Difference between revisions of "Presets 2.0"

Revision as of 11:41, 27 December 2007

This is from a post on the Bose^® Pro Portable PA Community by Cliff-at-Bose December 6, 2004.

It is here because it gives some interesting insight into the thinking behind this next generation of presets. You might also like to read about Presets 1.0 from a year before.

Presets 2.0 An informal Discussion

Listening to our customers and noting our own reactions to using this system, we have upgraded the current presets and added some new ones too. I basically did the work of developing these, simply by listening and tweaking the sound to be “right”. I think we have a really improved set here. This is an overview of these from what was, for me, a really fascinating experience. I hope these make your artistic lives better and better.

First of all, here’s a complete list of the V2 presets for reference, lifted directly from our website:

Personalized Amplification System™ family of products Presets 2.0

No Instrument Category 00 "Flat (for pre-recorded music, most instruments and mics, Line6 Pod XT, Line6 Variax Acoustic 700)" General 01 Handheld Microphones Vocal Microphones 02 Headworn Microphones Vocal Microphones 03 "Vocal Mic High Gain, Bright" Vocal Microphones 04 "Vocal Mic High Gain, Normal" Vocal Microphones 05 Audix OM-5 Vocal Microphones 06 Audix OM-6 Vocal Microphones 07 Beyer M88 Vocal Microphones 08 Crown CM-310 / CM-311 Vocal Microphones 09 EV N/D357 Vocal Microphones 10 EV N/D767 Vocal Microphones 11 EV N/D967 w/ highpass Vocal Microphones 12 Neumann KMS 105 Vocal Microphones 13 Shure SM57 Vocal Microphones 14 Shure SM58 Vocal Microphones 15 Shure Beta 57A Vocal Microphones 16 Shure Beta 58A Vocal Microphones 17 Shure Beta 87A Vocal Microphones 18 Sennheiser e855 Vocal Microphones 19 Sennheiser MD431-II Vocal Microphones 20 Sennheiser MD441 Vocal Microphones 21 22 23 24 25 Electric Guitar Direct Electric Guitars 26 "Miked Guitar Amp w/ SM57, ""Rumbly"" " Electric Guitars 27 "Miked Guitar Amp w/ SM57, ""Normal"" " Electric Guitars 28 Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitars 29 Fender Telecaster Electric Guitars 30 Gibson ES-335 / ES-345 Electric Guitars 31 Gibson ES-335 / ES-345 w/ split neck pickup Electric Guitars 32 Gibson Les Paul Classic gold-top Electric Guitars 33 Gretsch Country Gentleman Electric Guitars 34 Ibanez Artist Electric Guitars 35 Paul Reed Smith Custom 22 Electric Guitars 36 37 38 39 40 Acoustic guit w/ piezo Acoustic Guitars 41 Acoustic guit w/ dynamic mic Acoustic Guitars 42 Acoustic guit w/ condenser mic Acoustic Guitars 43 Guild D25 w/ Fishman Piezo Acoustic Guitars 44 Guild D25 w/ Fishman Piezo and sound hole notch Acoustic Guitars 45 Martin Backpack w/ pickup Acoustic Guitars 46 "Martin DC16, pickup only (no mic)" Acoustic Guitars 47 Martin D28 w/ piezo pickup Acoustic Guitars 48 Martin D45 w/ condenser mic Acoustic Guitars 49 Taylor 810 w/ Expression System pickup Acoustic Guitars 50 Electronic (keyboard/synth/digi piano/module/EWI) Keyboard 51 Fender-Rhodes 73 Keyboard 52 Hohner Clavinet D6 Keyboard 53 Wurlitzer 200 Keyboard 54 55 Accordion w/ LIMEX Micro Pro Special 56 Audio-Technica 35 Pro Clip on for trumpet Special 57 Low Volume Pre-Recorded Music EQ Special 58 59 60 Upright 3/4 Bass w/ Fishman pickup Basses 61 Active Bass 1 Basses 62 Active Bass 2 Basses 63 Active Bass 3 Basses 64 Fender Active Jazz Bass Basses 65 Fender '66 Passive P Bass Basses 66 Fender '69 Passive J Bass Basses 67 68 69 70 Kick Drum Drums 71 "Kick drum, Audix D6" Drums 72 "Kick drum, AKG D112" Drums 73 "Kick drum, Sennheiser 601" Drums 74 "Kick drum, Shure Beta 52a" Drums 75 Generic Area/Overhead Drums 76 "Drum overhead, Differential SM57*" Drums 77 "Drum overhead, Differential Electret*" Drums 78 79 80 50 Hz High Pass Filter Utility 81 80 Hz High Pass Filter Utility 82 5 KHz Low Pass Filter Utility 83 50 Hz / 5 KHz Band Pass Utility 84 80 Hz / 5 KHz Band Pass Utility 85 "200 Hz, 1 oct, -6dB Notch" Utility 86 "500 Hz, 1 oct, -6dB Notch" Utility 87 "500 Hz, 1 oct, +6dB Boost" Utility 88 "Flat, -70dB Gate" Utility 89 "Flat, -80dB Gate" Utility 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 1kHz Bandpass (debug) Utility 98 99 Flat Utility

1. Mic presets: We (and you) all love the basic sound of the Shure 87a/Preset2 combination, so I started here as a reference. Of course, every microphone has its own character. These include how the mic responds to proximity, how its sound changes with close-vocal sound pressure, how its polar response integrates vocal sound, how high and low it goes spectrally and how it integrates feedback into its total sound. And so, you can turn the knobs all you want, but these qualities (and others) will still be there. That’s why you like that mic you’re using.

