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brownreasontolive wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 8:51 am

penningtron wrote: Mon Jun 28, 2021 2:25 pm I think my disappointment lies in trying to make one track/one amp chain/one mic satisfy both needs.

Can I ask what kind of cab you're running? Quiet/LOUD?
Mic selection and placement?

Cheers

I've only tried this a few times over the years, but the most recent example was probably a Strat neck pickup through a VT-22, mic'd with my usual Sennheiser 421 and/or a Royer r-10. Not really cranked, cuz I wanted a somewhat clean sound and that amp is goddamn loud at home. It sounded ok from a guitar standpoint but the bass-y fullness felt in the room didn't really make it to 'tape'.

Approaching it more like a bass/baritone is probably the answer, where it's not uncommon to feed it into multiple speaker cabs (10"/12" + 15"), or maybe do an amp/DI blend (phase aligned of course). I'm working on a new band and since no one good seems to want to play bass, we're considering using a 2nd guitar in a US Maple-y way.

penningtron wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 9:36 am I've only tried this a few times over the years, but the most recent example was probably a Strat neck pickup through a VT-22, mic'd with my usual Sennheiser 421 and/or a Royer r-10. Not really cranked, cuz I wanted a somewhat clean sound and that amp is goddamn loud at home. It sounded ok from a guitar standpoint but the bass-y fullness felt in the room didn't really make it to 'tape'.

Approaching it more like a bass/baritone is probably the answer, where it's not uncommon to feed it into multiple speaker cabs (10"/12" + 15"), or maybe do an amp/DI blend (phase aligned of course). I'm working on a new band and since no one good seems to want to play bass, we're considering using a 2nd guitar in a US Maple-y way.

Cool. Is this a live recording situation, or is the source well isolated?

If your source is isolated, and assuming you have enough space and you like the ambient sound of your room...
Try finding the spot where it sounds best standing in the room, and place the Royer pointing towards the speaker, about 1/2 of the way from where it hits your ear to the speaker/source amalgam. Obviously requires phase alignment as well, but allows more space for the low end to build amplitude.

This approach has worked well for me on clean guitars where a lot of bandwidth/dynamic range is called for.
These days, I almost always end up using DI for bass, but it's also worked well for me when somebody has an "amp sound" they like/are accustomed to that isn't working close mic'd.

I can find some examples later on if you're interested.

brownreasontolive wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 10:37 am If your source is isolated, and assuming you have enough space and you like the ambient sound of your room...

Good call about the distant mic'ing but I don't really like roomy sounding guitar, so I should probably try this in a large, dead-ish room.

This approach has worked well for me on clean guitars where a lot of bandwidth/dynamic range is called for.
These days, I almost always end up using DI for bass, but it's also worked well for me when somebody has an "amp sound" they like/are accustomed to that isn't working close mic'd.

Yeah. I think we're all a little trained to hear the sound of close mic'd guitar as how it's supposed to sound on record, so when the guitar is a little unconventional maybe it becomes more obvious. I have a friend who's into mic'ing the front and back of a combo amp (back mic phase flipped) but I haven't tried it myself.

penningtron wrote: Tue Jun 29, 2021 9:36 am I've only tried this a few times over the years, but the most recent example was probably a Strat neck pickup through a VT-22, mic'd with my usual Sennheiser 421 and/or a Royer r-10. Not really cranked, cuz I wanted a somewhat clean sound and that amp is goddamn loud at home. It sounded ok from a guitar standpoint but the bass-y fullness felt in the room didn't really make it to 'tape'.

I can't give much help in terms of unique EQing, but how are your mics set up? You should be able to get a ton of low end out of that R-10. I'd put the 421 as close as you can to the grill cloth, on axis, right where the dust cap and cone seam is. Get the Royer as close as the two mics' capsules can align with it right down the center of the speaker. You should end up with a really full sounding but articulate guitar tone. You can either pan them together somewhere or hard pan them if you want a quasi stereo effect without double tracking.

