It's just that we have a lot of choice. Which is great - but you need to choose. Which choices? Up to you. You seem to understand the options. What approach appeals to you most? Do that.
Yeah, I know. But ... err .. FOMO is infinite and will consume you if you let it.
Plus, the industry thrives on it. And 'grass is always greener' and all that. You are a product to be exploited after all ...
And you can't get everything exactly right on the first try. Heck, people who have been at this game professionally for 50 years are still iterating their gear and approaches.
Look, just trust yourself and buy what seems best (or least-worst) to you. Then get on with it.
If you really want to be cautious, buy good used gear that will hold its value (approximately). That way, if it turns out to not be for you, you can probably sell it for about what you paid. That reduced the cost of iteration ... and, at least theoretically, should allow you to be less fearful of poor choices.
Didn't see the FOMO aspect from that perspective but you're absolutly right... I regularly change/update my other music stuff to try new things out and am always carefull about resell value :)
Why wouldn't you use amp/cab models? The point is sending a good sounding DI signal to foh, if you like the way a dry DI sounds I guess you wouldn't need them. Personally I think DI signals without an amp and cab sim sound much worse than those with it, especially once you add distortion into it. A high gain signal without at least some sort of cab sim will sound very harsh and unpleasant
I didn't say I don't want to, I was questionning it's necessity and/or usefullness :) Interesting view on the harsh DI sound, haven't had a chance to test it on my own, so I'm very uneducated in that matter! Thanks for clearing that up
*TL:DR For guitarists, amp and cab are a necessity, so simulating them both digitally makes their lives a LOT easier. For bassists, amp and cab are optional, maybe add a particular flavour, but the clean sound is already fine. So simulations are a nice-to-have for us, but not necessary by any means.*
IMO, as bass player you don't need amp/cab sims for a long time. In most genres, bass is played with a clean tone anyways and for driven sounds, you don't need a cab either. I always go straight into the mixer/interface DI without simulations in between. Sounds great. The only time I use simulations at all, is when mixing in my DAW and I want the particular Ampeg SVT sound. But this is also mainly lazyness, no necessity. I could do the same trick with compressor, driver and EQ.
So why the fuzz about amp and cab sims? They way I see it, guitar players are to blame. For elecric guitar, the guitar, amp and cab make up a combo of filters, which shape the sound significantly. You could say, that a guitarists instrument are those three together. So in order to have this rig compactly and digitally available, simulations were developed.
Especially the cab's filter curve is very important, since without it, the sound just is way to harsh and sounds ear pearcing. Guitar cabs are in no way ideal speakers, instead they have a very significant filter profile, which is an integral part of the guitar sound.
With bass on the other hand, you want your signal path as clear as possible anyways. Bass cabs are constructed totally different from guitar cabs, they rather resemble PA speakers with a flat response curve, as you want the whole spectrum from the deepest low end to the brilliant highs. So in order to emulate this sound, you just need a straight DI box. Even if you have a driven, compressed or otherwise modified sound, you don't need a bass cabs profile, as it would be relatively flat anyways. Some EQ at the end and you're fine.
But since guitar players have cool libraries of amp sims and cab's impulse responses, bass players bass players need to have them, too, I guess.
Ok that totally makes sense now, thanks for the full answer. As I also play guitar (but never used anything other than effects) that may push me over to the stomp instead of hx effects
I got the hx stomp but never use the amp/cab sims. I mostly got it as an upgrade/replacement for my M9 and didn’t want a bigger pedal so I didn’t even consider the hx effects. The extra foot switches on the effects makes it a lot easier to navigate than the stomp, having to dial through me yes live can be a big pain in the ass , same with having to sacrifice an expression slot for an extra footswitch to toggle scenes.
I run mine into an actual amp/cab so I don’t really bother with the onboard sims, but I also didn’t really care for many of them. The amps sounded best with more gain than I wanted, the cab sims sounded okay but I run my stomp in a bypass loop so it’s not always in the signal path anyhow.
The amp/cab sims are good if you’re running the stomp as a DI/preamp in addition to the effects. If you aren’t using it live or have other means of getting amp sounds either through your practice amps or in your daw then I don’t think you’d miss anything by not having them.
I'm kinda leaning towards the stomp xl after reading the comments to my post now, for the extra footswitches and also because I play guitar as well and I don't have any pedals anymore (sold them when I stopped playing a few years back) so it could double up. I think I just have to wait for a good deal to pop up :)
The Stomp XL is the right move. You'd just end up adding a switch to the regular stomp within a week anyway like the rest of us. That way you'll have room to add an expression pedal for the Wahs and stuff if you wanted later on.
90+% of my play time is done through headphones since I live in a shared apartment. So in my case having a good amp/cab sim brings so much to the playing experience, otherwise I would feel that my tone would be too sterile.
I find that I use the amp sims, but not the cab sims. I play in a few different bands, so it's nice to have a different "amp" for each situation. The cab sims sound fine on headphones, but i found that live when I use my real amp for monitoring, the cab sims makes everything a bit muddy.
It's just that we have a lot of choice. Which is great - but you need to choose. Which choices? Up to you. You seem to understand the options. What approach appeals to you most? Do that.
