It’s All About that Bass… No Really

A firm foundation is essential to a good mix. We love crafting the mix on our Genelec monitors; through our Oram desk; from a couple of compressors; fed from the best source possible. Here we look at some of the physical sources of ‘bottom end’ here at Crown Lane:

Ashdown 300EVO

With 325watts of bass power, the ABM 300 EVO features a front-panel mounted balanced DI out with pre or post EQ switching, a sub-bass output, a tuner output, an FX loop and a line input for the connection of an external sampler or sound source. Also footswitchable is the mighty Ashdown sub-harmonic generator which precisely tracks the main signal and reproduces it an octave lower. A sub-harmonic level control enables the player to add just the right amount of low-end reinforcement – everything from a subtle, thickening of the sound to unbridled, bone crushing tone.

Hartke VX2515 Bass Combo Amplifier

The VX2515 features a single 15 in. Speaker matched with a horn-loaded titanium high frequency driver. The 2500 amp section supplies the combo with 250-Watts of headroom, more than enough to cover a variety of playing situations. The 2500 with variable compression, tube and solid-state pre-amps, and 10-band graphic EQ give you all the tone control you could ever need.

A firm foundation is essential to a good mix

DBX dB12

The dbx is a very clean DI box – Great for sending your instrument straight to the desk with no tone shaping.

Sansamp RB-1

Our favourite preamp for recording bass. It has fantastic tone shaping and in addition to Drive, Presence, and active Bass and Treble controls, the SansAmp RBI has a dedicated Mid control and an XLR Output Level control for optimum performance with our Protools system. We have recorded many different bands of all styles through this with fantastic results.