If you want to use only a single mic, I think you'll have better luck with the R-10 but turn your treble up more than you would normally. Be it on the guitar, on the amp, or on your pedal. Lots of low mids to be had. It's just a little shy in the top end. You'll notice it when mixing and wish you'd turned up the highs when you tracked.

Garth wrote: Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:12 pm

Teacher's Pet wrote: Sorry, I was not very clear.
I guess what I'm looking for is a light (or lights) that connect to a small solar panel with a wire.
Lights stay inside, solar panel lives outside. No walkway.
My neighbors have some string lights that seem to work this way...

I'm guessing you want to also have light in the evening, yeah? My understanding is that you want the charger to be hooked up to a "deep cycle" battery as they are meant for low power, long release. You could use an inverter or dc lights. Do some googling - there's lots of off-grid folks who do this w/ deep cycle marine batteries.

You’re probably looking at $300+ between a marine battery and a solar panel/charger, if that’s the route you want to go. Plus your actual light solution, maybe an LED strip or rope that runs on a 12V constant-voltage supply? Or another hundred bucks for a decent-quality inverter.

Concerning bass amp cabinets: For what will be used almost exclusively in a home music space/studio, is there a specific configuration I should probably be looking at? E.g. 2x10, 4x10, 1x15, etc.

For the head, I believe I've settled on a Fender Bassman 100T. Well, I'm like 75% sure. Anyway... it seems like a good amp with the option to switch it to 25 watts and it even has a silent mode for recording direct. I was also looking at the Ampeg PF-20T amps, which are cheaper but don't seem to be quite as broad in tone options.

All that said, I'm open to other ideas if my current train of thought is likely a bad idea for a home studio setup. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyone here ever used a bitcrusher or similar effect in a live setting at a fair amount of volume? Just asking out of curiosity, because I've played around with bitcrush effects to desirable effect, but only within DAWs, I'm just wondering if that translates well to stage (I'm sure it'd vary by amount of usage) as opposed to studios or DAWs , or if it's anything like feedback where in instances some would be desirable, some would not.

juxtapose wrote: Fri Jul 02, 2021 12:44 am Anyone here ever used a bitcrusher or similar effect in a live setting at a fair amount of volume? Just asking out of curiosity, because I've played around with bitcrush effects to desirable effect, but only within DAWs, I'm just wondering if that translates well to stage (I'm sure it'd vary by amount of usage) as opposed to studios or DAWs , or if it's anything like feedback where in instances some would be desirable, some would not.

Bit Commander, yes. Which is part squarewave/lofi bitcrusher, part octave effect. I found it easier to work with live through a solid state bass head, as a lot of tube amps are too sensitive and unpredictable for an effect that's already pretty extreme. Playing with such a thin, compressed sound still takes some getting used to, and simplified guitar parts and arrangements will go a long way towards making it work.

I haven't managed to find a bit crusher that works the way I would like.
Any recs for bitcrusher pedals that don't sound like a ring mod/octave fuzz?

chrisyoumans wrote: Thu Jul 01, 2021 3:00 pm Concerning bass amp cabinets: For what will be used almost exclusively in a home music space/studio, is there a specific configuration I should probably be looking at? E.g. 2x10, 4x10, 1x15, etc.

For the head, I believe I've settled on a Fender Bassman 100T. Well, I'm like 75% sure. Anyway... it seems like a good amp with the option to switch it to 25 watts and it even has a silent mode for recording direct. I was also looking at the Ampeg PF-20T amps, which are cheaper but don't seem to be quite as broad in tone options.

All that said, I'm open to other ideas if my current train of thought is likely a bad idea for a home studio setup. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I think both for the head and the cab, this really depends on what you like the sound of more than anything else. It depends a lot of if you need a lot of flexibility w/ your tone too if you need an option for other bass players to use with their bands. Like you mention, the Portaflex is probably going to be focused on doing the one thing.

More specifically regarding the cabinet, I think most dudes around these parts will rep 15's over 10" configs, but if you want to cover all bases, you probably could cover most territory w/ a 2x10 and a 1x15.

It's kind of a difficult question to be able give a conclusive answer because there are just so many variables?