alexclaber

[quote name='Zoe_BillySheehan' post='92028' date='Nov 21 2007, 10:30 AM']pinky? [/quote] Only in America. This here thang that we're talkin' 'bout is the lil' finger y'all... Alex

Nice work! Alex P.S. Remember you have another finger on your left hand that can be rather useful...

I find it is really hard to think about music when I'm thinking about gear... Alex

Glad to have been of help! I've just moved house and now my computer is no longer in the corner of a room the el cheapo speakers have gone from sounding tolerable to horribly thin and bottomless - damned boundary reinforcement or lack thereof... Alex

I suspect some of the confusion lies in tracks being recut for TV/film over in LA, in which case Ms Kaye may have honestly believed she was doing the original recording. It is all rather bizarre because to my ears some of these recordings are so obviously done by Jamerson... Alex

Superficially that looks like a lot of amp for the money! Alex

Well in that case I think you'll find it an excellent little rig. Although the Low-B2 is a pretty inefficient cab it makes up for that by being able to handle all the power you'll have to throw at it, whilst the alternative 1x12" or 2x10" cabs you're considering will go louder with fewer watts but will fart out in the lows long before the LMKII runs out of juice. I find it really weird playing through other cabs nowadays - I find myself wondering where all the bottom has gone and despite that why do they sound so muddy? And with the USD where it is now it is a stupidly good deal! Alex

It depends on how stupidly loud your new drummer is! A Low-B2 will go loud but there will be some drummers that are just too much for it. When you say your guitarist was pushing his 150W Marshall to the limit, what are we talking? A 150W s/s 1x12" combo or a 150W valve head on a 4x12". If it's the latter there is no hope of any mini rig being loud enough... Alex

I didn't so much advise against it on technical grounds as try to protect your wallet from the ravages of GAS! I don't see a problem using the pair together as long as the 1x12" is always stacked on top so you hear it shifting from growling to farting when it does get pushed too hard. To be honest more speakers are almost always better because you usually increase both the sensitivity and the power handling of the system. Alex

Last words: [url="http://www.acmebass.com/index.html"]http://www.acmebass.com/index.html[/url] [url="http://www.acmebass.com/forum/andy_lewis_on_horns.htm"]http://www.acmebass.com/forum/andy_lewis_on_horns.htm[/url] Alex

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='77145' date='Oct 20 2007, 10:02 PM']Let me refresh your memory: "[i]My question is, unless they are flat out lying, there must be some aspect of truth to the "published specs" of the major cab makers. Does anyone know how they can legally get away with these specs?"[/i]-Kramer- [b] [i]"...they are flat out lying... "[/i] This is indeed the case. Alex[/b] __________________ [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=371215"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=371215[/url] How incongruous.[/quote] That statement of mine was with reference to the vast majority of cab makers, not Acme. I didn't reply at greater length because I've stated my view so many times. If you care to search for any of my other posts on talkbass on this subject then you'll see my view is consistent. I have heard anecdotal evidence from trustworthy bassists that have run accurate analysis on Acme cabs that supports the response claims. To put this matter to bed I will carry out some analysis of my own cabs once I have the facilities sorted. Until then I will enjoy that they are very small, sound very nice and go plenty loud enough and have served me well for many years. I believe your plots do tell an interesting story which is not that far from reality - however it is far enough that it may cause inaccurate perceptions of the speakers from those who have yet to hear them. And as I've said a number of times it is only an SPL plot - it does not tell you anything about the real peak and continuous SPLs available at the various frequencies, which is the only fair way to compare such dissimilar designs, especially with the cheap and lightweight high power amps now available. Alex

