2 Jul
2005
2 Jul
'05
2:17 p.m.
On Sat, 2005-07-02 at 16:19 +0200, Christoph Eckert wrote:
Hi,
I just ordereed an electric bass (passive). I'd like to
directly plug it in into my soundcard and to use Linux as an
amplifier (and record it to ardour, of course).
You can't plug an electric guitar or bass directly to your soundcard
unless your soundcard has a high impedance (sometimes referred to as
hi-z) input. If your sondcard doesn't explicitly say it has one, you
need something to convert the impedance of the signal. For this, you
need either a suitable DI (direct input) box, or (more preferably) an
external preamp with a hi-z input.
OTOH, I thought jack-rack could be my friend. If so,
which
LADSPAS can I use in conjunction with a bass? I guess (but I
do not know) that a compressor can do a great job. There are
several LADSPAS for it, so if anyone has a working setup I'd
be glad for some hints.
I haven't got anything usable (to my taste) out of creox. This is mostly
my fault as i've never really undrestood it.
OTOH, jack-rack is wonderful as you can use all available ladspa
plugins.
The DI bass i have tracked, has benefited a lot from the use of a
compressor. The idea is to use the compressor to lower the volume on the
start of the notes (the louder ones) and the "makeup gain" to get the
whole signal hotter.
Other stuff you could use are the "Tube amp emulation" and "Tube preamp
emulation" (with or without tone controls). With enough drive, you won't
need a separate compressor as the emulated amplifier drive will work
like a compressor when driven far enough. That will result in distortion
though, but the idea of amp distortion is to sound good. :)
That's the basics as far as i know. Next lesson is to experiment with
EQ, chorus, phasers, harmonics, delays. Good stuff can be achieved with
all of these, depending on your preferences and the music you are doing
(both in general, and the specifi piece).
Good luck!
--
Sampo Savolainen <v2(a)iki.fi>