Members nice keetee Posted October 13, 2017 Members Share Posted October 13, 2017 I know... Behringer... but I like how it sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted October 13, 2017 Members Share Posted October 13, 2017 I bought the guitar and bass versions several years ago for recording. They work when it comes to recording but they are what I call a one trick pony. They are knockoffs of old school sans amp units which give you some adjustability but they lack a midrange control which is really needed in adapting different basses to get decent tones. The guitar version is a bit better because it has some amp and mic modeling but both are pretty dated. If you like the sound and want a low budget unit to record bass well Joyo JF-14 will knock your socks off. https://www.walmart.com/ip/JOYO-JF-14-American-Sound-Guitar-Amp-Simulator-Effect-Pedal/807849223?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=4801&adid=22222222227065271922&wmlspartner=wmtlabs&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=169655526893&wl4=pla-276927716556&wl5=9027662&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=114227155&wl11=online&wl12=807849223&wl13=&veh=sem I bought one for guitar recently and it sounds killer for guitar. I figured what the heck, My Blackface Bassman head sounds good for bass too so let me see how well it works for tracking bass and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked for bass too. I simply had to dial the drive down clean and it produced a super solid tone. I bought another units shortly after buying the Behringer on my quest to find better DI solutions for recording bass. I found a used Korg Bassworks for chump change on EBay. The thing is about the size of a guitar tuner and by looking at it I didn't think it would sound any good at all. This one has old school bass modeling and had a rotary knob for heads and cabs, 3 band EQ, compressor and volume. The effects built in were garbage, but I wasn't interested in them anyway. The bass tones are amazing. I cant believe they got the sound from such a small box. I select the 8X10 cab and classic head and you'd swear the bass was recorded through an SVT cab. From there on I was hooked and realized a simple EQ unit like the Behringer didn't cut it. I came across one of these Vox units that used digital amp modeling. picked one up on sale for $49 and its what I've been using ever since (at least till I find something better - The quest for quality soiund never ends) You can pick up as low as $29 used http://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Vox/STOMP-LAB-IB-Effect-Processor.gc?cntry=us&source=4WWRWXGP&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxIyk-LTt1gIV1lqGCh2LKA8JEAQYBCABEgJozPD_BwE&kwid=productads-adid^221075135724-device^c-plaid^347521229449-sku^113639195@ADL4GC-adType^PLA With the choice of 18 different amp heads, 12 different cabs, 4 band EQ, 9 bass pedal types, Chorus, echo and reverbs and most importantly compression and noise gate the end results are like night and day recording. I can adapt this thing to make any of my bases sound killer . The difference is when I used the BDI I still has to mix the hell out of the bass to get it to sound good in a mix. For a few bucks more the Vox literally blows its doors off. You can noodle up any tones you want from light jazz upright bass tones to bone crushing metal tones filled with sub lows. Even the synth bass tones aren't bad. Comes pretty close to sounding like a Moog. The best part is you can record tracks that don't need any additional tweaking in the mix, plus the unit can be switched from recording level to amp level and used as a regular stomp box for live shows. Those recorded tones can be saved as presets and taken on the road. The difference used in front of an amp or in an effects loop is quite amazing too. The Behringer is just a gain and 3 band EQ which does little for an amp. The amp/cab modeling of the vox really makes the amp and instrument change its character. You can dial up a Portaflex or an SVT and the instrument not only plays like you're using those amps but the tones are definitely there. I find this very useful with my rig because my heads and cabs are a collection of used gear which really doesn't match. I'm able to reshape the heads and cab tones with the modeling and get them to match a whole lot better. The output is mono or stereo too so a little chorus and/or reverb when recording gives you some amazing three dimensional sounds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 13, 2017 Members Share Posted October 13, 2017 I have both the Korg Ampworks for bass and guitar. I found that the bass version was very similar to my Pandora so I hasn't gotten much use but the guitar version has some tasty sounds in it I've used for home recording. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted October 15, 2017 Members Share Posted October 15, 2017 Good to know. Korg makes the Vox units and I have one for guitar and bass. This is the Bassworks I have. Like I said its a small sucker, about the size of a guitar tuner. The effects are some kind of low grade DSP which suck badly so I just leave them turned off, not a fan of effects on bass anyway. The gain is actually a compressor. Its very warm sounding on my Basses. The EQ and volume are mild but are perfectly voiced for bass. The amp types range from Ampeg, Vox, Marshall and Fender types. The cabs range from a 4X10" to 18" On my older Rack preamps that date back 25+ years you were lucky to have speaker emulation for recording. The emulation is just simple filters which roll of the nasty highs and bass boom you get from most preamps and Guitar amp line outs. You can record