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='77004' date='Oct 20 2007, 03:47 PM']The one thing I'll credit Andy for is he's not lacking in the hubris department. I for one would not be bragging on the fact that I hadn't made any advances in my designs since 1993, or that the only measurements ever made of them had only one octave resolution.[/quote] The designs have evolved subtly over the years but the woofer has remained unchanged. But so has Hoffmann's law so I wonder why you're suggesting the woofer should have changed? [quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='77004' date='Oct 20 2007, 03:47 PM']As for the rest, it's not worth dignifying with a response, nor is it appropriate for this arena, and I apologize to Basschat for getting caught in the middle.[/quote] Would you be being caught in the middle if you hadn't posted such speculative plots without any solid evidence? Hubris indeed... Alex

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='76721' date='Oct 19 2007, 08:27 PM']I think the point Alex was making is that its all a question of taste, at the end of the day.[/quote] Actually I was making the point that it's not so much taste as how you decide to balance your compromises - do you want bass extension, sensitivity or compactness. Gain on one, you lose on the other two, or vice versa. [quote name='synaesthesia' post='76728' date='Oct 19 2007, 09:03 PM']I think he is defending his ownership and choice of said cabs more than anything. I respect than an Acme sounds smoother than most 2 way designs, but then hey, my own design 3 way cabs with a 1X12, 1X6 and a peerless horn tweeter that i have beeen gigging with since the mid 90s sounds smoother than most 2 way bass cabs too. But he claims they are 'flat' to his sharp ears, without measurement. I think that you'll find most 3 way cabs would sound flatter than your average 2 way cab with a tweeter and high distortion.[/quote] I don't base my judgements solely on how bass sounds through them - in fact I don't believe playing an instrument through a speaker is very enlightening as its too easy for you to intuitively change your technique to adjust for any deficiencies. I have played quite a lot of recorded music through the Acmes and they have proved outstandingly transparent, better than most hi-fi speakers and many studio monitors. You hear all sorts of things which would normally be hidden. The midrange driver and its associated crossover circuitry gives amazingly detailed response and the bass response is deep and tight. [quote name='synaesthesia' post='76728' date='Oct 19 2007, 09:03 PM']Do the Acmes go deeper than any other design? Without comparative measurements it is a moot point.[/quote] That's something I hope to rectify in the future, once I have both suitable equipment and a space to take accurate measurements. [quote name='synaesthesia' post='76728' date='Oct 19 2007, 09:03 PM']What is probably not reflected in this argument of mine goes deeper than yours is that that tonal characteristics of electric bass guitar actually does not need to, nor for the most part want to go that deep and in most cases does not produce a flat response down to 40hz.[/quote] Apart from the 'mine goes deeper than yours' thing, it's also the 'mine has more output that yours where it counts'. Just as you say a lot of electric bass sound is in the 60-100Hz region so the Acmes produce more output in that region than most bass cabs when given enough power. The Omni 15 certainly performs very well in that area but the Omni 10 does not do anywhere near as well. In my experience having deeper bass extension is rarely a bad thing as it allows you to have a fuller bigger bass sound without obscuring the kick drum (which tends to sit a little higher around the 80Hz mark) and is unlikely to cause boom as that usually lives higher up (~150Hz). The killer is trying to get too much low bass from speakers that cannot handle it, causing hugely increased distortion and therefore creating extra unwanted output in that nasty boomy region higher up. Alex

I believe Gary Willis uses the DB750 into three GS112s, so you're in good company with the 3x12" approach! Alex

