Multiple Amplifier Disorder). I constantly feel the urge to parallel Bass Amps and stack speakers. A voice in my head whispers all the time: Buy more speakers and get yourself an old Ampeg SVT!
All medication failed and my disorder escalates when I noticed that one bass and ten Amps is more effective than vice versa.
MAD makes mad, is definately noisy, but great fun too! Anyone else aquired this desease?
I am imune to this, because I live in an appartement and have to practice with headphones most of the time. Buying an expensive amp would be a complete waste of money.
I have a small Rumble 25 and I can barely turn this thing up to 9āo clock without getting into troubleā¦
(But you can burn serious money on expensive headphonesā¦oh wellā¦)
Not completely. The preamps in expensive amps are really good tho. I sometimes use them with headphones or hook them up to my computer. I do prefer a preamp pedal.
Audio interface is in the middle there, a SSL 2. Itās USBād to the computer and is both the audio input and output.
Itās driving two 80W powered monitor speakers; you can see the right one there, the left one is out of frame on the other side of my computer.
Bass and microphone go in to the audio interface as the two inputs.
I also have a pair of Beyerdynamic DT-990 Pro studio monitor 'phones there.
I Direct Monitor the bass, blended 50/50 with the PC output. The bass (and mic) go out the speakers/phones with no latency, and the PC sound output plays directly through the speakers/phones as well.
The Beyerdynamics are very flat, like monitors. I also have a pair of Sony MDR-V6 that are also flat (and for a long time were the most common studio monitors in the world). They (the DT 990 Pros) are definitely not hifi or bass-boosting. They do have some high end gain but it is not bad.
You could say itās a bit similar as @Howard but instead of using a computer I use (analog) pedals that go into my keyboard amp that acts as my monitor. Sometimes I donāt use this pedalboard and hook my computer + Zoom U22 audio interface to the monitor instead.
The pedalboard starts on the right with a compressor > preamp > preamp > cabsim. The preamps acts as my amp(s) and I use the cabsim pedal to simulate my favourite cabs. The big plus with this setup is that I can play on low volumes but it still sounds like the real deal because of the sims. Sure the 30W speaker lacks low-end but at least it wonāt upset my neighbours.
Thumbs up for the Beyerdynamics headphones. I have the DT-880 which is semi open. Now I canāt stand closed backs anymore so the DT-990 would suit me much better but I do think the bass sounds a little bit better on the 880 or 770.
A good and cheap preamp to start with is the Behringer V-Tone Bass BDI21 or if you have more money to spend the Tech 21 SansAmp VT Bass DI is a great preamp too! I also like the Sadowsky SBP-1 & SBP-2 preamps but I went for Darkglass. Darkglass is very good but they are REALLY expensive right now and perhaps better suited if you mainly play hardrock/metal.
Alternative you could also start with a multi-fx pedal like the Zoom B1 four as a pedalboard & amp solution. This pedal has different amps and cabsims included. I had a Line6 HX Stomp but for digital I rather use my computer.
I use the DG B7K to eq just about everything I record now (zero metal) and have really gotten into the cab Sims out of the XLR out. Another level of tone coolness. Been blending both together on two channels in the DAW for really good effect. Cover Iām working on now is originally done on double bass the B7K does a perfect job (less distortion circuit of course).
I have the VT Bass DI too and use it when tone warrants. Just two different options. Both outstanding. IMO
The EQ is really good on the DG isnāt it. Itās really cool that they include an optional cab-sim slot for XLR out on the preamps too. The DG Elements just works a lot better for playing with cabsims tho. I just connect to bluetooth and I can play with noise gate, power amp and cab sim signals via my smartphone.
Very nice setup, @Paul!
You have quite some cash in your pedalboard, I like especially the Darkglas. Looks you are infected with MPD (multiple preamp disorder)
Itās really cool that they include an optional cab-sim slot for XLR out on the preamps too. The DG Elements just works a lot better for playing with cabsims tho. I just connect to bluetooth and I can play with noise gate, power amp and cab sim signals via my smartphone.