The new Blackglass 7k is.... AMAZING!!!

MackieFX

MackieFX

Experienced
I just booted up FW19.01 to try out this pedal. I own both the real pedal and the neural plugin.

First impressions:
This sounds absolutely phenomenal! It has all the growl and bite of the real pedal and sounds identical. Not only that, but the ability to fine tune the Grunt/Attack with knobs AND having access to all the other drive pedal goodies makes me feel like I will never need another bass OD for my entire bass playing life.

Thank you so much @FractalAudio for this update. I cannot express in words how absolutely thrilled I am to now have all of my guitar AND bass sounds in my AxeIII!

😍
 
I've tried to use it in the past but have not been able to get the kind of tone I want from it. Any suggestions on how to dial it in and what amp / cab pairings work well? I'm not normally a bass player so getting good bass tone is still something I'm working on...

For reference, I use an Ibanez BTB with Bartolini active pickups
 
@MackieFX Are you primarily a bass player on the Axe 3 or a guitar player? I'm looking to find a bass player with a lot of experience with the Axe to give me an idea on whether a bass amp and cab are mandatory to get a killer bass sound or if those can be used by the guitarists and by adding in the drives and good EQing, if they can be unnecessary.

Right now I'm trying to convince my bass player he doesn't need an amp/cab as long as we take time to do proper EQing...but I might be speaking out of my ass and be totally wrong lol.

Edit: Glad to hear about the Blackglass update working great! I told my bass player yesterday when I saw the announcement and he's excited to retry it out.
 
RamboMadCow said:
@MackieFX Are you primarily a bass player on the Axe 3 or a guitar player? I'm looking to find a bass player with a lot of experience with the Axe to give me an idea on whether a bass amp and cab are mandatory to get a killer bass sound or if those can be used by the guitarists and by adding in the drives and good EQing, if they can be unnecessary.

Right now I'm trying to convince my bass player he doesn't need an amp/cab as long as we take time to do proper EQing...but I might be speaking out of my ass and be totally wrong lol.

Edit: Glad to hear about the Blackglass update working great! I told my bass player yesterday when I saw the announcement and he's excited to retry it out.
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There's all different ways to get a good bass sound in the unit. Please see my thread in the bass section for more info.
 
dr bonkers said:
There's all different ways to get a good bass sound in the unit. Please see my thread in the bass section for more info.
Click to expand...

Didn't even know there was a bass section since I almost always stay just in the Axe 3 thread. Thanks I'll check it out!

FractalAudio said:
I don't think you need a cab personally. Whenever we used to track bass in the studio we never used a cab. Bass -> DI -> desk. Typically an Avalon or something.
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You mentioned specifically cab here but does that also include the amp block? I'm trying to get around both if possible so I can blend a Mark IV or II C++ with a Diezel. However, overall band sound as a unit is more important so if the guitars sound great with 1 and the bass needs the amp block so be it.

Chad Beattie said:
Be sure and download the updated Leon Todd preset. Great starting point to hear how the pedal sounds.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/axe-fx-iii-firmware-19-01-public-beta.180948/post-2215315
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Already had it downloaded, just working atm but can't wait to try it out!
 
RamboMadCow said:
@MackieFX Are you primarily a bass player on the Axe 3 or a guitar player? I'm looking to find a bass player with a lot of experience with the Axe to give me an idea on whether a bass amp and cab are mandatory to get a killer bass sound or if those can be used by the guitarists and by adding in the drives and good EQing, if they can be unnecessary.

Right now I'm trying to convince my bass player he doesn't need an amp/cab as long as we take time to do proper EQing...but I might be speaking out of my ass and be totally wrong lol.

Edit: Glad to hear about the Blackglass update working great! I told my bass player yesterday when I saw the announcement and he's excited to retry it out.
Click to expand...
Primarily a guitarist but started down the bass rabbit hole about 10 months ago.

Depending on what you're looking for you don't need a bass amp for a good sound. I quite like the sound of a cab though.
 
FractalAudio said:
I don't think you need a cab personally. Whenever we used to track bass in the studio we never used a cab. Bass -> DI -> desk. Typically an Avalon or something.
Click to expand...
I was confused about this. I know the NDSP B7K plugin has the pedal and a cab. That's how I made it on my FM3. I haven't had a chance to load up this FW yet, as I'm sacrificing my Axe time by letting a friend borrow it in hopes he'll abandon his Pod Go for a real modeler...

I guess we can only try it both ways and see which we like best, eh? My FM3 preset with the current B7K on that sounds great; I can't wait for this :D
 
I worked with the bassist / stick player in my band a couple years ago.

We created one preset with about 5 variations of tone. In some cases, no Amp and/or Cab.

All were nice and fit different scenarios.

At a minimum you probably want a Compressor and a PEQ plus (maybe) a Drive.

Most recording I've done or been involved with was as Cliff said - bass to DI to console.
 
unix-guy said:
I worked with the bassist / stick player in my band a couple years ago.

We created one preset with about 5 variations of tone. In some cases, no Amp and/or Cab.

All were nice and fit different scenarios.

At a minimum you probably want a Compressor and a PEQ plus (maybe) a Drive.

Most recording I've done or been involved with was as Cliff said - bass to DI to console.
Click to expand...

I do have a compressor for my dude, where in the chain should I place the PEQ?
 
unix-guy said:
Generically... See my previous post.
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I'm not sure I follow; are you suggesting to use a second overdrive in conjunction with the B7K's drive or was your post (generically) about getting a good bass tone? I'm just trying to understand your methods :)
 
Ugly Bunny said:
I'm not sure I follow; are you suggesting to use a second overdrive in conjunction with the B7K's drive or was your post (generically) about getting a good bass tone? I'm just trying to understand your methods :)
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My post was generically about dialing in a bass tone.

The preset we created had Compressor, PEQ, Drive, Amp, Cab, Envelope Filter and Phaser, I think. Don't recall the exact signal chain.

But we created scenes that were something like this:

  • Compressor + PEQ
  • Compressor + PEQ + Drive
  • Compressor + Amp
  • Compressor + Amp + Cab
  • Compressor + Drive + Amp + Cab
  • Compressor + PEQ + Drive + Amp
To me, the Compressor is the only must have for Bass. Everything else is "flavor"...

But it all depends on what you're going after.
 
Ugly Bunny said:
I'm not sure I follow; are you suggesting to use a second overdrive in conjunction with the B7K's drive or was your post (generically) about getting a good bass tone? I'm just trying to understand your methods :)
Click to expand...
Download Leon’s updated preset and start from there.
 
I'd never actually heard of this pedal until the other thread about the model being off, so I updated to 19.1 with the following idea in mind.

One of my all time favorite effects is the Octaver. I use it subtly, to mimic the reedy undertones of a saxophone. I decided to run an Octaver in the pitch block in parallel (mixes 100% wet of course) with my main signal, then into the Blackglass, bypassing the amp/cab/etc. It's a subtle but appreciated change. Less muddy, even when I goose the bass or gain.

I'll likely keep it this way.
 
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