And some more from Andy: "Talkbass, basstalk- it doesn't matter. Also, it doesn't matter how many potential customers see any of it. The truth has a way of surviving, and the cream still rises to the top. A "variant" of the BP102? What the hell is that supposed to mean? I saw a "variant" of an honest webpage yesterday. I had an email exchange with a "variant" of an honest man. Just to clarify- I have never had anything against Bill Fitzmaurice. He designs the type of stuff I was doing in high school. I liked it then, and I like it now. I like the K-horns, the La Scalas,the A7's, Patricians, the JBL Paragon, the Community Leviathan, and all that stuff. I like the AR3, the Altec 311-90, the 515-B. In short I have a love of loudspeakers, old and new. I like the stuff that's antique, and the stuff that's cutting edge. I love the Heil AMT, the KLH 9, Yamaha NS1000, and everything Tannoy ever made, going back over 50 years. I like ferrite, alnico, and neo. That is the sense in which I am speaking when I say "I love that stuff Bill makes." I really do. I think it's extremely cool. Obsolete, silly, over the top, to be sure, but extremely cool. I have never had a desire to describe it that way, and I don't particularly now, but since he has chosen to misrepresent my stuff in an effort to promote his own, I think it's appropriate to, for a moment, abandon my "live and let live-there's enough room for everybody" stance. Build some of that stuff. I certainly have. Have fun with it. I did. Speakers can be a great hobby. But I guarantee you. After you've had your fun, and it's time to reproduce sound in the real world, you will always come back to the tried and true, and the designs which can be justified in terms of physics, which those silly folded horns cannot. If they could, they wouldn't be in the realm of the hobbiest only. They would be ubiquitous in the hands of people who depend on their sound equipment to make a living, as well. But these folded "bass" horns are conspicuous only in their absense. And FYI, I designed the original B-2 using an Apple IIGS, Appleworks software, and a handheld 10-band real time analyzer in 1992 and 1993. I didn't have the capability of printing out a curve of any type then, and I don't give a damn now. I have rave reviews, thousands of happy customers in every corner of the globe who have other stuff to worry about, and I have neither the time nor the desire to justify my efforts to every pinhead with a website and an audio generator who chooses to tell lies about my work for reasons of his own. I'm sort of doing other stuff. That circuit board pattern that I sent you, and the component lists associated with it, for example, represent a design period equivalent to that which would be required to design about 6-7 folded horns. It exists in a world so far over the head of BF as to be all but unimaginable to him." Alex

I'll reply to those other posts later, but here's some more thoughts from Andy Lewis: [url="http://www.acmebass.com/"]http://www.acmebass.com/[/url] "1. Can you buy the special Acme woofer off-the-shelf? We use a custom made Eminence woofer in our Low-B systems. We don't sell the woofers separately, and we demand the return of the blown ones when we ship replacements. Some people have assumed that this is the woofer known as the Eminence Legend model# BP102, which looks a lot like the custom woofer we use. When Eminence sent me their CD catalog last year, I was alarmed to see such a similar looking woofer being made available to the public. Not only was I assured by Eminence that this was not the case, but I have since had an opportunity to hold the BP102 in my hand, and examine it, at the NAMM show in Austin last summer. I can assure you the BP102 has a different cone, a different magnet structure, and probably a different voice coil. I didn't take it apart. I have no doubt that the BP102 is a good woofer, but it's different. Despite some outward physical similarities, the Acme woofer and the Eminence BP102 are very different woofers. Anyone saying otherwise is either ignorant or dishonest, or both. Any response curve based on a BP102 will not be at all indicative of the performance of a genuine Acme Low-B unit. Don't believe everything you see on the internet. If you want an Acme Low-B system, there's only one place to get it. And unfortunately, you can't buy the woofers to make it yourself." Alex

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='76223' date='Oct 18 2007, 10:08 PM']Certainly that's possible, you should open yours up and see. But even if that's the case there's only so much leeway with what's possible from a box of a certain size, irrespective of what's inside. Hoffman's Iron Law applies to everyone.[/quote] Yes it does, including to the Omni 10 which sacrifices internal volume to fit the short horn therefore making it less capable of deep bass than a simple ported box of equal external dimensions. Unlike the usual marketing specsmanship the Acme specs do not play comical games with the laws of physics - the cabs are small, the bass response goes low but the sensitivity is also low. Hoffman's is not denied. However, the box is optimised to do what it does best. I don't believe any other bass cab on the market or any DIY design can achieve the same deep bass response and accurate mids and highs from such a small enclosure. Yes it does take more power to reach a given SPL but I have seen time and time again that these cabs can handle the power and will thus go louder in the real world than the sensitivity plus thermal power handling would suggest. That Omni 10 with BP102s is 3dB down by about 58Hz. No worse than many 2x10" cabs but nothing like what the Acmes achieve. It's also -6dB by about 50Hz - even further removed from the Acme response. As I said before, apples and oranges, or more like horses for courses. You know perfectly well yourself that a speaker cabinet has to be optimised for whatever speakers are used it, so why you're claiming that you can throw some BP102s into an Omni 10 - which works far better with 2510s - and suddenly have a magic cab that beats an Acme hands down is baffling. Alex

