I have synchronized my PC to the DCX2496 using a RS232 cord and Behringer DCX-Remote software. This allows saving the programs to PC.
If you need the full set of URB Simulator DCX2496 programs just PM me. Please include an email address that I can send the file.
You will need:
Behringer DCX2496
Behringer DCX-Remote software.
PC running XP or System 7
RS232 serial cable (DB9 female to DB9 male, all 9 wires functioning).
I found a RS232 cable at the thrift store for $1.50
Make Your Piezo Fretless Sound Like an Upright
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FretLessSince68
- Posts:307
- Joined:Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:29 am
- Location:On an Island, WA, USA
One good note makes my day.
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FunkDaFied
- Posts:83
- Joined:Thu May 10, 2007 1:36 pm
- Location:France
- Contact:
URB simulator
I have created a URB simulator and had the pleasure of using it for nearly a year now. It’s a single unit, built from instructions on this site.
My 78’ Precision has been modified with stringsavers/piezo-pickups and a preamp from Ghost (Acousti-phonic), and strings as advised.
“Your ability to think like an Upright bass player is important. If you play in a style not possible on the URB then it will not sound realistic”.
This quote has been important for me to create a realistic URB-sound. I have changed my playing style and moved my right hand up to the fingerboard and picking the strings harder.
It is a lot easier to play URB-sound for an amateur than the real thing
Comparing it to a URB in acoustic one to one situation there is a significant difference in favor of the original.
Comparing it to a processed URB in a gig situation I think it’s only the looks that will make the difference. When studied, you can hear the URB longer strings sound, but no low frequency delay. The URB-sim delivers clearer string sound, and a lot more sustain. Playing style have to be revised to damp more
Amp; a good one is needed to get out what is in the URB-sim of lower freq
The original settings are still in use, and I think the no4 sounds good for my style. I have no reason to tweak the parameters.
Conclusion; It’s not like an acoustic URB, but it sounds like a processed URB with the addition of the lower freq delay. It was worth building and I am really happy with it!!!
Thank you fretlessSince68 for bringing the idea to this forum and for all the help to realise it!!
My 78’ Precision has been modified with stringsavers/piezo-pickups and a preamp from Ghost (Acousti-phonic), and strings as advised.
“Your ability to think like an Upright bass player is important. If you play in a style not possible on the URB then it will not sound realistic”.
This quote has been important for me to create a realistic URB-sound. I have changed my playing style and moved my right hand up to the fingerboard and picking the strings harder.
It is a lot easier to play URB-sound for an amateur than the real thing
Comparing it to a URB in acoustic one to one situation there is a significant difference in favor of the original.
Comparing it to a processed URB in a gig situation I think it’s only the looks that will make the difference. When studied, you can hear the URB longer strings sound, but no low frequency delay. The URB-sim delivers clearer string sound, and a lot more sustain. Playing style have to be revised to damp more
Amp; a good one is needed to get out what is in the URB-sim of lower freq
The original settings are still in use, and I think the no4 sounds good for my style. I have no reason to tweak the parameters.
Conclusion; It’s not like an acoustic URB, but it sounds like a processed URB with the addition of the lower freq delay. It was worth building and I am really happy with it!!!
Thank you fretlessSince68 for bringing the idea to this forum and for all the help to realise it!!
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FretLessSince68
- Posts:307
- Joined:Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:29 am
- Location:On an Island, WA, USA
Which is a better type instrument to use with the URB Simulator, Acoustic box or solid body? Given that both have piezo pickups installed.
It comes down to feedback resistance as the most significant factor.
A solid body, or slab, will be almost 100% immune to feedback, whereas an acoustic or semi-acoustic will start resonating at a certain loudness just as it would without the URB Simulator when amplified. This resonance (feedback) drastically effects the low frequency response of the instrument.
As to the tonal differences between the two. I don't have an acoustic or semi-acoustic bass so can't comment. I would assume that there is a difference so perhaps someone else will post their opinion here.
I can say that the piezo pickup is the most important factor I have observed to this date for getting a good acoustic sound.
It comes down to feedback resistance as the most significant factor.
A solid body, or slab, will be almost 100% immune to feedback, whereas an acoustic or semi-acoustic will start resonating at a certain loudness just as it would without the URB Simulator when amplified. This resonance (feedback) drastically effects the low frequency response of the instrument.
As to the tonal differences between the two. I don't have an acoustic or semi-acoustic bass so can't comment. I would assume that there is a difference so perhaps someone else will post their opinion here.
I can say that the piezo pickup is the most important factor I have observed to this date for getting a good acoustic sound.
One good note makes my day.
I*ve created an even cheaper and mor customizable offer:
A bass is a bass is a bass..is not an upright
If it doesn't give an unamplified sound close to it, it's all wasted time and money. An pre-whatever-effect-tool makes you dependent on...
- if it does sound somewhat like you wish, invite someone else to listen to your outstanding playings, without mentioning anything. Get some true
objective opinions.