direct like that but you have to EQ the crap out of the signal to make it sound like it was miced. The amp/cab emulation saves butt loads of time dialing up realistic sounds by adding the kinds or resonances you get out of different cabs. Not sure if the cab emulation in this one uses actual digital cab impulses, but it works well enough to be convincing. I picked this one up for $25. They are pretty rare and most sell for quite a bit when you can find them. Guess the owners know like myself just what a powerhouse they are. Only drawback is you need the right adaptor. They run on 3 AA batteries and need a 4.4V adaptor which I did buy to save on buying batteries. I like buying used gear and see Korg units all the time. There's one that sells for around $35 used. Many say its Sitar is very good. If its anywhere close to sounding like my electric sitar It might be worth the cost. I did find an excellent tool for recording from amp line outs too. I used to use a simple filter bridge to remove the nasty tones. You cab buy these Aroma ASR-3 for around $25 on EBay and they really do the trick. This ones essentially for guitar. With this you can use any kind of stomp box you want recording direct and make it sound like its being run through a miced cab. I was leery when buying it and thought it might be a simple filter bank, but was very happy to find it used digital impulses to achieve the cab emulation so you don't get that blanket over the cab tone you'd get from older generations. Once I found that out how well it worked, I bought a second so I could record stereo pedals and effects which I often do. I can stick this thing in an amp loop to change the entire character of an amp too switching from a small combo tone to a full stack. I've tried this with bass but its only got one cab that's any good for bass tones. I'm hoping they eventually come out with one voices for bass speakers then its game on for all kinds of things that can be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members onelife Posted October 15, 2017 Members Share Posted October 15, 2017 The power adaptor for Sony Discman works with the Ampworks units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 17, 2017 Members Share Posted October 17, 2017 Mine.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Looks like Korg may have re-purposed some of the knobs from the Volca series synths. How much do these units (Korg and Behringer) run? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 18, 2017 Members Share Posted October 18, 2017 Looks like Korg may have re-purposed some of the knobs from the Volca series synths. How much do these units (Korg and Behringer) run? The Korgs came out somewhere around 2005. they were $180 but I got my for something like $90 back in the day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators ThudMaker Posted October 18, 2017 Moderators Share Posted October 18, 2017 The Korgs came out somewhere around 2005. they were $180 but I got my for something like $90 back in the day. Lug, the Bargain Hunter! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted October 18, 2017 Share Posted October 18, 2017 Looks like the price was a bargain to begin with, but Lug found a bargain selling at half price. Not too shabby! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members lug Posted October 18, 2017 Members Share Posted October 18, 2017 Lug has many many children...Lug has no choice but to be a bargain hunter........pity Lug. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted October 19, 2017 Members Share Posted October 19, 2017 I try to shop for bargains too. I'm not in a rush which allows me to find the best bargains. Think I paid $25 maybe 3 years ago. Since then I've seen them sell as much as $120. I can't see them being worth that much, especially compared to many great low cost alternatives available. Maybe its the fact they are so simple to use that's a factor. The Vox units I have blow the doors off for tone quality but they are digital and you're dealing with what I hate the most about digital units, sub menus and presets. They are actually very easy to use, but if I had my choice between rotary display settings and analog rotary knobs, I'd take the analog simply because you can tweak things on the fly playing live. Accessing patches to tweak them sucks when you have to hold buttons down till you get different displays to appear. Then you have a hieroglyphic lettering that isn't understandable without a manual then a poorly written manual which is poorly written. I been using another low cost preamp for bass the past couple of days. Its designed for guitar to give you a brown faced Bassman sound so its EQ settings aren't ideally voiced for bass bit with the drive dialed back to around 1/4 and some EQ tweaking it can provide a solid yet aggressive bass tone for recording. When you adjust the drive to match your pickups it gets the kind of saturation you'd get from a tube amp which is very nice. You don't have to rely on compression for sustain and sensitive string touch. The units cab be bought for the same low cost as the Behringer and does a much better job recording bass because of its wider frequency control. This video isn't exactly ideal for showing its full tones. The guys using a Precision with overly bright tones so you don't hear the bottom end very well especially when he scoops the mids, but it at least gives you some idea of its range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators isaac42 Posted October 21, 2017 Moderators Share Posted October 21, 2017 The Vox unit looks nice. Too bad it doesn't have a balanced line out for use as a DI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.