Digital Crossover on bass amp

Patricide

Hey guys, doing a pa setup with a digital crossover today(the thing that puts the low frequencies into the bigger speakers and the higher frequencies into the smaller ones for anyone here not farmilliar) and I wondered to myself, what would this be like if I used a digital crossover with my bass stack???

So the chain would be like this:

Bass

---

>----amp--->

---

digital cross over(high)-->---4X10
digital cross over(low)--->---1X15


Just wondering if this would make any big difference to the bass tone, and if so what kind of differences? As far as i know mike kroger from nickleback does this but hes the only example ive found so far since i thought about doing it first.

Anyone here ever hear of/try this?

Dord

EDIT: Oops, nope I'm thinking of something different.

Adyx

I got this from my Pod XT Live manual:

Bass PODXT Live includes a Bi-Amp Mode. Bi-Amping is the technique of using a
crossover to split a signal into its higher frequency and lower frequency portions, and
sending each frequency range to a different amplification system. Lows would typically
be sent to a power amp setup with lots of wattage and large diameter speakers, while
highs would be sent to smaller diameter speakers and/or horns. Bass PODXT Live’s Bi-
Amp Mode includes selectable slope and frequency.

So it would certainly appear to support what you're doing although it uses a slightly different amping process. Don't have any more info I'm afraid.

Doctor J

The reason you have it on a PA is because your PA has full range speakers, ie woofers and tweeters. You haven't said if any of your cabs has a high frequency driver (unless your 4x10 does in which case it already has a crossover built in) and your 1x15 ain't a sub either, so to me it seems like a pointless exercise. You're not going to gain anything, really, and you're just introducing more crap into your signal path, more to lug around, more that can go wrong, etc. This is the moment where you need to consider what's so different about Billy Sheehan's tone that he needs a two trucks full o'crap just to get a fairly average bass tone and you need to ask yourself "Is that what I want out of my life?"

Mike Kroeger pays someone to cart his ****e around and set it up, that's why he thinks it's a good idea :pac:

unclebill98

Most of the high end bass amps that run in double mono/stereo have x/overs built into them.

If you have the setup of a 4x10/1x15 then why not give it a go. It will reduce the useless frq going to both cabs and is easily done by adding a simple x/over. Any basic one will do it.

All cabs give there frq response, unless your talking about your Ashdown rig, whom believe giving such information on there site is not needed :P

I've just setup up my SVT4 to try the same thing, but I ain't using standard bass cabs. So i can not to a simple a/b test, but its sounds rather tasty.

Savman

Patricide wrote: »

Just wondering if this would make any big difference to the bass tone, and if so what kind of differences?

Y'know, there's really only one true way of finding out...

sei046

wikipedia

Patricide

In all fairness its not a question that wiki could answer really for me, looking for peoples experiances with it if they had done it before.

Yea mike kroger does have a bucketload of people to carry around his extremely expensive gear. In all fairness though his tone is pretty nice, even if you dont appreciate his playing. Even live his tone is pretty much the same.

The speakers for those who are wondering are the ashdown abm series 4X10 and 1X15, links here :http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/detail.asp?section=abm&ID=15

and here:http://www.ashdownmusic.com/bass/detail.asp?section=abm&ID=14.

Gonna ask to borrow the digital crossover from my sound engineering course tomorro so hopefully i can check for myself.

Doctor J

Give it a shot. Dunno how useful it will be, your 4x10 should have a crossover in it already controlling what goes to the tweeter and it has a full-medium-off switch doesn't it? The 1x15 isn't really in the sub-woofer league, so it's not really designed to push out just low stuff. If you take the low out of the 4x10 you might take out the punch which is why they make 4x10's in the first place. Neither cab is a specialist high or low end design, which is why I wouldn't be sure how much effort this justifies, a lot of the character of each is that they're designed to push out in the full monty.

Eoin Madsen

What the Doc said.

If it's free to try, give it a shot. But the gains from using a crossover into speakers that aren't designed for dedicated ranges are going to be fairly minimal anyway.

What you could do is use the digital crossover to run the tweeter/HF from it's own amp, which should be an improvement in amp fidelity compared to a single amp into a passive crossover.

Patricide

Yup youd be correct doc, Unfortunatly borrowing the crossover is a no go but id say im just gonna leave it from what you guys have said.

Still if i ever have access to a crossover il have to check it out!!!