- your bass is not only sounding like one of a kind of vintage custom shop or well and regulary played fenders and that same grolwing could be an upright? Go to step one and invute other people.
- Just in case everybody is asking you ampllify your "upright" ,give it a try with a 20-bucks Piezo (all Piezos are Ceramic, so a Differnce is only hearable, once you''re sugested, that it makes your bass fly...with attached connector, fixing it on different parts of the body, behind the bridge, underneath the extended fretboard..inbetween the other PUs, shortly before bridge.
Adjust your main wanted frequency/center frequency by slightly differing your first choice. Always try to get as close as possible to your regular electroncs. Highs can be accentuated getting the piezo closer to the body.
Sometimes its just removing some plastic-coating, stripping and fixating it with a top coat of hot glue.(just hold a stick and a lighter and let it drip.
Opposite way you could accentuate basses indirectly (like all PUs) while dampening highs, fixating the piezo with some glaswool underneath to keep a little distance from the body.
- finally involve a three-way switch:
1 - Bridge volume alone
2 - Bridge and Neck Volume (more bridge, more highs to the bumm from neck
3 - Piezo with some volume adjustment (Vol-Amp with no tone control at all or a footswitch leading to that never used 2nd overdrive channel.
(turned to lowest gain will just act like preamp)
A bass is a bass is a bass..is not an upright
If it doesn't give an unamplified sound close to it, it's all wasted time and money. An pre-whatever-effect-tool makes you dependent on...
- if it does sound somewhat like you wish, invite someone else to listen to your outstanding playings, without mentioning anything. Get some true
objective opinions.
- your bass is not only sounding like one of a kind of vintage custom shop or well and regulary played fenders and that same grolwing could be an upright? Go to step one and invute other people.
- Just in case everybody is asking you ampllify your "upright" ,give it a try with a 20-bucks Piezo (all Piezos are Ceramic, so a Differnce is only hearable, once you''re sugested, that it makes your bass fly...with attached connector, fixing it on different parts of the body, behind the bridge, underneath the extended fretboard..inbetween the other PUs, shortly before bridge.
Adjust your main wanted frequency/center frequency by slightly differing your first choice. Always try to get as close as possible to your regular electroncs. Highs can be accentuated getting the piezo closer to the body.
Sometimes its just removing some plastic-coating, stripping and fixating it with a top coat of hot glue.(just hold a stick and a lighter and let it drip.
Opposite way you could accentuate basses indirectly (like all PUs) while dampening highs, fixating the piezo with some glaswool underneath to keep a little distance from the body.
- finally involve a three-way switch:
1 - Bridge volume alone
2 - Bridge and Neck Volume (more bridge, more highs to the bumm from neck
3 - Piezo with some volume adjustment (Vol-Amp with no tone control at all or a footswitch leading to that never used 2nd overdrive channel.
(turned to lowest gain will just act like preamp)
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FretLessSince68
- Posts:307
- Joined:Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:29 am
- Location:On an Island, WA, USA
PS: any singlestring-looks like single channel is plain lookalike. Piezo is dumb, not linear and plainly fixated on what your bass sounds like dry.
End of the story for anyone who thought about having a flying-v with dimarzio overdrivers in...and a piezo 6-channel-was-expensive-bridge
will turn everything around.
If you still believe, I start selling "good sound wishes", which will be affordable to anyone, starting as low as only 2ct per note. Now start calculating
..and I swear, I find some wrecked Ex-Star glorifying the mystic sound wonders of my wishes on concert x and y...
Yes..you can rely on boring physics, but just staying there with a good looking piece of dirt, which simply doesn't want to follow your will to play the right notes..at least not at the right time...forget the pope, rely on
good sound wishesssssssssss..it's dirt cheap magic, exclusively for you.
..otherwise...I've got a holy piezo of a guitarist, who went to the vatican AND Santiago de Compostela AND Lourdes in the same year and one of
the popes even spit on it..offers start at a reasonable 19,99 bucks.
Just give it a go or you may get satanized by a hell of bad sounds!!!
End of the story for anyone who thought about having a flying-v with dimarzio overdrivers in...and a piezo 6-channel-was-expensive-bridge
will turn everything around.
If you still believe, I start selling "good sound wishes", which will be affordable to anyone, starting as low as only 2ct per note. Now start calculating
..and I swear, I find some wrecked Ex-Star glorifying the mystic sound wonders of my wishes on concert x and y...
Yes..you can rely on boring physics, but just staying there with a good looking piece of dirt, which simply doesn't want to follow your will to play the right notes..at least not at the right time...forget the pope, rely on
good sound wishesssssssssss..it's dirt cheap magic, exclusively for you.
..otherwise...I've got a holy piezo of a guitarist, who went to the vatican AND Santiago de Compostela AND Lourdes in the same year and one of
the popes even spit on it..offers start at a reasonable 19,99 bucks.
Just give it a go or you may get satanized by a hell of bad sounds!!!
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FretLessSince68
- Posts:307
- Joined:Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:29 am
- Location:On an Island, WA, USA