Just to add a little more information to this discussion, apparently the Acme woofer is not based on the BP102 as it has not only a different cone but also a different magnet structure. From what I've seen from messing with BP102s in WinISD Pro you need a much larger cab volume to achieve the same LF output as the Acmes, so merely loading an Omni 10 with them won't achieve that low frequency output, and even then they only have about 75% of the Xmax of the Acme woofer. And as you say you'd need a midrange driver which the Omni 10 doesn't have if you want to get that big bottom and good midrange from a small cab. And as the Omni 10 is tuned to 50Hz then it won't reach as low whatever woofer you put in. Apples and Oranges. Alex

Experiment with where in the room you are standing to use the acoustics in your favour. Alex

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='75999' date='Oct 18 2007, 02:04 PM']Posting actual measured reponse charts, or not doing so, is Andy's perogative, but if he's all that concerned about how his work is being represented then he should remove all possible doubt.[/quote] I agree - the sound is so clean and extended in both directions without any obvious peaks or troughs to my fairly sharp ears that I'm sure they'd plot out very well indeed. Of course the frequency response plots don't tell the whole story by any means - how much more peak power can the Acmes handle in the lows and thus how loud can they get? In my experience if you want that kind of bottom you're not going to find anything louder that is as small. If you're doubling up with two Low-B2s then I think the Omni 15TB will get close enough to that kind of response to satisfy my needs for bottom but I can't see an Omni 10 or two being quite as satisfying. Also if you're just using the one cab and are comparing a Low-B2 to an Omni 10, the latter is significantly larger and although more sensitive cannot put out that big deep bottom. Alex

Just finishing off the artwork for our first release - what do we need to state on the CD and packaging regarding copyright and so on? Alex

The view from Andy: "I was wondering where he got one of my drivers, and assuming he had the right driver, what he used for parameters, and how he might have arrived at a box volume for running any type of simulation. (I discussed with you the notion of a "virtual volume," which can be vastly different that that measured with a ruler.) I hope this curve isn't flying around the internet as any kind of a true representation of my work. Clearly it's not. Or to put it differently: 1. different woofer 2. different midrange 3. different tweeter 4. different crossover 5. different tuning 6. different enclosure Same result?" Alex

Just checking out the masters - sounding good so far! Alex

[quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='75105' date='Oct 16 2007, 03:49 PM']The fastest easiest and most accurate tuner I have is the Planet Waves SOS that shines two red LEDs either side of the harmonic node at the 12th fret.[/quote] I actually went into the shop to get one of those but they didn't have the bass version in stock. The shop assistants were rather unconvinced by the guitar version but I did have a feeling that it would work really well on bass - I may pick one up as a back-up in future. The Crafter clip-on definitely works better on more resonant (usually more expensive) instruments. I've noticed that I can clip in anywhere onto my Warwick and it tracks well. Alex

[quote name='Bassman7' post='75060' date='Oct 16 2007, 01:59 PM']I've got their new StroboFlip and its great with a stand attachment and clip on tuning sensor bundled in the kit. Strobomundo!![/quote] I was quite interested in one of those until I saw the price! I've managed to justify having a less than 100% accurate tuner by considering that it only takes a bit of extra pressure on the frets to change the tuning anyway... At home I always practise unplugged so this is a godsend and it'll allow me muted tuning at the gig by turning my bass's volume knob to zero. I tested it out thoroughly in the shop with a cheapish five string - I had forgotten how poor the tuning stability of some basses is, it was all over the place! Though as it was a Fieldy signature model maybe that ties in with his "if the groove is phat then the notes don't matter" view. Alex