Best amp sims for bass guitar

[Aymara]

Hi,

we currently have a discussion about amp sims for guitar ... personal experiences, pros and cons of different products, etc..

I think, bass players deserve their own thread, because many guitar amp sims also can be used for bass.

So: Which in your opinion is the best for bass? And ... is there one, that mainly concentrates on bass instead of guitar? Nothing I know of, but maybe I just didn't find it?

In case you want to recommend a guitar amp sim, please note, which included amps and cabs are (best) for bass.

 

[Radau]

I've always enjoyed Mark Studio 2, lately though I've been using Positive Grid's stuff. Sounds awesome!

 

[Aymara]

lately though I've been using Positive Grid's stuff.

Me too, but which amps of BIAS FX are ment for bass or at least the best choice?

Or would I need BIAS Amp to get more bass amps from the cloud?

PS: I think I need to dig deaper in the desktop version ... on iOS there's only the Blue Line and the GK800 included
PPS: BIAS FX Desktop Standard is also limited to those two bass amps:
http://help.positivegrid.com/hc/en-us/articles/205050729-What-are-BIAS-FX-amps-effects-

I found an interesting video, btw:

 

[A-Branger]

in the past I used to use the amplitube Ampeg standalone plugin on my computer, It was pretty good. Latter I bought myself a real ampeg head+cab so Im a happy guy now

 

[Señor Voorhees]

Our bassist uses Ampeg SVX, and ezmix 2. Ezmix is less imperative to the sound though. The Ampeg stuff is pretty nice though. Much nicer than a lot of the other bass stuff I've heard.

 

[Aymara]

Our bassist uses Ampeg SVX ...

This is pretty interesting, because as an iRig Pro owner, I would be able to get a discount of over 30€. From the videos I saw, it sounds pretty good.

 

[pastanator]

tse sansamp -> ignite power amp sim -> redwirez 8x10 ampeg cab impulse is what ive been using lately


sounds cool even though its really only one sound i guess

 

[Aymara]

tse sansamp -> ignite power amp sim ...

I saw Ignite also have a bass amp ... I totally missed that one so far.

 

[cardinal]

I've been happy with Bias Amp but I don't know a lot about bass amps.

 

[Masoo2]

I'd say POD Farm/POD Farm Platinum coupled with some free plugins like TSE BOD and LeCab 2 with some custom IRs (stock bass cabs in POD Farm are decent enough though).

POD Farm is great for bass. Tons of options in terms of amp, cab, and effect selection and dual routing make it a great overall package.

BIAS Amp is decent too. I posted a Darkglass B7K tonematch on the tonecloud a while back. I wouldn't recommend it though, I feel others like POD Farm, EZMix, and Amplitube offer much more in terms of overall value and tone quality.

 

[shredfreak]

I stick to DI signal of my bass.
And doubletrack with an ampsim. Lepou + cab impulse for the main rythm guitar works great. I'm pretty sure a similar approach with others like Bias will get great results aswell.

Wichever mic pre is available works for my main clean bass sound, at home that's a presonus studio channel.

I'll be trying to do a comparison between the studio channel & the avalon vt737SP when we record our album. It should definatly be intersting though.

I do have an entire collection of Bass cab IR's wich i'll be happy to send or upload on the website if possible.

A good starting point would be to learn how to set up your bass, plus learning a decent technique that's suitable. When those 2 are where they should be then people wouldn't sound like utter crap.

 

[Aymara]

A good starting point would be to learn how to set up your bass, ...

... which is pretty difficult in my case, because I have a Godin A5 fretless with integrated piezo system. Though I can easily DI guitars with my old Tascam interface, the Godin is impossible.

My workaroud so far is playing it clean through my Blackstar HT5R and use it's red box out with cab simulation. I wouldn't have guessed, that the Blackstar would be useable as a bass amp for recording

Gotta try BIAS FX with my iRig Pro interface next, which has a much better High Z, than the Tascam.

If that fails too, the search for a DI box might become difficult ... passive versus piezo DI box?

 

[Petar Bogdanov]

My workaroud so far is playing it clean through my Blackstar HT5R and use it's red box out with cab simulation. I wouldn't have guessed, that the Blackstar would be useable as a bass amp for recording

Now try it on the dirty channel with an electric bass and a graphic EQ in the loop.

 

[Aymara]

Now try it on the dirty channel with an electric bass and a graphic EQ in the loop.

I want to keep it clean, not overdriven, but it might work, because of the flatwound strings. The overdrive channel already has an EQ, btw.

Worth a try ... my Gretsch Panther with flatwound strings can be played clean in the overdrive channel at lowest gain.

 

[shredfreak]

... which is pretty difficult in my case, because I have a Godin A5 fretless with integrated piezo system. Though I can easily DI guitars with my old Tascam interface, the Godin is impossible.

My workaroud so far is playing it clean through my Blackstar HT5R and use it's red box out with cab simulation. I wouldn't have guessed, that the Blackstar would be useable as a bass amp for recording

Gotta try BIAS FX with my iRig Pro interface next, which has a much better High Z, than the Tascam.

If that fails too, the search for a DI box might become difficult ... passive versus piezo DI box?

Interesting.
The simple nature of the instrument requires a lot of trickery to make it sound good or even passable in certain settings. Live it becomes a total nightmare. I like the sound of a fretless (roundwounds at least) but in a lot of modern music situations i wouldn't even consider it as an option. It's just cool to have a round really.

Oh, and doesn't the preamp require you to plug into the line in input of your interface? I reckon a simple mic input would distort to kingdom come if you plug that in.

 

[Petar Bogdanov]

I want to keep it clean, not overdriven, but it might work, because of the flatwound strings. The overdrive channel already has an EQ, btw.

Worth a try ... my Gretsch Panther with flatwound strings can be played clean in the overdrive channel at lowest gain.

I'm talking about full overdrive. Gain at 9:00, bridge pickup. I play mine with a Sub Ray5, just for the fun of it. The amp has a deep growl that lends itself to bass guitar.

 

[Aymara]

Live it becomes a total nightmare.

Not at all, because it behaves on a real bass amp like any other bass. The semi-hollow is achieved by chambers in an otherwise completely closed body, so no feedback issues.

I like the sound of a fretless (roundwounds at least) but in a lot of modern music situations i wouldn't even consider it as an option.

I do, because I like to go different ways ... I hate distorted bass and think a deep bass in the style of Jah Wobble (ex Public Image Limited) nicely fits a 7-string.

Other opinions will very likely vary

Oh, and doesn't the preamp require you to plug into the line in input of your interface?

The output is similar to an active pickups guitar. I tried both HighZ, which is pretty much crap on the Tascam, and Line-In which astonishingly works nice with guitars, but with the Godin it slightly distorts.

I'm talking about full overdrive. Gain at 9:00, bridge pickup.

I know, what you mean, but that's not worth to try with this bass, that only has a piezo bridge ... it's not the Ultra version, that has a normal pickup too and I use flatwound, that would drastically tame distortion, which btw also is the case on guitar, when using flatwounds.

Here's a video, that shows, what I'm talking about: