Backstory: last couple of days I’ve been looking for a bass amplifier for my new setup. Some of them I’ve never played irl, but I’ve used a lots of modeling software and emulations.
And to be honest, most amps that I ‘should’ like I don’t and end up liking my DI sound eay better. But then there’s this discourse of “the emulation is not the real thing” and what and gets me thinking “Well, maybe the emulation is not my thing but the real amp would be perfect for me…” and, since I don’t can’t try them irl I never decide on anything.
Same argument can be made with Tube Amps (should I care if I want a tube/transistor amp if I barely notice a difference in modellers), synths (maybe this top notch emulation of a CS80 is not my thing but I’m sure i’m gonna love a real
one), and so on…
Have you been in similar situations? Can I like the hardware version if I don’t like the extremely accurate emulation? Is it just an argument to justify gas?
Yes. You’re FOMOing about something you don’t like to prompt a purchase.
You wouldn’t be alone with your preferences either, many bassists just record the DI!
I would say that the answer to most of these internal questions (I am of course not immune to the antipattern) is that if you’re not missing out today, you’re not missing out and should just move forward with what works.
…playing it out loud…recording a live session with a mic, carefully placed in front of a cabinet AND a direct out from the amp at once in realtime, twiddeling some knobs, setting gain to 11…
can all be simulated in hyper accuracy…but will never be and never feel the same anyways…
but end of all days, u gotta catch up with ur demons and tell them to shut up…
since EITHER way it’s done, it only counts if it’s actually DONE…
and there is no final recording, no finished mix, u could really tell any difference AFTERWARDS…
Even beyond cost and space, I’m always seeking to reduce the unnecessary agonizing that causes much worse.
Wasting time “researching” spec and price and “best”, then people often stop creating while they wait for order delivery, then you need to spend the secondary cost and learn whatever, and then the next “upgrade” overlaps…
FWIW I use a tube bass amp for practice in a room just because i want to. I don’t mic and record it, though, so it’s more about an experience when I’m wanting to practice- it’s absolutely unnecessary in my workflow for recording.
I’m listening through my audio interface and monitor (IK iLoud Micro) now, but they miss bass frequencies a lot Probably on headphones would be the same issue.
My friend had a sweet Aguilar amp head and cab bass rig.
When I joined a band as a bassist I didn’t feel worthy of playing through Aguilar gear but I got a head and cab that I thought was pretty good for the money.
Eventually I was asked to switch from bass to rhythm guitar, so I eventually sold off the good bass guitar and bass amp rig, kept the crappy bass.
Last year I bought a good bass guitar which I hadn’t had in years. Having had experience playing through a real bass rig, I’ve been perfectly content to plug the bass into my Line 6 HX Stomp XL and play through its virtual bass amps.
The speaker is a Line 6 full range speaker with emulations for guitar amp, keyboard amp, etc. But I’m also ok with running the HX Stomp into my cheap Mackie monitors for, well, monitoring
I don’t go for loud, earth shaking bass at home anyway because I want to maintain good relations with the neighbors. I use headphones when I want to hear how the bass really sounds in the mix.
Monitors for are more a space issue now… I don’t have proper space to have bigger ones, but I monitor through them cause I get too tired with long headphones sessions.
I do use some parallel saturation when mixing my bass recordings, and have some preamp pedal (Catalinbread 5f6 Bassman) to get the “amp” sound and I’m pretty comfortable with it. Probably just getting a got DI box might be a good solution.
I guess that might explain why the HX Stomp models are $100 off at the moment.
I bought mine around 2020 or so. Seems like I install a firmware update for it at least once a year. Line 6 just keeps the updates coming.
Anyway, up to you whether to save some money now on an HX Stomp or buy the next model - probably at full price until Black Friday at the earliest - whenever that comes out.
I recently got an HX One to try out some of the effects first. I know it doesn’t have the amps but i’m pretty interested in some of the effects and the Noble preamp thing.
If I end up liking it enough I might go for the HX Stomp or the newer version.
if its only about the recorded sound in your DAW the answer would probably be no, you wouldn’t like it as well
if its about the feeling while playing and listening to an amp with cabinet, the answer could be yes, but I’m not sure. Only to have real buttons and a speaker should not have that much of a change of your mind, if you don’t like the thing in general.
On the other side I would say, if you like a plugin and have the option to get it as a real device or instrument, it could be more fun. From my experience I would say having the real thing in my studio and a plugin, I have more fun with the real thing
Probably on headphones would be the same issue.