Practice solution

[davidmpires]

Hi everyone

Now that I’m band less I thought I could use some of my free time. Not much as I have an exam coming up, a wedding and just joined the gym, but what’s left could be used to practice.
So I’ve joined Marlowedk website www.playbassnow.com and donated £10 and got some transcriptions so I plan on working through them. I have some software in my pc to help me learn more.

Guitar pro 5 which I use only to open tabs
Transcribe which I use to loop and slow down parts.

I have some hardware to help me practice such as a Jamman looper courtesy of Davo London, a Zoom H4 and a Tascam with the cd thing.

Now up until now I put the songs on my pc and have to use two headphones to hear the bass on one coming from the amp and another one coming from my pc with the song I’m learning. Now I want to be able to use just one, what’s the best way to do it? And cheaper way. I want to be able to mix my bass with my pc so I only need one set of headphones and stop disturbing my OH with the sound of the amp.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

David

[thepurpleblob]

[quote name='davidmpires' post='840771' date='May 18 2010, 12:51 PM']Hi everyone

Now that I’m band less I thought I could use some of my free time. Not much as I have an exam coming up, a wedding and just joined the gym, but what’s left could be used to practice.
So I’ve joined Marlowedk website www.playbassnow.com and donated £10 and got some transcriptions so I plan on working through them. I have some software in my pc to help me learn more.

Guitar pro 5 which I use only to open tabs
Transcribe which I use to loop and slow down parts.

I have some hardware to help me practice such as a Jamman looper courtesy of Davo London, a Zoom H4 and a Tascam with the cd thing.

Now up until now I put the songs on my pc and have to use two headphones to hear the bass on one coming from the amp and another one coming from my pc with the song I’m learning. Now I want to be able to use just one, what’s the best way to do it? And cheaper way. I want to be able to mix my bass with my pc so I only need one set of headphones and stop disturbing my OH with the sound of the amp.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

David[/quote]

I don't think it can be described as cheap but I use a Line 6 Bass Pod XT for just that. It connects to the PC with via USB and latency is very low (unlike some cheapy usb outputs I have tried). You can use it for recording too. Has headphone output, handy tuner and can plug into your amp and desk too. Slight overkill, but if you can find one used and cheap it works well.

[davidmpires]

I just read that my H4 can be used as an audio interface, I might be onto something here.

cheers for the tip on the pod purple bob

[Bilbo]

Purple Bob? Are they related?

[tauzero]

[quote name='davidmpires' post='840771' date='May 18 2010, 12:51 PM']I have some hardware to help me practice such as a Jamman looper courtesy of Davo London, a Zoom H4 and a Tascam with the cd thing.

Now up until now I put the songs on my pc and have to use two headphones to hear the bass on one coming from the amp and another one coming from my pc with the song I’m learning. Now I want to be able to use just one, what’s the best way to do it? And cheaper way. I want to be able to mix my bass with my pc so I only need one set of headphones and stop disturbing my OH with the sound of the amp.[/quote]
Get some CD-RWs and burn the tracks you're working on as audio tracks (rather than MP3s) to them then use the Tascam CD trainer. As I will be doing this evening, in fact.

[thepurpleblob]

[quote name='Bilbo' post='840827' date='May 18 2010, 01:34 PM']Purple Bob? Are they related? [/quote]

It's my crazy uncle....

[obbm]

[quote name='davidmpires' post='840771' date='May 18 2010, 12:51 PM']Now up until now I put the songs on my pc and have to use two headphones to hear the bass on one coming from the amp and another one coming from my pc with the song I’m learning. Now I want to be able to use just one, what’s the best way to do it? And cheaper way. I want to be able to mix my bass with my pc so I only need one set of headphones and stop disturbing my OH with the sound of the amp.

Any suggestions?[/quote]

If your amp has an FX loop then take the FX send and mix it with the PC output and then return the mix to the FX Return and have your headphones just plugged into the amp. You can do this with a simple mixer or even a matrix of restistors.

[Fat Rich]

A pricey but convenient way of doing it is to use a Boss Loopstation or similar....

I plug the bass into the instrument input, iPod into the AUX input and use either headphones or amp output. It has loads of drum patterns to play along to plus I can easily record what I'm learning just by stomping on the record pedal and hear what I'm doing wrong.

Plus you can use it for what it's intended for too... record a bassline and jam over it.


Edit: And you can record a track from any external source and then slow down the tempo to help you work out the notes.

Edited May 19, 2010 by Fat Rich

[PaulWarning]

I use a zoom 506ii pedal plugged into my PC's mic socket with the output volume on the zoom turned right down then use audacity to slow down the song I'm learning, then headphones in my PC soundcard, sounds easy to balance out, works for me

Edited May 18, 2010 by PaulWarning

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='davidmpires' post='840771' date='May 18 2010, 12:51 PM']Now up until now I put the songs on my pc and have to use two headphones to hear the bass on one coming from the amp and another one coming from my pc with the song I’m learning. Now I want to be able to use just one, what’s the best way to do it? And cheaper way. I want to be able to mix my bass with my pc so I only need one set of headphones and stop disturbing my OH with the sound of the amp.

