Headphone "tone"

[Si600]

No idea what topic name to give this...

Comes under the stupid question heading I suspect, but can you get an accurate idea of how your rig will sound through a headphone out?

I don't want to drag it all home and wait until MDW is out to fire it up at band volume, but not do I particularly want to schlep into the practice room just to muck about with effects anfle buttons if I don't have to.

If I can just bring the head home and play with it there with a sofa and a mug of tea that's much preferable.

[ahpook]

I'd say no.

IME what you get through headphones will not by a long chalk be the sound you get through a speaker.

 

Edited August 13, 2020 by ahpook

[ezbass]

To be fair, dragging your rig out into a small space won’t give you a true representation either. You need space and a good deal of it. ☹️

[ped]

IME, a lot of trial, error and experiences playing the exact same setup in the studio, at home, live and at jam sessions I now feel pretty confident that what I hear through my 'headphone rig' sounds exactly the same as my bass does when recorded. And because I'm so happy with the sound with it in a mix, I've locked that sound in and haven't changed it at all in years. Live I know that the speaker and amp will colour the sound a little but generally my own rigs have been powerful clean sounding rigs and when I borrow one that isn't I know what to adjust to get it sounding as flat as possible, or at least good enough. 

I NEVER play through an amp at home (my Blackstar U500 has barely been used at all) because I don't like the idea that neighbours might hear me plodding away and I couldn't;t concentrate or relax knowing I was making a racket. Plus, everything in the room vibrates with each and every note and finally I don't like hearing the acoustic sound of the instrument 'clacking' away over the top of a quiet amplifier. Using headphones you hear your bass like it's been recorded and nothing else - sure you can add a touch of reverb and 'room tone' but mixed with a floor board/bassboard you get all the 'feel' along with the advantages of being practically silent.

[Lfalex v1.1]

Not at all, I'm afraid. 

Even if all else were equal,  bass cabinets' output are subject to all sorts of environmental (as in room-related) artefacts to which headphones are virtually immune;

Room modes, reverb, reflective/ absorptive surfaces,  whether the floor is solid or hollow, boundary reinforcement...

Some of these can be harnessed to improve your cabs, or EQ'd out as much as possible, but the net result is that headphones can inform your tastes in amplifiers,  but only if you play through the said headphones. I'd expect different preferences if you then switched to using cabs instead. 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Headphones have much flatter and wider response than speakers. The ideal headphone has no coloration, while all bass cabs have some coloration, and most bass cabs have a lot of coloration.

[fretmeister]

Definitely not. I have some nice headphones and even when using my Helix they sound completely different to each other.

My Grado's sound great. My AKG K550 sound like derrière with the same bass settings.

[Nobatron]

If you usually go through a DI at a gig then headphones will give you a better idea of how it will sound through a PA than your bass cab will.

Generally when I practice at home I plug straight into an audio interface and use headphones as I prefer the sound and I don't have to worry about bothering people with it.

Given most of my gigs have PA support and a lot are on in ears headphones probably gives me a closer practice setup than using an amp anyway.

[ezbass]

I think modulation and ambience fx can be set up using 'phones, at least there, or there abouts. Distortion and EQ, not so much IMO. I'd probably add more drive through my rig than I would through the cans. I sometimes use the top half of my Phil Jones rig (4x5) indoors for a better aural perspective, but I know full well that when I add the powered 6x5 extension there is suddenly way more bottom end, even though this rig is pretty flat in its response.

[Dan Dare]

I'd get a little mixer - plenty around for not much used - and use that for headphone practice. Because I run a PA, I use my monitor mixer, but any small mixer will do the job. You can run music into it via the CD/MP3 input and play along with that. Any pedals can be run via the FX loop or a spare channel.

[dave_bass5]

On 13/08/2020 at 19:50, Dan Dare said:

I'd get a little mixer - plenty around for not much used - and use that for headphone practice. Because I run a PA, I use my monitor mixer, but any small mixer will do the job. You can run music into it via the CD/MP3 input and play along with that. Any pedals can be run via the FX loop or a spare channel.

What will the mixer give that the amp wont? It wont give a rig sim, which is really the key to using headphones and having a half decent tone IME. 

My idea would be get a Zoom B1-on, or splash out a few quid more and get a B1-Four. Both are dirt cheap. Both will do the full rig sim in headphones, have loads of effects, drum machine and run off batters. Ideal for the couch sessions. 

 

[karrlander]

Just a thought, I don’t know that much about IR but I have a Nux bass preamp that handles IR. If I could make my own IR of my normal rigg, load it in the pedal and have it affect the DI and headphones but not the amp out I would get as close as possible won’t I? Have to try when I get home in a couple of weeks.

[Dan Dare]

On 15/08/2020 at 23:16, dave_bass5 said:

What will the mixer give that the amp wont? It wont give a rig sim, which is really the key to using headphones and having a half decent tone IME. 

My idea would be get a Zoom B1-on, or splash out a few quid more and get a B1-Four. Both are dirt cheap. Both will do the full rig sim in headphones, have loads of effects, drum machine and run off batters. Ideal for the couch sessions. 

 

I use a mixer because I can run music into it to play/practice along with. I also use one because I have several, so it's cheaper to use what I already have, rather than buying a Zoom, amp sim, etc. I have pretty extensive sound shaping, courtesy of 4 band all parametric eq (which enables me to remove much of the bass part on tracks) and onboard fx, so rig sim not really necessary in my case.

[karrlander]

11 hours ago, Dan Dare said:

I use a mixer because I can run music into it to play/practice along with. I also use one because I have several, so it's cheaper to use what I already have, rather than buying a Zoom, amp sim, etc. I have pretty extensive sound shaping, courtesy of 4 band all parametric eq (which enables me to remove much of the bass part on tracks) and onboard fx, so rig sim not really necessary in my case.

Currently I have a Behringer x-air 18 for my man cave practice. The possibility to mix in different sources, vocal and so on and it’s far superior to a do-it-all pedal. But having some kind of IR-loader in the chain makes it even better. I have a Nux bass preamp that I run in to the mixer and the difference is huge. You can run the Nux preamp as stand alone with headphones out and aux in (witch I do right now, sitting in quarantine in Estonia) but I miss my full setup at home.

[stewblack]

Now that gigging is off the menu I spend more time playing around with effects and such. Like Ped I have my audio exciter built into my (nearly) silent practice rig and headphones which give me a pretty good representation of my bass sound. 

However I have seldom (if ever) produced a sound at home which translates perfectly when I get together with the band. Usually it's the blend between clean and effect is wrong. 

I expect to get better over time. It's just a learning curve really. 

[Cuzzie]

The naked tone (not in a band context) is for me normally not that pleasing to the ears be it headphones or through a speaker - I try to remember it and tweak accordingly - it sort of has to sound wrong to sound right.

For solo practice, I just use a more pleasing tone just to know I have timing, notes etc correct 

[ezbass]

1 minute ago, Cuzzie said:

 

For solo practice, I just use a more pleasing tone just to know I have timing, notes etc correct 

Same here.