To start, preset 17 is the same as old preset 02. We added a lot of popular mics as you can see. The Crowns (“Differoid” mics) include the 310 handheld and the 311 “drummer’s mic”. Both sound great with their preset. The 310 has very high gain before feedback. About the only downside here is that you really have to be on the mic hard, more so than, say, the 87a. Try the new SM57 and Beta57. The 57 in particular is considered by some a “cheap mic” ($89 at Musican’s Friend), but give the SM57/Preset 13 a try. I’m really happy with this one, a very attractive vocal presentation. Also, many are happy with the new high-gain and high-gain bright presets (Hilmar’s work). He worked in some aggressive high-end filters for control of that little high squeak you might get playing loud, especially in close proximity to the system (like when the club owner backs your band up into the corner). This will help singers who are playing loud with the unusual HF extension of such mics as the Neumann 105. Developing these presets, I made sure a female singer sounded good on all these too.

2. New electric guitar stuff galore-a-rama here. Preset 25 is an averaged spectral response of 12” guitar speakers and is useful in many ways other than guitar. (Use your ears). Basically it bumps up around 2KHz and rolls off about 5KHz on the high end, 100 on the low end. 26 and 27 are very useful and Tony Sarno and I worked on this together, for use with amplifying a small amp with an sm57 pickup. Tube-and-cone freaks; rejoice!! Both presets have a slight “honk” (500 Hz octave) and the “rumbly” one is bumped in the deep bass, for anyone wanting that “stack” sound on full distortion. Tony said “yeah” when we were done. Erik Gustafson of the Brothers Groove liked 26 instantly, playing a Tele and miking his amp. Be careful of 27 because it will do a good job of reamplifying bass guitar and kick drum on a loud stage. The rest are standard from the first batch of presets.

3. We added new acoustic guitar presets, especially some nice Martins sent here for preset work from Nazareth PA. I personally love the pickup-fitted Backpack/Preset 45 combo. Small, inexpensive but big lovely sound. It’s like the sm57; listen with your ears, not with list price.

4. #57 is for prerecorded music at low level, for DJ’s and for break music at the gig. Sort of like the Fletcher-Munson (Tony Sarno calles it the “Herman Munster”) curve; bass and treble boost, just the right amount if you’re playing a 85 dB or so.

5. New basses! My fave is 66, developed with Bass Monster Wolf Ginandes. Wolf brought in the antique collection, his SVT head and a 2x10 bottom he has used as a standard for years. We used this as a reference on our big stage. You don’t want to lift the head, by the way. I think we got just the right amount of “unh” in and “quack” out for classic Fender basses. The hi-z preamp in our system does not load down the pickup. 65 is also very cool but many love 66. 60 for acoustic basses with Fishman on the bridge is still a fave, read “classic”.

6. For drums, we added the new D6 Audix, very nice, punchy. 76 and 77 are for a pair of 57’s and a pair of wideband electrets connected out of phase. These are placed on either side of the snare, below the cymbals but above the upper drum heads. This gives us a very good signal because of proximity and cancels long bass wavelengths like bass guitar, so they aren’t re-broadcast by the drum “overheads”. Want more hihat?; Move the mic towards the hihat (and so on). Like all good mic technique, the fewer, the better. This also allows a drummer to have a quick setup. It does require a Y-jack as follows: Male xlr into a pair of female xlr’s, one of which has pins 2 and 3 reversed. Try it out. Beats all the complication of 12 mics, submixer, ect. (ewwww). We have been using this setup in our Linemen shows since they started and havn’t wanted to change it.

7. We added some nice “utility” stuff. Preset 85 (-6dB at 200 Hz) is very useful for miking grand piano. When the gain goes up, so does 200 Hz. This makes a fine place to start with any mic setup. I used both a wideband condenser and some 57’s. Both profited from this. The main mic should go over the bass strings, which is where most of the instrument’s tone seems to come from. A second mic over the upper 2 octaves and near the keys can be used to bring up the definition of the upper register. Turn the bass off. The highpasses are always useful and we added a 50 Hz the old 80 Hz. The 50/5K and 80/5K bandpasses are also very useful, like for a noisy guitar amp. We included a few gates. Anyone use these?

8. Preset 97 (1KHz bandpass) is just for us. We get one, you get 98. You come first. On the other hand, this might be a good bongo drum preset, you never know.

[Kyle-at-Bose tweaked name of presets. Thanks for writing this up Cliff! Cool]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kyle-at-Bose, Tue May 23 2006 05:05 AM

Posts: 1050 | Location: Framingham MA USA | Registered: Thu October 16 2003 Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post Brian in Stouffville

Posted Sun October 22 2006 06:10 AM Hide Post Shouldn't the Sure Sm57 preset(# 13) be listed as an 'instrument microphone' (that's my understanding of it's intended use).

Brian

Presets 2.0: An informal discussion