Any suggestions?

Cheers

David[/quote]

Something like guitar rig would do. plug your bass in to your PC, run GR for your bass tone and you can play along to anything using any other software.

[davidmpires]

I don't have a soundcard with 1/4 jacks that makes it a problem

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='davidmpires' post='840910' date='May 18 2010, 02:34 PM']I don't have a soundcard with 1/4 jacks that makes it a problem[/quote]

Then get a 1/4" to 3.5mm adaptor ;-) or a USB interface like the M-audio Fastrack USB interface.

Come to think of it, doesn't your H4 act like a USB interface?

[davidmpires]

[quote name='dave_bass5' post='840922' date='May 18 2010, 02:42 PM']Then get a 1/4" to 3.5mm adaptor ;-) or a USB interface like the M-audio Fastrack USB interface.

Come to think of it, doesn't your H4 act like a USB interface?[/quote]


Think so, I posted about that at the top, will know for sure tonight.

[Commando Jack]

If I understand what it is you want there are at least a couple of possible solutions with the gear you already have. My immediate thought is to use the Jamman Looper as the central mixer for everything. So:

Bass into instrument jack of looper, and PC into auxiliary input. The Jamman has a 1/8th input jack and you can get a 1/8th to 1/8th cable quite easily if you don't already have one, something like [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/iPod-iPhone-Car-Cable-Stereo/dp/B002TVNZF0/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274193097&sr=8-3"]this[/url]. Then all you do is plug your headphones into the looper, and dial in the settings that let you hear everything properly.

If you want to include your markbass, then plug the bass into the input as normal and run the line out into the microphone jack in the looper instead of plugging directly in. You'll need an [url="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Adam-Hall-female-male-cable/dp/B001GEBD46/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274193456&sr=1-1"]XLR to XLR[/url] to connect the looper and the amp.

If you want to record everything, then hopefully it's just a matter of connecting the H4 to the output of the looper.

The way outlined above doesn't send your bass through the computer at all, which is probably best considering decent audio interfaces with low enough latency can be expensive.

[dave_bass5]

[quote name='Commando Jack' post='840993' date='May 18 2010, 03:41 PM']The way outlined above doesn't send your bass through the computer at all, which is probably best considering decent audio interfaces with low enough latency can be expensive.[/quote]

Hmmm, i get 2ms latency (and direct, no latency monitoring) with my M-audio 2496 card. Not a top of the range card but decent audio and it cost about £60.

Edited May 18, 2010 by dave_bass5

[davidmpires]

Thanks Commando Jack, that sounds good plus I can record a track on the jamman and then play on top. Will have to set up that tonight to see how it sounds.

[Pkomor]

just grab a really cheap (£20) mixer, and run the pc as one input, and the bass as another, then use the headphone out on the mixer...

Simplest and cheapest way I reckon!

[davidmpires]

I went home and tried the H4 and it works to play along or to record bass only. And with the effects built it it's cool, will be trying out with the Jamman during the weekend

[peted]

I have both the Tascam Bass Trainer and H4 too!

I tend to mostly burn songs to CDRs and use the Bass Trainer - only because if I use my PC for playing bass through I tend to find myself distracted by browsing BassChat rather than practicing!

I have also used my H4 as an external sound card. You can then just plug your bass and headphones direct into the H4. Use the controls on the H4 to set the level of the bass signal going in (it has hardware monitoring so you'll be able to hear the bass through the headphones without having to launch any software on your PC). Then you just need to open the music on the PC in your favourite media player i.e. iTunes, Windows Media Player, Audacity. You then set the level of the music using the volume control on the windows desktop.

Hope that helps.

[geoffbyrne]

I use a Digitech Genesis 1 - made for guitar, but works fine for bass. There's a line-in to which I affix either a CD player or my laptop & listen to it using headphones.

Adjust the vol of the line in at source & use the controls of the Genesis to balance the instrument.

Works great for me & Genesis 1 units are inexpensive on Ebay - if you can find one. Just be careful about the power supply - it's AC in, AC out, so not so easy to replace.

G.

Edited May 19, 2010 by geoffbyrne

[davidmpires]

[quote name='peted' post='841937' date='May 19 2010, 12:37 PM']I have also used my H4 as an external sound card. You can then just plug your bass and headphones direct into the H4. Use the controls on the H4 to set the level of the bass signal going in (it has hardware monitoring so you'll be able to hear the bass through the headphones without having to launch any software on your PC). Then you just need to open the music on the PC in your favourite media player i.e. iTunes, Windows Media Player, Audacity. You then set the level of the music using the volume control on the windows desktop.

Hope that helps.[/quote]


That's what I did last night and the sound is quite good. Me likey