Baloney Balderdash

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Edit!!! : Oh, well, just realized that you were looking for a rack unit, not a pedal format compressor, nevermind... I can warmly recommend the fully customable 3 band TC Electronic SpectraComp compressor. In my opinion it does require of you to take the time to dial in exactly what you want from it via the Toneprint editor. At least I found non of the pre-made templates or artist toneprints to my liking, but on the other hand you can really get it to work just about however you like it to using the Toneprint editor. I don't consider my self nowhere near a compressor expert but still I got it to work exactly like I wanted, so with some trial and error and careful dialing while listening to the result of the adjustments made, and then re/fine-adjusting accordingly it isn't exactly rocket science to dial in a compression matching exactly what you'd like to hear, you just need some patience, even if the huge amount of parameters available for adjustment in the editor might seem overwhelming at first, and in my opinion the result is well worth the extra work required for you to get there.

I guess I might as well write an update too on my compressor situation. As it turned out I dropped both the Zoom and the Black finger compressor. The Black Finger might come back at the very end of my signal chain, as before really more so functioning as a tube preamp stage than a compressor, but after a couple of intense dialing sessions using Toneprint editor, being really nitpicky about getting it absolutely perfect I eventually settled for just using the TC Electronic SpectraComp at the very beginning of my signal chain, right after my bass. Can't remember the exact settings I used, but by choosing just the right corossover frequencies for respectively the low, mid and high band, and blending in some parallel cleans, the mid frequency band having least cleans blended in, the low band slightly more, and the high band again slightly more than the low band, but with the high band being compressed the most (here I am thinking in terms of the compression ratio and the threshold mainly), but as said then mixed with slightly more clean signal than the other bands, and with least compression on the low band, the middle band being somewhere in between regarding amount of compression applied, I managed to make the SpectraComp do amazing things to my tone and adding a nice amount of punchy- and snappy- -ness, but while still effecting my playing dynamics minimally (I guess mainly due to the parallel clean signal being blended in), overall acting as a really nice tone enhancer, adding some snap, punch, clarity and definition and just ever so slightly smoothing out the signal, but in such a way that it is actually improving articulation, rather than killing it, which I feel otherwise is usually the most apparent danger of not applying compression carefully enough. All in all the SpectraComp is an absolutely amazing compression tool, with huge potentials, but in my opinion it does require of you to take the time to dial all the parameters in just the right way, using the Toneprint editor, personally at least all the pre-made templates and artist toneprints, and believe me I have literally gone through every single one of them, were absolutely useless to me, just about all of them being far to intrusive on my tone and playing dynamics for my taste, even with the physical knob of the pedal set at the minimum position.

Edit!!! : I've had a change of mind and now mainly uses my fingers. A combination of several different finger picking techniques, regular traditional two finger plucking, classical acoustic guitar finger picking, flamenco style index and/or middle finger flicking, double thumb, and sometimes also thumb+index finger pressed together, using the tip/nail of the index finger, faux pick style (though usually I will prefer using the flamenco finger flicking technique or double thumb instead), depending. Definitely sounds less aggressive though, but also somewhat more organic than using a pick, not least because I prefer using a fairly light touch. I don't really pull the strings, and sort of stroke them rather than striking them. So out of curiosity, who use finger picking and who use a pick, or if both, which do you prefer, and what is/are your favorite pick(s). Personally I can play both, but by far prefer the tone I get from using a pick, that specific snappy emphasis on the attack that you can't really replicate exactly alike by other means. On guitar strangely enough I prefer using my fingers. I also actually prefer my pick to be fairly flexible, and my favorite pick for bass is a Dunlop USA Nylon .73mm : The one I use now is just perfectly worn to have a fairly round tip, exactly as I prefer it to be, and I have prepared another one, aiming for about the same roundness of the tip, by using fine grained sandpaper. This is how I prefer it to be:

I am sure Anthony Jackson will be pleased to know he can now finally call himself a real bass player, also when he uses a pick, that's of course assuming 6 string bass players were pardoned as well. Bobby Vega at least now can have peace of mind. On a more serious note I can play both, but by far prefer the tone I get from playing with a pick, that specific snappy emphasis on the attack that can't really be obtained exactly the same otherwise, strangely enough I by far prefer using my fingers for guitar.

