Practising without a cabinet...

[Lfalex]

Due to numerous considerations, I've mothballed my various combos/heads/cabs, and moved to a practice set-up using (full size) circumaural closed-back headphones.

It works like so;


[color="#FF0000"]Pre-amp[/color] ( Ampeg, Peavey or Hartke VXL) [color="#00FF00"]DI'ed[/color] to a cheap [color="#FF0000"]Mixer[/color], with an [color="#FF0000"]MP3[/color] player providing accompaniment. Headphones are a pair of [color="#0000FF"]Sennheiser HD251s[/color]

It's superb.
Well, I think so.

[u]The pros; (endless!)[/u]
Low power consumption
Much lower colouration than a bass cabinet
No weird sonic interactions with the room you're playing in
No phase errors between cabinet and other loudspeakers you may be using
It takes up less room
It doesn't disturb anyone
It's quite cheap! The cheapest incarnation costs £250 including Preamp, Mixer, Headphones, Cables and a Power supply.

[u]The cons;[/u]
No real bass you can [i]feel[/i]
Risk of deafness if you go too mad with the volume control
Your ears get hot!
You look like a Cyberman when you practice!

It really has helped improve my playing. I used my combo the other day and just went straight back to the headphone rig again. I can't recommend it enough.
Definitely worth it, even if it's only to get used to headphones for an upcoming studio session.
I'd be tempted to go "in-ear" for gigs after this.

Does anyone else play like this at home? What are your experiences? Can anyone else think of some more pros and cons?

Alex.

[Bloodaxe]

Greets,

I've used a headphone practice setup virtually from the word go & the only real downside I've found is that the bass responds differently in the cans to when run through a rig. There's a few things that work in the cans (pinched/stopped harmonics, dive-bombs etc) that I've yet to nail.

My setup is due for an upgrade, what "cheap mixer" are you using?

Pete.

[ped]

I like practicing with my xt pro and in-ears because I often use them live, and when I play through my amp I go from the xt pro too, so I can get a very similar sound in each environment.

[Lfalex v1.1]

[quote name='Bloodaxe' post='61953' date='Sep 17 2007, 10:41 PM']Greets...
...My setup is due for an upgrade, what "cheap mixer" are you using?

Pete.[/quote]

It's branded "Phonic", and cost me about £80.
It's a "table-top" model, so doesn't fit in a rack, but that's no big deal.
8 channel (4XLRs, and 2 stereo 1/4" jack)
3 band EQ on the first 4 channels
Phantom Power.

It seems very quiet, but can clip a bit too easily on the channel I use for bass if it gets "pushed" by heavy EQ on the instrument itself.
Otherwise, it resolves the differences between instruments very well indeed. Ive tried it with 5 basses so far; an active 5, an active 4, two very different passives and an acoustic (via piezo bridge), all to good effect.

I don't use a compressor ,one [i]may[/i] be next on the list of additions. That, or an Aphex 204 or some similar...

(If you smell Gas, call 0800 9 60 50 40)

[TheRev]

I been using a mixer/headphones set-up when I'm trying to learn a bass part from a recording - you can hear the track better, have more control over the EQ and are less prone to distraction. It's also good when I'm trying to learn a new technique - again you're less prone to distraction.

Sometimes though, if I just want to play to relax then nothing beats plugging into a proper amp and annoying the neighbours.

[Machines]

I usually practise into my V-Amp - mainly to not disturb anyone. I find the tone through it to be reasonably close enough to what I get live as long as I run my EQ flat.

[Pbassred]

[quote]I been using a mixer/headphones set-up when I'm trying to learn a bass part from a recording[/quote]
ditto that. Bass podXT live.
The only drawback is that phones tend to mess with the pitch on bass frequencies.. Some notes just dont sound right.

[ped]

When you get to 'know' your patches and your headphones it is OK as you know what to expect live with the same settings, and it is usually much better. I use E2cs at the moment and find them a little bass light but turning up the bass to compensate can be a little headache inducing over long periods, so as far as hearing the bass detail goes they work pretty well.