Keyboard amp or a powered speaker with a built-in mixer section (I think this is pretty common in the year 2023) would be my suggestion.

twelvepoint wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 8:54 am I have a contact mic situation that needs to be amplified (this is the typewriter thing...). It's to bring out more bass so I'm interested in an amp that can deliver some thump down to like 50-60Hz. It doesn't have to get terribly loud. In the band world I'd liken it to a bass player playing with an acoustic folk band kind of deal.

Any reccos? I'd look at small bass combos but I do want some flexibility to bring in high mid sources as well. Keyboard amp? The dreaded bass amp with tweeter? Powered PA speaker?

Most powered PA speakers, keyboard amps won't get you that low very well. Even some well-loved bass cabs won't do it well even though a low e's fundemental is 41.2 hz (TL606 just barely gets there and have to add the center cover on the vent I believe).

Because you used the word "thump" I think you should consider adding a sub to get below 100 hz worth a damn, especially for something percussive like a typewriter. I've never heard much of the above able to do it unless it was like a HUGE bass rig and I think a small sub will do a better job for you.

What're you looking to spend?

Garth wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:08 pm

twelvepoint wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 8:54 am I have a contact mic situation that needs to be amplified (this is the typewriter thing...). It's to bring out more bass so I'm interested in an amp that can deliver some thump down to like 50-60Hz. It doesn't have to get terribly loud. In the band world I'd liken it to a bass player playing with an acoustic folk band kind of deal.

Any reccos? I'd look at small bass combos but I do want some flexibility to bring in high mid sources as well. Keyboard amp? The dreaded bass amp with tweeter? Powered PA speaker?

Most powered PA speakers, keyboard amps won't get you that low very well. Even some well-loved bass cabs won't do it well even though a low e's fundemental is 41.2 hz (TL606 just barely gets there and have to add the center cover on the vent I believe).

Because you used the word "thump" I think you should consider adding a sub to get below 100 hz worth a damn, especially for something percussive like a typewriter. I've never heard much of the above able to do it unless it was like a HUGE bass rig and I think a small sub will do a better job for you.

What're you looking to spend?

Yeah, specifically it would be the heavy thunk of a shift key as a functional equivalent of a kick drum. As best as we can.

I’d consider a sub for sure. The best thing would be to get the JBL EON sub that matches our full range PA. It is $1200, so I’d need to make damn sure it delivers. Live, that would be ideal. But a smaller sub would be better for practice and recording.

Recently I recreated Jaap Vink's ring-modulated feedback patch in Max. The current version's eight parallel channels, and definitely an unpredictable noise source.

Here's a helpful video explaining how he did this in the 70s, in the Institute of Sonology studio:

twelvepoint wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 1:41 pm

Garth wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 12:08 pm

twelvepoint wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 8:54 am I have a contact mic situation that needs to be amplified (this is the typewriter thing...). It's to bring out more bass so I'm interested in an amp that can deliver some thump down to like 50-60Hz. It doesn't have to get terribly loud. In the band world I'd liken it to a bass player playing with an acoustic folk band kind of deal.

Any reccos? I'd look at small bass combos but I do want some flexibility to bring in high mid sources as well. Keyboard amp? The dreaded bass amp with tweeter? Powered PA speaker?

Most powered PA speakers, keyboard amps won't get you that low very well. Even some well-loved bass cabs won't do it well even though a low e's fundemental is 41.2 hz (TL606 just barely gets there and have to add the center cover on the vent I believe).

Because you used the word "thump" I think you should consider adding a sub to get below 100 hz worth a damn, especially for something percussive like a typewriter. I've never heard much of the above able to do it unless it was like a HUGE bass rig and I think a small sub will do a better job for you.

What're you looking to spend?

Yeah, specifically it would be the heavy thunk of a shift key as a functional equivalent of a kick drum. As best as we can.

I’d consider a sub for sure. The best thing would be to get the JBL EON sub that matches our full range PA. It is $1200, so I’d need to make damn sure it delivers. Live, that would be ideal. But a smaller sub would be better for practice and recording.

"matching" isn't that big of a deal tbh. For the most part, you don't have to stay in the same brand-environment when working w/ your PA (with some exceptions as one might expect w/ such a complex subject).

And that price seems really expensive to me? but I'm also a big ol' tightwad about some purchases. I got a pair of powered JBL 18"s in the 700 series and they slam. I think JBL's PRX line is in the 800 series w/ current production but if you go used and a series or two back, you can save yourself a bundle if you aren't frightened of used. If you see something in your price range you have questions about, feel free to pm me.

Write a drum pattern in Abelton than use the random MIDI plugin to change out going notes to a drum machine. Record notes from drum machine into other DAW to edit.

Wasn't twelve point recording type writters? Need to get into that.

Mickey242 wrote: Fri Mar 03, 2023 10:22 pm Wasn't twelve point recording type writters? Need to get into that.

Yeah, it’s a group who make music with typewriters. Traditionally we use whatever sounds the machines can make acoustically, but close micing, piezo transducers, and sampling can bring a lot of new sounds and textures into play. I’d like to do it in a way that’s not unduly complicated. It’s been surprisingly difficult to get contact mics sounding right!

^ Are there any recordings of this?

This is out of reach for most, but I figured this is might be appreciated here.
I used to work at a college where my dad also worked, I was an AV guy and my dad was the electronics tech for the chemistry dept. His main responsibility was maintaining a fancy schmancy bit of equipment called an NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonator). My understanding is you put a sample in, ping it with a signal from a crazy strong super-cooled magnet and measure shit from the response.

So there was this one chemist who worked there who was kooky as fuck, probably on the autism spectrum, but brilliant and endlessly entertaining. One day he's like "I wanna hear the NMR". So I brought over an Onkyo AV receiver and some speakers, and they adapted some output from the NMR to RCA and we plugged it in. Professor Steinmetz clacks away at a keyboard trying to tell the NMR what to do and all we're getting is weird static and shit. Then I tell him to set the output to analog, which hadn't occurred to him. He does it and pings the thing, and we get sound.

It wasn't anything particularly thrilling, sort of a soft attack ringing sound you could probably get close to with a synth, but we got it to work and he got to scratch that itch, and we heard it.

Anyway that's the most expensive sound I've ever made.