mbase 11

hydrogen · Post by **hydrogen** » Sat May 28, 2011 4:05 pm

Wicked! Would love to hear the examples... Im finding the mbase sounds best through a pre-amp. It sort of smooths it out...I want to get more pre amps... i am using a golden age pre-73 for now.

Also, check this out...
http://ctrlr.org/

this allows you to build a controller vst/audio unit for your mbase or any other hardware that accepts cc's, nnrpn, sysex, etc... http://ctrlr.org/ great if you want to automate your mbase. I also find it easier to dial in a sound if I have all the controls right there.

If you can wait, I'll post my mbase panel after I come back from Detroit...

-hydrogen
(sent from my iPad mini)

deccard · Post by **deccard** » Sun May 29, 2011 5:05 pm

hydrogen wrote:Wicked! Would love to hear the examples... Im finding the mbase sounds best through a pre-amp. It sort of smooths it out...I want to get more pre amps... i am using a golden age pre-73 for now.

Also, check this out...
http://ctrlr.org/

this allows you to build a controller vst/audio unit for your mbase or any other hardware that accepts cc's, nnrpn, sysex, etc... http://ctrlr.org/ great if you want to automate your mbase. I also find it easier to dial in a sound if I have all the controls right there.

If you can wait, I'll post my mbase panel after I come back from Detroit...

-hydrogen
(sent from my iPad mini)

yes please. i´m not so happy with my mbase11. maybe with a better programming gui it will help. i prefered the sound of the 01 cause it was more analog sounding for me. any i will get me a pcb 6a comp sometime. maybe that helps for tracking the 11.

gowans · Post by **gowans** » Mon May 30, 2011 12:12 am

nice one hydrogen, ive wanted to run mine through the mic pre's on my mixing desk, but im afraid i will damage the unit. this may sound daft, i have an old desk, the phantom power switches on the back arent labelled on/off so i dont know if they are on or off? if i had phantom power on one of my mic pres and had my mbase hooked up could it damage it, or is this a stupid question? ive checked the manual, no info either, gotta love old gear

::BLM:: · Post by **::BLM::** » Mon May 30, 2011 10:21 am

hydrogen wrote:Wicked! Would love to hear the examples... Im finding the mbase sounds best through a pre-amp. It sort of smooths it out...I want to get more pre amps... i am using a golden age pre-73 for now.

Also, check this out...
http://ctrlr.org/

this allows you to build a controller vst/audio unit for your mbase or any other hardware that accepts cc's, nnrpn, sysex, etc... http://ctrlr.org/ great if you want to automate your mbase. I also find it easier to dial in a sound if I have all the controls right there.

If you can wait, I'll post my mbase panel after I come back from Detroit...

-hydrogen
(sent from my iPad mini)

Hows the Golden Age pre? I was looking at that one too. I don't have any pre's at all and need something for my synths as I don't have any.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Mon May 30, 2011 3:08 pm

a preamp is to amplify an instrument level signal like a microphone / electric guitar into a line level signal. A synthesizer already outputs at line level.

A good preamp will probably sound quite characterful, even if you're turning a line level signal down to instrument level and boosting it back up to line level using the pre amp. But it's not something that I think is wise to spend money on.

steevio · Post by **steevio** » Mon May 30, 2011 3:24 pm

::BLM:: wrote:
hydrogen wrote:Wicked! Would love to hear the examples... Im finding the mbase sounds best through a pre-amp. It sort of smooths it out...I want to get more pre amps... i am using a golden age pre-73 for now.

Also, check this out...
http://ctrlr.org/

this allows you to build a controller vst/audio unit for your mbase or any other hardware that accepts cc's, nnrpn, sysex, etc... http://ctrlr.org/ great if you want to automate your mbase. I also find it easier to dial in a sound if I have all the controls right there.

If you can wait, I'll post my mbase panel after I come back from Detroit...

-hydrogen
(sent from my iPad mini)
Hows the Golden Age pre? I was looking at that one too. I don't have any pre's at all and need something for my synths as I don't have any.

do you have an analogue mixer ?

youre better off buying a small mixer, why do you need preamps ?

or are we talking tube pre-amps ?

the mbase 01 sounds awesome through a metasonix R51 tube distortion/VCA.

::BLM:: · Post by **::BLM::** » Mon May 30, 2011 4:14 pm

No mixer no. I was looking to get one and fell in love with the zed16. Only thing is I cant afford it so was just looking for something to boost my synth levels as well as make it sound nice.

The level is really low from my synths going into the computer. I am using Abletons utility at the moment to boost the levels, but it colours the sound in a way that I dont like. My soundcard has no pre-amps, its just inputs so I assume this is why. My last card had preamps, and it was fine.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Mon May 30, 2011 5:31 pm

i have to attenuate the signal loads from my synth into my soundcard, or it clips the inputs... my soundcard is pretty decent but not really high end. (motu 828). Modular levels are higher than regular synths, but i don't see why you should need to boost a line level signal to get it into a soundcard which is looking for line level signals.

Ableton Utility shouldn't colour the sound any more than putting it into a DAW will do. If you boost loads you will increase the noisefloor, but that should be the only negative side. If you really feel that Utlity is affecting the sound, you could change the bit rate you are working at to 24 bit, and that should give you more "resolution" to boost the signal in the digital domain without affecting quality.