Ramirez

Ha! You're welcome to borrow one (or two...) if you want to try. I have 2x Camden 500 modules in a small chassis that's not seeing too much use at the moment (another four are in the main studio rack, and the EC1 goes wherever I go to solve all the unpredictable of mic pre/DI/reamping/monitoring problems I face from day to day!). A few days ago it was 'reamping' a real Steinway grand piano through a rotary speaker pedal in an opera recording on location... you can't do with that with all those other great bass preamps !

Great! Hard to know what could be lost from the EC1 though - I've certainly found all the headphone mixer options and inputs useful in various in-ear monitoring scenarios. The CAST is probably a bit redundant for performing bassists so could be dropped... but having said that, I've used that on stage with an N22 too!

Quite. That holds true for any acoustic instrument. But sometimes a pickup is the practical solution if a mic causes other issues. And if I had an upright pickup that gave me that sound I posted, I'd be very happy!

Does this cut your mustard? It's a cheap Harley Benton Beatbass fretless 😁! I fitted a very cheap piezo pickup (not a bass specific one) that I found in the shed, and ran it through an upright IR in Helix. Annoyingly, it sounds more convincing than a pickup on my real upright...

Well, it isn't a double bass at all - it's a cheap Harley Benton Beatbass fretless and a cheap old piezo pickup I found in the shed, though an upright bass IR on a Line 6 Helix. If I'm being honest, I'm unable to get a sound that's nearly as convincing from a pickup with my real upright! - my Krivo pickup sounds more 'electric', and the piezo doesn't work as well either. Ho-hum...

Thanks both. I'll admit, there's a twist in this tale, which is why I'm not yet being specific - I'll wait for a few more opinions on the sound! Aled

Right, I've been messing around with pickups and mic for live use, and I think I've found something decent. Would you be happy sending this sound to FOH? (Mind my intonation 🫢!)

Worth a try, but the 'Cream' setting on the Camden beats most amps for drive for my taste! The 'Thump' is very good on clean bass though - it does something very nice. And try it in conjunction with the HPF - if you use a lot of Thump, the HPF can tame it in a nice way without stealing all your bottom end. It's also a great IEM mixer. I doubt we're a sizeable market for Cranborne, but a bass-specific version would be absolutely brilliant (and would be very appealing to any number of live acoustic instruments too) *Two blendable inputs, with at least one of them switchable between mic and Hi-Z for double bassists (though I think you could do this with an EC2), *Independent Thump and Cream controls (I often use two Camden 500 in series on bass in the studio, one on Thump and one on Cream) *Slightly more gig friendly form factor *9v outputs for tuner/other pedals *Perhaps some extra magic sauce derived from the new Carnaby units (I'm really tempted with the stereo rack version of this for the studio!) The 500 ADAT racks almost tick all the boxes for me too, brilliantly thought out, but a couple of drawbacks makes it unsuitable for my need (mainly that you can't select ADAT as source for the headphone amps, and that there's no independent access to the A/D and D/A stages - everything is tied to the 500 slots.) Aled

Fantastic box - I have an EC1 and 4x Camden 500 preamps. It’s an absolutely wonderful bass preamp ond top of being a top quality mic pre, studio processor, headphone amp, etc etc etc… If I ever start gigging double bass again it will definitely be my rig, be it with a mic or a pickup (though you can’t blend between the two to send to FOH)

Good to hear!

Well yes, that’s exactly the point I’m making. Gain staging is crucial in order to get the best from each stage in the chain. If your peak light is permanently on, then you have too much gain - the light responds to the level going through, not to the actual physical position of the control. You need to set your gain so that the peak light does not come on. If the output is sounding ‘weak’ (can you elaborate on this?) then turn up your monitor volume (or amp, however you use it), or you might need a little gain at the mixing desk to bring it up to operating level there. The gain level will not make your bass sound weak by itself- it’s just to set a healthy working level for your signal, loud enough to be noise-free, and quiet enough to avoid clipping/distortion. It’s not an ‘effect’. If the lights are on, you simply have too much gain.

The entire gain range is there to be used, so that’s no problem. In a well designed circuit the gain does not change your tone (obviously, circuits designed to deliberately overdrive/distort behave differently) It is simply clean gain, designed to optimise your signal level for the next stage. Your gain has a wide range in order to cater for difference in output between different basses, as you’ve found. Just set it accordingly.

Regarding the separate EQ and HPF thing - a quicker/more practical solition might be to apply a HPF to your aux output instead (effectively cutting the lows out of everything in your IEMs, rather than just the bass), and let the FOH subs fill in thay low end, retaining clarity in your IEMs. Less hassle to set up than splitting your bass channel to two channels on the desk, and possibly more effective too.

Quite. Though it did involve a posh new set of strings, as well as a lot of work on the fingerboard, nut, bridge and soundpost. My guess is I'll be brilliant and famous by this time next week then. Happy days.

Well, the bill came out to more than I paid for the bass… in fact it’s more than I’ve ever paid for any instrument… so a new one is not on the cards for a while! Now to take it seriously again… picking it up tomorrow hopefully.