So as some of you might have noticed from several posts I have really fallen in love with my new Ibanez SR306EB bass, my very first 6 string, in the just a matter of under the week I've owned it. So I guess it is time to give it a name. I always otherwise always thought it was strange to give your instruments name, but that changed with naming my old main a lowly, but very much beloved, 28,6" scale Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro Bass, "Dud Bottomfeeder", so now I want to give this, my new main, a name too. And my name for this glorious beast, very much in line with the name I gave my Mikro, is : "The Noodle Queen" Another contesting name was "Noodle Thunderrod". Also I have grown accustomed to the wide fretboard of a six disturbingly fast, in such a degree even that what before looked abnormally wide to me now looks normal, and what looked normal to me before, aka 4 string basses, now look abnormally narrow. Though I suppose this is perfectly normal for incarnated respectively 4 and 6 string players. However I still every once in a while stumble over the narrow string spacing, though I really wouldn't have wanted it to be any wider, I can totally see the advantages in that too, as soon as my muscle memory has adapted.

I won't promise I'll get to do it, but sounds interesting, so count me in. So the piece is required to have bagpipes and panflutes? Or was that a joke? Edit!! : Well, after reading the replies it seem like the whole thread was just a joke...

So here it is, a first take noodling session on my new Ibanez SR306EB, my first 6 string bass, recorded through my ampless setup directly into my audio interface, without any editing or effects added post production (not even EQ or compression) : Signal chain : 6 string Ibanez SR306EB bass (strung with gauge .105 - .080 - .060 - .045 - .032 - .024 D'Addario XL nickle roundwound steel strings, tuned in D1 standard tuning, 3 half steps above B standard 6 string bass tuning) ->> TC Electronic SpectraComp (always on compressor) ->> TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini (always on digital polyphonic octaver, used as an 1 octave up effect mixed with clean bass signal, giving an effect similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings) ->> Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz (Boss FZ-2/Univox Super Fuzz clone, octave fuzz, set to [Mode 1]) ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ={ [Loop A Send] (empty effects loop used as clean {bass+octave up} signal blend for the RAT distortion in parallel effects loop [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> Mosky Black Rat (RAT clone, in [Vintage] classic original RAT mode, quite raunchy high gain distortion, mixed with the clean {bass+octave up} signal from parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an about 40/60 ratio) }=>> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (always on, parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ={ [Loop A Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (low gain overdrive, with some highs cut via the tone knob, always stacked into the flanger in front of it) ->> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (currently basically just functioning as an additional buffer) ->> Monarch MFL-22 (flanger, always used with the Orange Juice behind it stacked into it, and most often used mixed with phaser in parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> Behringer VP1 Vintage Phaser (EHX Small Stone clone, used in the high feedback and deep sweep mode, almost always used mixed with flanger in parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> Joyo Orange Juice (always on, relatively low gain, overdrive, [Tone] set at about 11 o'clock, [Voice] set to boost a wide curve around a 800Hz center frequency about +3dB pre gain stage, always mixed with the clean {bass+octave up} signal from parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an about 50/50 ratio) }=>> Boss TR-2 (tremolo, almost always used combined with the chorus effect in front of it) ->> TC Electronic Shaker (Vibrato blended with clean signal, via the Toneprint editor, functioning as a deep lush chorus effect, almost always used combined with the Boss TR-2 tremolo) ->> NUX Tape Core Deluxe (Roland Space Echo tape delay emulation) ->> Zoom G1Xon (exclusively used for reverb effects, which are as follows:: a very subtle, always on, main plate reverb :-: a more prominent plate + hall reverb :-: a thick lush plate + hall + tape delay reverb :-: and finally an extremely thick and lush reverb pad used with volume swells consisting of plate + hall + tape delay reverb) ->> Zoom G1 Four (exclusively used as an always on EQ, utilizing five 1 band fully parametric equalizers to fine tune the tone by boosting the 63Hz, 200Hz, 250Hz, 400Hz, and 1khz frequency bands +1 to +2 dB) ->> Zoom MS-70CDR (used exclusively as an always on faux cab sim, made by staking five 2 band parametric equalizers in an always on patch, boosting and cutting different frequencies) ->> Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC100 (tube preamp)) ->> M-Audio Fast Track (audio interface) Utilizing of course all the always on effects (in [bold] letters in the above signal chain description) on this recording, as well as the Mosky Black Rat, RAT clone distortion, and my NUX Tape Core Deluxe, Roland Space Echo tape delay emulation. The bass tuned in D standard tuning, as in 3 half steps above regular 6 string bass B standard tuning, or 2 half steps bellow regular 4 string bass E standard tuning, and strung accordingly. And pickup blend on bass about 20% neck/80% bridge, active preamp EQ set with [Treble] boosted till around 2 o'clock, [Mids] boosted till around 1 o'clock, [Bass] left flat.

