Rick-o-Sound, or alternatives to "the grey box"

[dean712]

Hieronymous - Thanks for the feedback.

Yes, I definitely want to do all of the experimenting before we get to the studio. I have a little 4 track digital portastation that I can use for that (although the mic's, if we use them, will be different, it should be a good barometer). Also, we are using the same studio as last time, and we had plenty of free tracks last time, so one extra for bass can't hurt (sheesh - look at all the tracks for vocals, drums, percussion, and misc. guitars!).

I would rather dial in a tone that is a blend of the neck and bridge pickups, split the signal, and run a clean one to the board and one to either a mic'd amp/speakers (or effects), then do just what you said and mix the two during mixdown. Assuming, that is, that that is a good way to go....

The Ric-O-Sound is an intriguing option though, because it is a hard split of one pickup signal one direction, and the other pickup signal the other direction. I will have to experiment a bunch with the portastudio and see what sounds cool.

If anybody else has thoughts or suggestions, fire 'em up.... My sound last time around was good for a demo CD, but we are hoping to kick it all up a notch for this one.

thanks again!

[dean712]

Hey, I forgot to add... I have a Whirlwind A/B Box Selector that I used to use to run 2 basses into one signal and switch between the 2 on stage, between songs.

If I reversed the box, I could probably split the signal 2 ways (use the 'both' selection, as opposed to A or B), which should meet the need I described above. Right?

[marty]

How much is a Ric O Sound box in the USA?

It's listed in the UK on Rosetti's website at £78.00...thats about $148.00.

[00soul]

they are around 65 bucks in the US, i purchased one from ed romans site (probably not a wise decision, but its the only site ive found that sells them without the hassle of snail mail or fax). it would be cheaper to buy one and have someone in the US mail it to you im guesing

[bob_the_bass]

Ref post from John Hall Posted on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 - 06:13 pm:

Many thanks John - purchased something identical today & the results are astounding ... first time I have used the Ric-O-Sound output on my beloved 4003

[elgranluis]

"Paul is very knowledgable about sound, so I would second his comments. I have a few Boss pedals. My Boss Bass Overdrive is okay, but these days I like driving my tube amp harder to get a little grit. My Boss Bass Synthesizer pedal has a really cool feature that I wish the Bass Overdrive pedal had - it has concentric knobs for separately adjusting the effect signal level and the dry (direct) signal, so I can set so that when I stomp on it, the dry signal stays virtually the same, and the effect signal becomes an addition on top. Try a few pedals out and see what fits your sound the best."

actually, the odb3 has a knob intender for that exact thing: blending the clean with the distorted signal...

[hieronymous]

Dean - I think a lot depends on your relationship with your engineer. If they're really open to experimenting to get different sounds, then try everything! However, often engineers are happy to get just one sound, and don't want to try anything else. It might be a good idea to have a good basic sound to run with (like the full signal split), and on one or two songs experiment with the Rick-O-Sound. I think recording should be fun and creative - engineers will appreciate it if you go in with clear ideas about what you want to accomplish, and have equipment that works the way it's supposed to (not that I always accomplish this!).

I've never tried to use the Whirlwind A/B that way - try it at home first.

There's always the option of mic'ing a cab too...