Phil Starr

Thanks for all the input, The outcome was he went straight for the top, she is about to get a Shure KSM9! Just a bit more than £200. I've really enjoyed reading up on all you suggestions though. Me, nerdy? Surely (Shurely) not?

Thanks for all the suggestions. I hadn't considered Heil or Beyer so I'll look into those tonight. I'm increasingly thinking of going for a condenser though, the lighter diaphragm does automatically make it easier to make a decent mic and i love the airiness of the sound, even if it isn't for me. The Shure87 is looking interesting. any other condensers people have tried?

[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1367784032' post='2069465'] I changed the speakers in a cab..because I couldn't get replacements.. and I used 2510's I don't think this worked in my case. Whether this just wasn't a great match or whether I just don't like NEO, I am not sure, but I liked the cab with the original speakers far more. [/quote] If you still have them let us know the cab size and I'll see if I can make some suggestions. Neo is just the magnet by the way, it doesn't have a 'sound', that depends upon which model.

As one of the aforementioned techies I'd add a few things. The Basslites weren't a bad match for this cab so they were always going to be OK. They are also good speakers.The cabinet matching only affects the frequencies covered by the bass tone control and lefrash could probably tighten up the sound in this area by re-tuning thee ports and it might well improve his cabs power handling. However he might be fine as most bass speakers have similar resonant frequencies. Cheapo speakers save by having tiny magnets. swapping for more powerful magnets is going to make the speakers louder. Swapping for decent speakers can have the same effect as anything between doubling and having ten times the amp power. If lefrash gets time he should try wiring the basslites in parallel. He could probably leave his 15 at home then.

Help, a friend is buying a new vocal mic for his wife, and has asked me to recommend something. this is way beyond my pocket, I think SM58's are expensive, So I'm struggling to come up with a shortlist. She's obviously a female singer with an alto voice, She isn't very loud and tends to hold the mic about 5cm away from her mouth. The SM58 really doesn't suit her by the way, We play loud enough for feedback to be a bit of a problem. The short list of dynamics I've come up with is: [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Audix OM5 [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Senny E945 [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]AKG D7 [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Shure Beta57 [/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=Verdana, Arial, sans-serif][size=3]Electrovoice ND967 [/size][/font][/color] Has anyone direct experience of these or better still able to suggest some Condensers to consider? £200 or even a little more, what a great problem to have.

Don't worry about the complications, once you have a system that works for you then you'll set up that way every time (well until you get bored enough to try something else) . When listening get well back from the speakers. If the subs are 1m from the tops you want to be at least 10m back, Just to add one more possibility, probably to try later [url="http://totalproaudio.stevebunting.com/206/system-design/aux-fed-subs/"]http://totalproaudio.stevebunting.com/206/system-design/aux-fed-subs/[/url]

Now I'm not really disagreeing with Stevie but it depends upon the size of the venue. When we play small places I often run our subs in parallel with no crossover for the subs but that's a bit lazy really. You'll usually get a better sound if you keep the bass well away from your tops. Lots of bass pushes the speakers so that the coil starts to move out of the magnet and the speakers then distort, keeping the bass out avoids this. Your Yammie 115's will start to distort at less than 100W if the bass goes really low, with a 120Hz crossover they should handle peaks well in excess of 350W. If the venue is small there is less of an issue as your power levels will stay low. Unless you have an external crossover you'll have to use the crossovers built into your amps.

Without having figures to hand it is about efficiency. Your 15 will be taking twice as much power as the 2x10 but the 2x10's could easily be 3dB louder for each watt you put in which would make them equally loud. Our ears are also much more sensitive to higher frequencies so that if you have more mids and top end the new speakers will be what you hear best. pleased you like the sound

If the cabs are ported then when you put the new speakers in measure the inside of the cab and any ports and I'll calculate any re-tuning you need to do.

You are going to find that nearly all speakers are designed as 8ohm units. The few that are offered as 4 or 15 are often not good because changing the coil necessitates a redesign of the whole speaker and the expense is rarely justified. You might find that the basslites are louder than your original speakers though and good enough for most gigs on their own. Unless you want to risk this though it is back to the drawing board

[quote name='dincz' timestamp='1366988395' post='2059992'] It's early days but I've been running an EPQ900 for a few months (not class D but has SMPS). It seems sturdy and well put together. It blows air out of the left side which might be a problem in a rack case if run full tilt for long periods. I had the opportunity to turn it up last weekend and the available clean volume is disappointing. It runs into output limiting (sounds more like clipping to me) at a lower volume than the Samson Servo 300 it replaced. It's supposedly 580W "RMS" bridged into an 8 ohm load but doesn't seem to have the same wallop as the Samson under the same conditions. The EPQ's level is set to maximum and I'm controlling volume with the preamp's output level control so I'm confident it's not input clipping. I realised later I was running with my preamp's HPF switched off so will try again this weekend with the filter on. Maybe there's a lot of subsonic stuff driving it close to clipping. TBA. [/quote] Be good to hear how you get on with trying that [quote name='King Tut' timestamp='1367020538' post='2060481'] I bought an inuke power amp that packed up at a gig after a couple of months. Got a replacement and need to get over my nerves and start using it! [/quote] That's a shame, the iNuke was doing well up to then. Who did you deal with over a replacement? Any problems with getting it replaced/fixed?