The Statue Got Me High (by They Might Be Giants)

Here you can hear me noodling on the bass, recorded directly through the setup described bellow with absolutely nothing done to it post production, not even compression and first take : [Video deleted, see update!] Signal chain : 6 string Ibanez SR306EB bass (strung with gauge .105 - .080 - .060 - .045 - .032 - .024 D'Addario XL nickle roundwound steel strings, tuned in D1 standard tuning, 3 half steps above B standard 6 string bass tuning) ->> TC Electronic SpectraComp (always on compressor) ->> TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini (always on digital polyphonic octaver, used as an 1 octave up effect mixed with clean bass signal, giving an effect similar to that of an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings) ->> Behringer SF300 Super Fuzz (Boss FZ-2/Univox Super Fuzz clone, octave fuzz, set to [Mode 1]) ->> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ={ [Loop A Send] (empty effects loop used as clean {bass+octave up} signal blend for the RAT distortion in parallel effects loop [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> Mosky Black Rat (RAT clone, in [Vintage] classic original RAT mode, quite raunchy high gain distortion, mixed with the clean {bass+octave up} signal from parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an about 40/60 ratio) }=>> Boss LS-2 [A+B Mix <-> Bypass] (always on, parallel effect loops mixer/switch) ={ [Loop A Send] ->> Joyo Orange Juice (low gain overdrive, with some highs cut via the tone knob, always stacked into the flanger in front of it) ->> Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (currently basically just functioning as an additional buffer) ->> Monarch MFL-22 (flanger, always used with the Orange Juice behind it stacked into it, and most often used mixed with phaser in parallel effects [Loop B]) ->> [Loop A Return] ->||<- [Loop B Send] ->> Behringer VP1 Vintage Phaser (EHX Small Stone clone, used in the high feedback and deep sweep mode, almost always used mixed with flanger in parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> Joyo Orange Juice (always on, relatively low gain, overdrive, [Tone] set at about 11 o'clock, [Voice] set to boost a wide curve around a 800Hz center frequency about +3dB pre gain stage, always mixed with the clean {bass+octave up} signal from parallel effects [Loop A]) ->> [Loop B Return] ([Loop A] + [Loop B] mixed at an about 50/50 ratio) }=>> Boss TR-2 (tremolo, almost always used combined with the chorus effect in front of it) ->> TC Electronic Shaker (Vibrato blended with clean signal, via the Toneprint editor, functioning as a deep lush chorus effect, almost always used combined with the Boss TR-2 tremolo) ->> NUX Tape Core Deluxe (Roland Space Echo tape delay emulation) ->> Zoom G1Xon (exclusively used for reverb effects, which are as follows:: a very subtle, always on, main plate reverb :-: a more prominent plate + hall reverb :-: a thick lush plate + hall + tape delay reverb :-: and finally an extremely thick and lush reverb pad used with volume swells consisting of plate + hall + tape delay reverb) ->> Zoom G1 Four (exclusively used as an always on EQ, utilizing five 1 band fully parametric equalizers to fine tune the tone by boosting the 63Hz, 200Hz, 250Hz, 400Hz, and 1khz frequency bands +1 to +2 dB) ->> Zoom MS-70CDR (used exclusively as an always on faux cab sim, made by staking five 2 band parametric equalizers in an always on patch, boosting and cutting different frequencies) ->> Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC100 (tube preamp)) ->> M-Audio Fast Track (audio interface) Utilizing of course all the always on effects (in [bold] letters in the above signal chain description) on this recording, as well as the Mosky Black Rat, RAT clone distortion, and my NUX Tape Core Deluxe, Roland Space Echo tape delay emulation. Pickup blend on bass about 20% neck/80% bridge, active preamp EQ set with [Treble] boosted till around 2 o'clock, [Mids] boosted till around 1 o'clock, [Bass] left flat. Edit!!! : Since I made this recording I have rolled the pickup balance slightly more towards the neck pickup, so it instead of being something like 5% neck 95% bridge it is now more like 20% neck and 80%bridge, which gives a slightly warmer and rounder tone that doesn't drown as easily in harmonic content from the strings being all over, like on this recording, which ironically caused it to be somewhat muddy (or blurry), just in the treble register instead of the lower frequency register, as is what you traditionally would expect to cause mud, but while still retaining a lot of the same snappy aggressiveness as in the recording above, just much clearer and defined, though slightly warmer and rounder as well. I also changed the my RAT clone from being in "Turbo" Rat (diode clipping) mode, to "Vintage" classic RAT mode, which makes the distortion blend in much more nicely with the clean signal, and removes a lot of the really low end mud from the distorted tone that the above recording suffers from whenever the distortion is being used. I might make a new recording with these improved settings at some point, but for now you'll have to imagine the changes. Update!!! : So here's the new audio test of the bass is using the new settings (signal chain description above edited as well to match the new settings) :

