BassInMyFace Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 im always thinking of ways to make life easier for the sound man and make my sound more consistent. slapping these new steel core strings is quite harsh and think is causing soundmen some headaches. clipping, distortion etc..... this then affects my normal "clean" tone as he's reduced my signal to combat slap noise. do people use compressors for DB slapping? i never did on electric bass because i felt it made it a bit lifeless, but in my head now, stomping on a cheapy compressor for slap passages makes sense. does this sound like a decent idea? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
51m0n Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Up until the word cheap I was in a general agreement with you. A well set up good quality rack compressor in the fx loop of your preamp should be able to be set to just limit the transients that are causing you grief, and also allow a bit of general compression to get you level general more even without you feeling the effect on your playing style, in other words if you can feel it or hear it then its too much! You need to address the gain issues all the way down the signal chain though, there is no point compressing something after its caused an issue. If you provide a decent signal to the soundguy, compressed or not, he should then be able to take appropriate action to make it work in the mix (assuming he has enough time in the soundcheck). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Yup, I use a compressor in my FX loop, and most of the time it does nothing. It's only when I start 'bouncing 'em off the board' that it comes into play - it's a bit over specced for what I use it for, but when it's needed it's [i]really[/i] needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulKing Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 I have done - especially with a very hot pickup. I found the Planet Wing pickup sounded great until I slapped, and I needed to roll loads of compression on in the ProPlat preamp to combat it. It did the trick though. That said, I reverted to underwood pickup, and now the slap is beautifully subtle anyway. But whatever you do, steel strigs are going to give you a prominent slap sound amplified. Milty Hinton got away with it by playing acoustic though microphones I guess. Ah .. you said steel 'core' - are you playing Prestos? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassInMyFace Posted June 11, 2012 Author Share Posted June 11, 2012 presto-alikes yes. tried the cheaper option first of some of the new steel core weedwhackers from fleabay. they arent too bad and acoustically have quite a nice click, not too harsh. my technique is probably still playing a part but just feel the slap output gets a bit messy both at the low end and with the click. subtle compression might be a solution. just wondered if it was a "convention" or not. [quote name='PaulKing' timestamp='1339410383' post='1687932'] I have done - especially with a very hot pickup. I found the Planet Wing pickup sounded great until I slapped, and I needed to roll loads of compression on in the ProPlat preamp to combat it. It did the trick though. That said, I reverted to underwood pickup, and now the slap is beautifully subtle anyway. But whatever you do, steel strigs are going to give you a prominent slap sound amplified. Milty Hinton got away with it by playing acoustic though microphones I guess. Ah .. you said steel 'core' - are you playing Prestos? [/quote] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deepbass5 Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 A smileee face EQ helps best, but I find a compressor is required to help even out the two distict different forms of attack slap n pop. the treble can cut through and the thumbed note gets lost, bring up the bass to compensate and it blooms all over everything, a good sound is down to technique and EQ settings on your amp and bass, but put a good comp between you and the Amp can help sort some issues, and is kinder to your amp and speakers. This is from someone who can't slap to save his life. but if i could it would sound good a bit of chorus or flange on the top end can do the bizz too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockabillybob1 Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 get some inovation super silvers they are the best to slap apart from guts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
enricogaletta Posted June 12, 2012 Share Posted June 12, 2012 Using compressor on Slap is always a great idea, just don't overuse it. Maybe you can't hear when you play alone but when you're in the band benefits are always great. Anyway before start to using compressor just work on gain and tone if you have some "issue" with the new strings than start to work with compressors. Cheers. Enrico Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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