Oh, which part of the country do you live, if you are based in the west country i might have some speakers you could try

those basslites look ok [url="http://www.eminence.com/pdf/Basslite_S2010.pdf"]http://www.eminence.com/pdf/Basslite_S2010.pdf[/url] there's quite a hump in the midrange which should give them a bit of punch and you'll be putting them into too small a box which will give them a bass peak too. Xmax (excursion) is ok at 4mm. They'll be a lot better than what you have probably and you'll lose a noticeable amount of weight.

Everyone is changing to switching(digital) amps with switch mode supplies including Behringer. They've had a poor reputation for reliability for some of their gear but their old PA, EP Series amps have proven to be very reliable. Some of their early digital stuff less so, though some forums put this down to poor connectors rather than the circuitry. Has anyone any direct experience with any of their new amps? The iNuke, EPQ and EPX series amps?

Try out your combo with extension speakers. If you find some you like the sound of then look inside to see what they use. One of the problems with this sort of upgrade is that you don't know what you are going to get until after you have spent your money. though i notice the DIY 15 in your gear so you already know this. I'll warn you now some people will come on and tell you speaker design is impossibly complex and speakers have to be matched to cabs. That's only partly true, Speakers have to be matched to cabs to get the best out of them but a lot of speakers are close enough in design to allow a bit of leeway and the software available makes design changes easier. A speaker giving less than its best can also sound OK. Speakers from Fane,Celestion and Eminence can all be good (or poor if you choose the wrong ones) and the Eminence beta has been redisigned recently and looks interesting, make sure you get the updated one though. People here are very generous with their time and if you measure the inside dimensions of your cab someone will tell you if a speaker you suggest will work in your cab and if you need to change the ports.

First of all the relationship between watts and sound level is slightly complex. Our ears pick up quiet sounds really well but have to cope with sounds a million times louder so they work on doubling the sound level only giving a small increase in the volume we hear. (actually 3dB) So, increasing the amps output from 500W to 1000W only gives you a small but noticeable increase in sound. To go from 750W to 950W is just about going to be a noticeable 1dB increase. Run one speaker a side. You did want stereo anyway, right? The amps power is limited by two things. The voltage swing it can provide and the power of the power supply inside the amp. Let's imagine your amp can swing 32Volts, the voltage squared divided by the resistance gives the power so that is 1024/8 or 128W for 8ohm speakers and 1024/4 or 256 for 4ohm speakers. You get double the power into half the ohms theoretically. So why doesn't your Yamaha give 1500 into 4ohms? The other limit is the amount of current your power supply can give. Twice the power demands twice the current and sooner or later the transformer inside your amp reaches its limit. in your case this is when the impedance drops below 8ohms. In fact the current limiting tends to be slow, the power supply might be able to provide a high current for a fraction of a second so your amp may give peaks well in excess of the 950W into 4ohms. In truth your 750W a side amp is probably going to be more than loud enough for any gig you play and you have bought something you can plug in and let run without worrying.

I think the S115V's used the eminence 2" bolt on driver for most of their life, Whatever it is they give a great vocal sound [url="http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=EMIPSD3006&browsemode=manufacturer"]http://www.bluearan.co.uk/index.php?id=EMIPSD3006&browsemode=manufacturer[/url] you should be able to buy a new diaphragm for them if it is blown which is a lot cheaper than replacing the whole unit.

If it is quoting that sensitivity then it probably has a short voice coil and correspondingly short excursion, not really designed for bass. Because they are moving components and therefore wear out old speakers are not a good bet for longevity, especially if you push them hard. Don't spend a fortune on this speaker, the best use for it is in restoring vintage gear probably, it might be fun to see how it sounds but it isn't going to make a gigging bass speaker.