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra :

1.000.000 Died to Make This Sound (by Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra)

The best must be my first 6 string bass ever, the Ibanez SR306EB in Weathered Black finish that I got home just before Chritmas, and which has become my main in that very short time span. Such a great bass, and not just for the money. I am seriously in love with it. Feels really nice to play after I got used to the wider fretboard (compared to the 4's I am used to), and sounds no short of amazing as well. : The worst must be one of those couple of phaser effect pedals that I returned, among them a TC Electronic Helix phaser, before settling with an ultra cheap Behringer VP1 Vintage Phaser, which is a pretty accurate clone of the original big box EHX Small Stone phaser, unfortunately including the volume drop of the original when engaged, though I've found ways to work around that, otherwise it sounds amazing.

All the Pretty Little Horses (traditional that among others Current 93 has recorded several versions of)

Mister Would You Please Help My Pony? (by Ween)

Seems like it was likely the Dimarzio Model P pickup i had installed as the only pickup in my Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro bass, cause the tone seems to be consistent with my new 6 string Ibanez SR306EB bass. I also tried resoldering the P pickup in my Mikro with no results, so seems like it really is the actual pickup that's somehow faulty and not just bad soldering.

In Memory of the Truth (by Coil)

Nick Drake - "Three Hours" from his debut album "Five Leaves Left", 1969 :

Third Uncle (by Brian Eno)

I am sure the people who make DI boxes with this purpose in mind have thought of that and taking account for it. It's not like converting a hot signal to less hot signal is magic or even all that advanced technology. It's fairly common practice.

For everyone who doesn't want their amp just to be a glorified stage monitor, and I would think that would at least include those people who still bother dragging a tube amp with them to gigs, getting the actual tone that their amps produce would be by far to prefer. In fact why bring an amp at all if you are not going to use it anyway, and would be as good off with a regular stage monitor.

Can't see how that would be more difficult to understand than for example a post EQ DI out from the preamp of your amp, or even just a DI box placed between your bass and your amp input, sending the signal of your bass untouched through to the input of your amp and a line output level to a mixer.

Yes, but then you wouldn't get the tone of your amp, which is the whole point in doing it the other way. Some DI boxes are designed to be able to handle a speaker level signal, so you can place them between the speaker out and the speakers of the amp.

Dropout Boogie (by Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band)