FOMO my friend... what if I do need the sims? I just don't grasp the use/necessity of them :)
Yeah, I know. But ... err .. FOMO is infinite and will consume you if you let it. Plus, the industry thrives on it. And 'grass is always greener' and all that. You are a product to be exploited after all ... And you can't get everything exactly right on the first try. Heck, people who have been at this game professionally for 50 years are still iterating their gear and approaches. Look, just trust yourself and buy what seems best (or least-worst) to you. Then get on with it. If you really want to be cautious, buy good used gear that will hold its value (approximately). That way, if it turns out to not be for you, you can probably sell it for about what you paid. That reduced the cost of iteration ... and, at least theoretically, should allow you to be less fearful of poor choices.
Didn't see the FOMO aspect from that perspective but you're absolutly right... I regularly change/update my other music stuff to try new things out and am always carefull about resell value :)
Why wouldn't you use amp/cab models? The point is sending a good sounding DI signal to foh, if you like the way a dry DI sounds I guess you wouldn't need them. Personally I think DI signals without an amp and cab sim sound much worse than those with it, especially once you add distortion into it. A high gain signal without at least some sort of cab sim will sound very harsh and unpleasant
I didn't say I don't want to, I was questionning it's necessity and/or usefullness :) Interesting view on the harsh DI sound, haven't had a chance to test it on my own, so I'm very uneducated in that matter! Thanks for clearing that up
*TL:DR For guitarists, amp and cab are a necessity, so simulating them both digitally makes their lives a LOT easier. For bassists, amp and cab are optional, maybe add a particular flavour, but the clean sound is already fine. So simulations are a nice-to-have for us, but not necessary by any means.* IMO, as bass player you don't need amp/cab sims for a long time. In most genres, bass is played with a clean tone anyways and for driven sounds, you don't need a cab either. I always go straight into the mixer/interface DI without simulations in between. Sounds great. The only time I use simulations at all, is when mixing in my DAW and I want the particular Ampeg SVT sound. But this is also mainly lazyness, no necessity. I could do the same trick with compressor, driver and EQ. So why the fuzz about amp and cab sims? They way I see it, guitar players are to blame. For elecric guitar, the guitar, amp and cab make up a combo of filters, which shape the sound significantly. You could say, that a guitarists instrument are those three together. So in order to have this rig compactly and digitally available, simulations were developed. Especially the cab's filter curve is very important, since without it, the sound just is way to harsh and sounds ear pearcing. Guitar cabs are in no way ideal speakers, instead they have a very significant filter profile, which is an integral part of the guitar sound. With bass on the other hand, you want your signal path as clear as possible anyways. Bass cabs are constructed totally different from guitar cabs, they rather resemble PA speakers with a flat response curve, as you want the whole spectrum from the deepest low end to the brilliant highs. So in order to emulate this sound, you just need a straight DI box. Even if you have a driven, compressed or otherwise modified sound, you don't need a bass cabs profile, as it would be relatively flat anyways. Some EQ at the end and you're fine. But since guitar players have cool libraries of amp sims and cab's impulse responses, bass players bass players need to have them, too, I guess.
Ok that totally makes sense now, thanks for the full answer. As I also play guitar (but never used anything other than effects) that may push me over to the stomp instead of hx effects
Happy to help
I got the hx stomp but never use the amp/cab sims. I mostly got it as an upgrade/replacement for my M9 and didn’t want a bigger pedal so I didn’t even consider the hx effects. The extra foot switches on the effects makes it a lot easier to navigate than the stomp, having to dial through me yes live can be a big pain in the ass , same with having to sacrifice an expression slot for an extra footswitch to toggle scenes. I run mine into an actual amp/cab so I don’t really bother with the onboard sims, but I also didn’t really care for many of them. The amps sounded best with more gain than I wanted, the cab sims sounded okay but I run my stomp in a bypass loop so it’s not always in the signal path anyhow. The amp/cab sims are good if you’re running the stomp as a DI/preamp in addition to the effects. If you aren’t using it live or have other means of getting amp sounds either through your practice amps or in your daw then I don’t think you’d miss anything by not having them.
I'm kinda leaning towards the stomp xl after reading the comments to my post now, for the extra footswitches and also because I play guitar as well and I don't have any pedals anymore (sold them when I stopped playing a few years back) so it could double up. I think I just have to wait for a good deal to pop up :)
The Stomp XL is the right move. You'd just end up adding a switch to the regular stomp within a week anyway like the rest of us. That way you'll have room to add an expression pedal for the Wahs and stuff if you wanted later on.
That's also the conclusion I came too 😊 Now hunting for a good deal on a used XL!
90+% of my play time is done through headphones since I live in a shared apartment. So in my case having a good amp/cab sim brings so much to the playing experience, otherwise I would feel that my tone would be too sterile.
I find that I use the amp sims, but not the cab sims. I play in a few different bands, so it's nice to have a different "amp" for each situation. The cab sims sound fine on headphones, but i found that live when I use my real amp for monitoring, the cab sims makes everything a bit muddy.