Hi Chris, you shouldn't damage your speakers. The usual thing with PA is to buy plenty of power with your amps because the idea is to have no distortion coming from these. Since the distortion mainly comes at the peaks then make sure the amps can more than go above the speaker handling. Amps and speakers are rated differently anyway, even though they are both RMS watts. The speaker rating is for how much heat it can disperse if the power is applied continuously, and the amp for how much undistorted power it can produce. Because all music has peaks and troughs the amps average power is likely to be 100th of its peak output, in practice your 1000W amp may only be averaging 10W into the speaker so it is unlikely to overheat. If you run into distortion however then this puts a lot of power into the horns and these are the bits that blow. This is the only case where a low powered amp is more likely to blow your speaker than a high power one by the way. Fortunately your S115's have a built in protection for the horns so you won't blow these either. If you want to be completely safe then you can by a compressor/limiter which can be set to prevent any damaging peaks reaching the speakers, but I don't think this will be a problem unless you start playing really big venues. You are far more likely to blow peoples eardrums than your speakers with this set up! Yamaha is a good choice by the way.

I've had five of these so far, three straight and one angled. I've had two failures, both the straight ones and both failed to reconnect though the ring still moved freely in both cases. I've never had so much as a pop out of them though, totally silent in my experience. I really like them so I've just replaced them and i carry plenty of spare leads so no problem. Neutrik really ought to have a look though if 30%ish are failing in fairly short time spans

It's one of those irregular verbs possibly: bassists think it is expressing yourself within the rhythm Guitarists think it is expressing yourself without any rhythm Drummers think phrasing is for cissies

[quote name='julietgreen' timestamp='1363445704' post='2012836'] Play with other musicians. [/quote] This is the best advice here and it's all good advice. I couldn't play that well and people pay me to play bass and there's even the odd musician who asks me to join their band. There's nothing much wrong with your playing, You are easily good enough to get behind a band, it's a different skill to the one you have developed but you'll be great. You'll have so much fun.

Great question particularly as I argued with my drummist about not giving me space to phrase properly a couple of days ago. Sudden panic that I didn't know what it meant. For me it is about the emphasis you place on certain notes and the slight pauses and early entries you make when playing. The bits that you can't quite write down in music notation. Nervously I looked it up... [b]Phrasing[/b][color=#000000][font=sans-serif][size=3] refers to an expressive shaping of music, and relates to the shaping of notes in time. Phrasing relates to the manner of playing the individual notes of a particular group of [/size][/font][/color][i]consecutive[/i][color=#000000][font=sans-serif][size=3] notes; and the way they are weighted and shaped relative to one another. It does not refer to the idealised [/size][/font][/color][url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value"]note values/durations[/url][color=#000000][font=sans-serif][size=3] as represented in sheet music; but to the multitude of deviations that the performer needs to make from sheet music, if a performance is to be expressive, in a particular style and culturally aware. An example may be an acceleration of a group of notes, but there are many more. This shaping of notes is creatively performed by the musician with the aim of expressing (feelings), and can be distinguished by the listener - not only factually, but in music, as emotional expression.[/size][/font][/color] [color=#000000][font=sans-serif][size=3] :)Phew[/size][/font][/color][color=#000000][font=sans-serif][size=3] [/size][/font][/color]

You are talking about wrist angle and i think your plucking hand. I play a Jazz but just bought a Thunderbird, just about as different as you can get but it made me realise different instruments sit differently on your body. The T'bird sits well to the right and twists away from your body, since noticing this I've noticed it to a lesser degree with all basses, which means your hands are at different angles bass to bass. Try adjusting the strap length to get your wrists back into a comfortable, familiar position. As to timing issues, they may not be as bad as you think. The envelope of the note is so different between a pick and fingers, with the attack of the pick at the front edge of the beat followed by a rapid decay. Picked notes have a rounder envelope so you inevitably lose some of the ability to match your front edge with the front edges of kick and snare. You may be hearing the difference between the styles rather than an actual timing issue. Try and record yourself at a gig and listen back when you have some distance from the gig and can be more objective. The other problem with picking is damping the notes, you can't palm mute and you have to deliberately damp with a mixture of both hands. It works the other way too, I always feel really clumsy on the few songs I play with a pick and it never sounds right to me. No-one else notices.

No specific recommendations from me but his is the advice I'd have given myself 6 years ago. Buy a practice amp of 15-30W for its size and convenience or go for a decent second hand combo of 100W+ which you can just stretch to at your budget. So long as you buy a decent brand and check there are no nasty sounds before you buy used bass gear is pretty reliable. There is no point buying a bigger practice amp in the 50-75W range they never sound as good as a 'proper' combo and they won't be loud enough to play along with a drummer. You can turn any amp down to practice levels IMO there is no place for something far too loud for a bedroom and nowhere near enough for proper rehearsal if you are playing with a drummer. The only exception is if you only intend on playing with acoustic acts. Used Trace sounds good and look for used Peavey, reliable and cheap usually. I picked up a Hartke kickback for £125 in mint condition a couple of years back, there are bargains out there.