Practicing Quietly

[BottomE]

Hi,

having two young kids at home its difficult to get the rig out and use it for practice. This means i am normally practicing the bass without amplification and i have noticed that it is adversely effecting my technique. When i get into a gig or rehearsal with the rig the things that sounded great "acoustically" don't sound so great.

What machines/tools/methods are there that you can recommend that will let me practice effectively?

Thanks.

[phil.i.stein]

[quote name='BottomE' post='724209' date='Jan 25 2010, 04:02 PM']Hi,

having two young kids at home its difficult to get the rig out and use it for practice. This means i am normally practicing the bass without amplification and i have noticed that it is adversely effecting my technique. When i get into a gig or rehearsal with the rig the things that sounded great "acoustically" don't sound so great.

What machines/tools/methods are there that you can recommend that will let me practice effectively?

Thanks.[/quote]
duct tape & handcuffs

[danbowskill]

i have the same problem,i have to simplify my riffs at rehersals as they sound to much(but seem great played without amp).just get a small amp with headphone imputs(sucks but i dont have much choice )

[Tone le Bone]

Get yourself one of these........[url="http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Zoom---B2.1u~ID~4467.asp"]Zoom B2 [/url].......plug in some headphones and you have a multi effects pedal with drum machine and tuner, that you can also take to rehearsals and plug straight into your cabinet with some 50 preset effects and another 40 odd channels to come up with your own! Sarweeeeeeet!

[51m0n]

I use all manner of headphone output devices (Digitech BP8 mainly, but laptop too) for practice.

I find its fine especially with ome good ear buds (Sennheiser C300 are great), and allows such complete concentration and isolation of bass tone/click tracks etc as to mean I get far more done far quicker than a practice 'over air' with an amp.

[tonybassplayer]

Bigger house ??

Impractical probably but it would work

[BottomEndian]

[quote name='BottomE' post='724209' date='Jan 25 2010, 04:02 PM']Hi,

having two young kids at home its difficult to get the rig out and use it for practice. This means i am normally practicing the bass without amplification and i have noticed that it is adversely effecting my technique. When i get into a gig or rehearsal with the rig the things that sounded great "acoustically" don't sound so great.

What machines/tools/methods are there that you can recommend that will let me practice effectively?

Thanks.[/quote]
You've described my life perfectly too. As others have said, something with a headphone output does the job. I use either my Bass POD or my little Marshall practice amp.

The only complication comes with having the two young kids. If they're still using baby monitors (as both of ours are), we just take one each (toddler for me, baby for Mrs Endian) and I stick the receiving unit on my music stand as I practice. If there's a toddler-noise to be heard, the lights on the monitor flash up so I know about it, and everyone's happy. Apart from the toddler, obviously. Waaaaahhhhhh...

[Marvin]

[quote name='Tone le Bone' post='724251' date='Jan 25 2010, 04:36 PM']Get yourself one of these........[url="http://www.soundslive.co.uk/product~name~Zoom---B2.1u~ID~4467.asp"]Zoom B2 [/url].......plug in some headphones and you have a multi effects pedal with drum machine and tuner, that you can also take to rehearsals and plug straight into your cabinet with some 50 preset effects and another 40 odd channels to come up with your own! Sarweeeeeeet! [/quote]
I'll second that. Really versatile piece of kit. Can also connect into your computer as it has a USB interface. I've used it to record to listen to my own playing. Even if you don't use all the effects it really is more than just a multi effects.
Also use a small practice amp with headphone socket, less no, but works well.

[iamthewalrus]

Having an acoustic bass guitar is quite handy for practising quietly - there's a family next door to where I live with a small nipper, so that sort of negates using an electric most of the time.

Cheers,
iamthewalrus

Edited January 26, 2010 by iamthewalrus

[Bass-ic]

Tascam MP-BT1 Works a treat!

[dudewheresmybass]

either headphones/ earplugs for everyone else, or the tascam route for me!

[BottomEndian]

[quote name='Bass-ic' post='725759' date='Jan 26 2010, 09:22 PM']Tascam MP-BT1 Works a treat![/quote]
Does that have the feature that the CD-BT2 does whereby you can monitor a single channel of the backing track? I've got loads of those tuition-type CDs with the bass panned hard to one side and the accompaniment to the other. On the CD version of the Tascam, you can listen to just one side, with your bass signal playing along. It'd be really useful to have that option on the MP3 version, but I can't find any mention of it in the Tascam bumf or the manual.

[Golchen]

I’m not a fan of the headphones route personally. We have a tiny utility room and I get in there and shut the door. I have a great little roland bass practice amp that I use, and I plug my laptop into some decent powered speakers for backing tracks. Works great for me.

[chrisba]

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='725988' date='Jan 27 2010, 06:26 AM']Does that have the feature that the CD-BT2 does whereby you can monitor a single channel of the backing track? I've got loads of those tuition-type CDs with the bass panned hard to one side and the accompaniment to the other. On the CD version of the Tascam, you can listen to just one side, with your bass signal playing along. It'd be really useful to have that option on the MP3 version, but I can't find any mention of it in the Tascam bumf or the manual.[/quote]

No, it doesn't ( at least, I've never found it ). Several solutions come to mind. Listen through a stereo amp with balance control, only use one of the earphones, use Audacity or similar to do a "with" and a "without" version of the track, build yourself a little headphone switch that cuts out one side or the other.

[BottomEndian]

[quote name='chrisba' post='726267' date='Jan 27 2010, 01:02 PM']No, it doesn't ( at least, I've never found it ). Several solutions come to mind. Listen through a stereo amp with balance control, only use one of the earphones, use Audacity or similar to do a "with" and a "without" version of the track, build yourself a little headphone switch that cuts out one side or the other.[/quote]
Cheers. All of those (very useful, ta) solutions add an extra level of faff which acts as an obstacle to the plug'n'play nature of the beast. Very tempted by the CD one now. After all, everything I've got is on CD... and if I get hold of something on MP3, I can burn an audio CD anyway.

[Adrenochrome]

Zoom B2 w/headphones or acoustic bass for me. I never plug in properly at home.

[Sean]

Korg Pandora 5

[lowfer]

korg pandora for me, got one for christmas, effects are a bit limited but thats not what i got it for, plug my bass computer/mp3 player and headphones in and off i go. Its set up all the time so no faff, just plug and play, got a good selection of drum loops that i use for scale and groove practice. You can also record a short loop and slow down if you want, but to be honest its not that clear if you slow down to much. But all in all i'm happy and the wife is happy so every one a winner.

N

Edited January 29, 2010 by lowfer

[gilmour]

[quote name='Bass-ic' post='725759' date='Jan 26 2010, 09:22 PM']Tascam MP-BT1 Works a treat![/quote]

+1 Great bit of kit. Only annoying thing is that it doesn't play Apple lossless format files . IIRC Vox do a headphone amp that you can plug an iPod into.