Re: Looping upright bass?

[E Gross <slapbandjam@yahoo.com>]

Hi Todd,

 

A friend of mine plays upright in a working band, here is what he uses:

 

I use a Bass Max Upright Bass Pickup (transducer) placed on the G string side of the bridge, I bought it from Golihurmusic.com. I run it through a Tech 21 SanSamp Bass DI box I got from musicians friend. If I were going to do it again, I would probable look at the new Para Bass DI from Tech 21, or the Radial Engineering ToneBone PZ Pre Dual Channel Preamplifier also at Golihurmusic.

Eric

----- Original Message ----
From: Todd Matthews <gtmatthews@gmail.com>
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 1:05:00 PM
Subject: Looping upright bass?

I've been trying to get this work for awhile now and I've run into a
lot of trouble. Just to get the concepts down and to practice I have
been recording into a mac mini with an ultralite as this was my
recording setup before I tried looping. So far I've been learning how
to use sooperlooper with Ableton live and it sounds great but I'm
using a mic to record my bass and monitoring with headphones. This
sounds great now but won't work for live performance because I can't
play through speakers using a mic. I realize a pickup would be much
better for feedback and to keep the loops from being re-recorded on
each pass.

I borrowed a friends Realist bass pickup which sounds great using a
bow or pizzicato through my bass amp! It is a piezo pickup that goes
between the top of the bass and under the foot of the bridge. (
http://www.gollihurmusic.com/product/1428-REALIST_BASS_PICKUP_FOR_BASS_CELLO_OR_VIOLIN_VIOLA.html
) When I tried plugging it into the MOTU ultralite to loop using Live
and Sooperlooper it sounded awful. (Hum, noise, pops crackles) After
doing some research I purchased a Sansamp Bass Driver DI box to plug
the bass into between the output of the Realist pickup and the MOTU
ultralite. Using it as a directbox sounded better but it is still
extremely noisy which won't work for looping. Every time I overdub the
noise gets multiplied.

I really like the sound of the pickup as I mostly use the bow and most
pickups usually sound crappy with a bow. I know the pickup can sound
good plugged into my bass amp, and I know my ultralite can sound good
recording with a microphone so I guess I'm wondering how I can bridge
the gap and get the sound of the bass into my computer without all the
noise and/or hum.

I also tried plugging into my amp and then plugging output of the amp
into the ultralite AND also going into my amp, into the DI box, into
the ultralite without success either.


Anybody have any advice on how I can loop upright bass without using a
mic (preferrably with this Realist pickup) and with quality sound
playing the bass arco or pizz?

Thank you in advance,

Todd