User Manual

Bass Amp Room

 

---

Intro
User Interface
The Amplifier
The Cabinets
The Mix Panel
Bypassing Amps or Cabs
Block Diagram
Buying Recommendations
Credits

Intro

When we designed bass amp room we had two goals in mind. The first goal was to give the user the best possible sound quality and state-of-the-art physical modeling. The other, equally important goal was to give the user a plugin that was intuitive and allowed for a really fast work flow. Time is money, but cutting down on time shouldn’t have to mean that you need to accept poor results. At least not with Bass Amp Room. And having an amp model that behaves just like the real thing will definitely speed up the

In short, you need the same skills to master this software as you need when dealing with the real studio setup. You can get back to doing what you do best, because music production should be about using your ears, not your computer skills.

We have imagined two types of users. The first wants the best possible amp modeling and is willing to spend time tweaking the sound of each bass track. By working the mics, amp and D.I. tone controls, and, perhaps most importantly, the blend between the D.I. and amp, this user gets full control over the sound without ever losing it’s authenticity.

The second user is one who, just like the previous user, wants the best possible amp modeling, but recognizes the fact that he/she cannot spend too much time tweaking it. That is why we have, for example, only a single tone control knob on the D.I. and a one-knob limiter. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity, however; you still have the ability to create a unique signature sound. The strength lies in the very easy individual blocks (the amp, the D.I., the cabs and mics) and the ability to mix and match between them.

 

User Interface

Apart from a good sound, work flow is a crucial element of our design – the amps and mics should work just as they do in a real studio. We have tried to imi tate this as much as it is possible in a computer environment, and if you have experience working in real studios, you will notice that Bass Amp Room handles and sounds just the way you expect it to.

Amp Panel (Top Area)

In the Amp Panel, you can alter the settings of the amp by clicking the knob and dragging the mouse up and down, or left to right. Switches can be switched either by clicking on them, or by click and dragging the mouse. In some hosts you can change the behavior of the mouse, but the default behavior of Bass Amp Room is the one described above.

Room View (Middle Area)

In the Room View you can do two things: select the other cabinet or change the mic’s position.

Mic Position

When the mouse is located over a mic stand, the mouse pointer changes to an “up down” arrow and the mic gets a copper/goldish glow. Click -and- drag the mouse up or down to change the position of the mic stand. The microphone moves along a predetermined path, so you only need to move the mouse up or down, not to the left or right.

Cabinet Selection

You can change the cabinet by clicking on the back-ground and dragging the mouse to the left or right. The mouse pointer becomes a “left -right” arrow when you are pointing at the background to indicate that it is possible to change cabinet.

Mix Panel (Bottom Area)

In the mix panel, you can change the balance between the amplifier signal and the D.I. signal. The tonality of the D.I. signal can be changed with the three EQ knobs and the compressor/limiter. You can also change the phase of the amplifier signal and adjust the output volume.

 

The Amplifier

1. High/Low
2. Normal/Volume
3. Bass
4. Middle
5. Treble
6. Master volume

 

The amplifier that we chose to model is actually a guitar amplifier, but because of its very characteristic “non- fizzy” distortion and special sounding tone stack, it’s been very popular among bass players during the last dec-ades. When the High/Low switch is set to HIGH, the amplifier will work and act just like the real thing. The LOW mode is the same amplifier with a slightly different input stage, one which lowers the input gain a little bit while adding some warmth to the signal. The LOW mode gives you a fat bass sound without too much distortion.

 

High/Low: Use this switch to select either the attenuated channel (LOW) or the regular channel (HIGH).

Normal Volume: This knob controls the amount of preamp distortion, and is usually called “Gain” on more modern amps. Use it to dial in the amount of distortion you want.

Bass, Middle, Treble: These knobs are the tone controls of the amplifier. A common setting is Bass on full, Middle on min, and Treble somewhere in between.

Master Volume: Adjusts the amount of power amp distortion. With a massive amount of Master and Normal Volume, the amp will start sound like it’s about to break. Unless you really want that kind of distortion you’ll find that a Master Volume at 12 o’clock will suit most of your needs.

 

The Cabinets

Click and drag left/right on the background to change cabinets.

8x10

The industry standard 8x10” doesn’t need much presen-tation. With a fat sound and lots of low end, this is the go to cabinet for many bass players.

4x12

The regular 4x12” cabinet is preferred by many bass players over the industry standard 8x10”. It has a more focused sound than the 8x10”, and although it’s a bit thinner than the 8x10”, it is often easier to work with in a mix.

1x12

This is the odd bird among the cabinets. While try-ing out cabinets for Bass Amp Room, we felt that we needed to listen to something completely different just to clear our minds. We found this old open back 1x12”, plugged it in, and immediately fell in love with the sound. Some sort of ‘60s sound with lots of room. And you can dial in more low end if you need it just by mov-ing the mic more to the off axis position.

Positioning the Mic

By changing the mic position, you can get lots of dif-ferent sounds from a single cabinet. How the sound changes depends on the cabinet and the room, but there are some common features for all the cabs in Bass Amp Room:

Close Off Axis: The position with most bass and the least amount of highs.

