Episode 4 of the Bass Tone podcast, is all about bass amps.

If you’ve been following Bass Tone you’ll know the importance of an amp to your bass sound.

In this week’s podcast you’ll learn all about:

• The difference between valve and solid state amplification
• Class AB, G and D amps
• The options for amp heads, cabinets, and speaker sizes
• How to choose an amp for the best balance of size, tone, power, and price

http://www.EasyEarTraining.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/4_-_Bass_Amps.m4a

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You can also download this episode directly:

Download Bass Tone Podcast – Part 4 (right-click and “Save as…”)

The podcast is an M4A (AAC) file, which should play back on most modern audio software and portable music players. If you have any problems downloading or playing the file please let us know.

Got a question about bass amps or a tip of your own to share? Leave a comment below!

Missed the start of the series? Catch up here.

Ahh, it’s time for all things filth! Overdrive, distortion, fuzz, soft clipping, hard clipping, and limitless other descriptions to describe one of the most dramatic sound effects ever!

If dynamics effects are to claim the prize of being the most controversial and misunderstood effects; then the coveted prize for most popular, certainly (and with no competition) goes to anything that has the words ‘overdrive’, ‘distortion’, ‘fuzz’, or any variant in its descriptive moniker! While originally intended for guitar players (you’ll understand once you learn the history of this effect), no other effect has been so widespread throughout all of music production. Everything from vocals to drums, keyboards, and everything in between has been distorted, overdriven or fuzzed up at one time or another.

I’ll move it one step further. Distortion (unless otherwise specified, for simplicity I’ll refer to this topic generally as “distortion” from now on) actually makes up about 85-90% of the effects market. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that occasionally I use a made up expressive term like “cajillion” to make a point about enormous quantity; BUT, concerning distortion, no such exaggeration is needed – as there are thousands (and I mean that literally) of distortion devices being produced right at this moment.

I’ll bet that you, reading this right now, have at least a few distortion effects lying around!

I know that I certainly own… well… let’s just skip that number for now! Put it this way: I will never again make fun of, or criticize my girlfriend’s penchant for owning innumerable pairs of shoes!

However you slice it, distortion is the big card game in town and everyone wants a seat at the table; either as a consumer, or an opportunist manufacturer who boasts about delivering a new spin to all things crunch!

Why distort your signal?

Now on to more pertinent queries. Why on earth would you want to purposely distort a signal? After all, aren’t we taught by Hi-Fi manufacturers that the lower the signal distortion the better? Why the exception here?

Click to read the rest…

Missed part one? Catch up here.

Welcome to part two of my series helping you gain new enjoyment from ear training by showing you how to get the best sound quality. This week we are going to be talking about amps and speakers.

This is a huge subject and you could easily fill books on such esoteric subjects as crossover design and porting. I’m going to skip those topics and try to give you just the information you need to get great sound. In this article I’m assuming you are interested in stereo music content. Surround sound set-ups really deserve their own article and should be avoided unless you have a very large sum to spend, or you are only interested in home cinema.

Alive And Amplified

Amplifiers serve a simple purpose: they make things LOUDER!

An amplifier multiplies the incoming signal, giving it enough power to drive speakers or headphones. An amplifier can be separate, but may be combined in an all in one Boom Box, or Mini System, or in a pair of active speakers.

Modern amplifiers are great value for money and you don’t have to spend much on a separate hi-fi amp to have a wonderful quality of sound. I would avoid Click to read the rest…