Close On Axis: Moving the mic towards the on axis position will gradually give you more highs and a more pronounced mid. Usually the most “focused” sound.

Far Field: Moving away from the cabinet will give you more room ambiance and often (but not always) a thinner sound.

 

The Mix Panel

1. Low Cut
2. Tone
3. High Cut
4. Limiter
5. DI/Amp balance
6. Output volume
7. Solo DI
8. Phase invert (Amp)
9. Solo Amp

 

So, what else do you need except a good sound-ing amp? Since a lot of engineers and producers prefer to work with both the raw D.I. signal and the mic:ed signal (using the amp signal for character and the D.I. signal for focus or low end), we decided to incorporate that work flow into Bass Amp Room. But instead of having two tracks (one with the microphone signal and one with the direct bass line), you can easily blend the two signals directly in Bass Amp Room. And, to make life easier, we added a couple of very powerful tone controls and a state of the art single knob compressor in the D.I. section. That way you will be able to get a really good bass sound just by using the D.I!

Direct Inject (D.I.) Knobs

Low Cut: A 12dB/octave low cut filter. This control is intended for filtering out unwanted frequencies, but can, of course, be used more creatively. Keep increasing the knob until you cannot hear any difference in the sound. When you start to lose the low end, stop and go back a couple of millimeters (yes, we are metric).

High Cut: Same as the Low Cut, but for high frequencies.

Tone: When this knob is set at 12 o’clock (FLAT), it doesn’t change the sound at all. Turning it clockwise will give you a fatter and more scooped sound much like the tone stack in the amplifier. Turning it counter- clockwise will give you a sound with lots of mid.

 

Limiter: Use the limiter to increase the amount of compression. This func-tion can, for instance, be used to limit the peaks of the D.I. signal, and would then be set somewhere around 12 o’clock, depending on the level of the input signal. With a higher setting you will get a longer sustain on each note.

Limiter LED: The LED on the top right of the Limiter knob indicates when the limiter is working (like a gain reduction meter).

Mix Knobs

D.I./Amp Balance: This fader sets the balance between the D.I. signal and the amp signal. Use the Solo knobs to audition each channel (post fader).

Solo: Click the Solo texts to solo either the Direct Inject channel or the Amplifier (and cabinet) channel. You can only solo one channel at a time, so by soloing one channel you automatically un -solo the other channel.

Phase Invert (Amp): Inverts the phase of the amp signal. Changing the relative phase between the D.I. signal and amp signal will often completely change the sound. If you have a hard time trying to find a good blend be-tween the two signals, try flipping the Phase Invert. It usually makes a big difference to the sound.

Output: Sets the output volume. It goes from 32 dB to +32 dB, except at the minimum position where it turns off the output signal com-pletely.

Output Peak LED: The Output Peak LED indicates when the output signal peaks at 0 dBFS. Bass Amp Room will not clip the peaks, it is only an indica-tion.

 

Bypassing Amps or Cabs

You can choose to bypass the amp or the cabinet by selecting amp bypass or cab bypass from the small box in the lower right corner.

This is very useful if you want to use Bass Amp Room with an external speaker (or speaker plug in) or if you just want to add a cabinet simulation to a track, such as a recorded line out from your amplifier.

This will not bypass the D.I. section, since that can be easily done by setting the D.I./Amplifier Fader all the way to the right (on AMPLIFIER).

 

Block Diagram

The bass signal (Main Input) is split up into two identi-cal signals, one that goes to the amp (top section) and one to the D.I. (bottom section). The two signals are mixed with the D.I./Amp Balance fader.

 

Buying Recommendations

If you like the sound from Bass Amp Room and would like to get that sound using the real deal (let’s face it, a real amp is always sexier than a plug -in), here are some buying recommendations.

Amplifier

If you like this characteristic fat distortion and scooped- out tone stack, I would suggest that you get a two -channel Hiwatt DR 103 from the late ‘70s/early ‘80s.

Cabinets and Mic

The leftmost cabinet was modeled after the industry standard of bass cabinets: the Ampeg 8x10” SVT810. If you like the 4x12 sound, I’d suggest that you try out a couple of different 4x12s, because we have absolutely no clue what kind of 4x12 we measured. It sounded excel-lent, had no labels on, and wasn’t for sale... The small cabinet was a half- open 1x12” cabinet with a Celestion 20W/15ohm driver.

But you will also need a good sounding mic to get a good bass sound, and in our opinion nothing beats the Sennheiser MD421!

D.I. and Mix Panel

The tone controls of the D.I. and limiter was made by us and have no hardware counterpart.

Room

If you like the sound of the room, make sure to schedule a session at Care Of Sound in Norrköping.

Brand names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

 

Credits

Niklas Odelholm – modeling and sound design
Oscar Öberg – compressor modeling, framework program-ming
Torsten Gatu – interface programming
Arvid Rosén – framework programming
Ulf Ekelöf – 3D rendering