Amplification for Little Phatty/Slim Phatty

[gabrielstigmatic]

I'm planning on getting a Little Phatty and then expanding to polyphony later by buying some Slims to go with it. My question is, what do you all recommend as far as amplification goes? Obviously these things go pretty low so they need some sort of a sub or bass cab. So, what does everyone use as far as amps and speakers?

[Assar]

Will you use it to play live or in a (home) studio?

I use mine in my home studio.
I connect it to my computer sound card (through a Line6 POD XT) and out to a pair of Genelec 8030 (active monitors). That's bass enough for me.
Remeber that small rooms have limits when it comes to handling low frequencies. A good amplification of low frequencies in a small room can get difficulties like nodes and extinctions (is that the correct english terms?). Google for "acoustic treatment".

[avj]

For rehearsal with my band, we have a mixer into a couple of power amps that feed a pair of 18" JBL full-range speakers. Vocals, kick+snare mics, and my Little Phatty and Alesis Micron are fed into it, and it sounds amazing with the synths.

If I know the venue will have crappy monitoring, when we play out I'll bring along an Ampeg B-100R bass amp that functions as a stage-volume monitor for me and can also fed into the house PA via direct out.

At home, I mostly use headphones, but will also occasionally use the B-100R.

I'd say a keyboard combo amp would be your best bet if you don't already have a home setup like Assar mentioned, or if you intend on playing with a band. Keyboard amps are typically cheaper than bass amps (especially on the used market), but they are also capable of handling the same amount of low end. I wouldn't recommend using a guitar amp unless it's pushing a bass cabinet, as guitar cabs can't handle the low frequencies and will probably lead to blown speakers.

[jeepo]

For a while a played through just a pa, sometimes a bass amp, then I added a sub to the pa, and now there's no going back to a sub-less system, at least for me. The sub took a huge load off the pa, which makes a big difference if other things are using the pa too. Also the bass is much mo' phat.

[Assar]

If you are playing live by your own - all synths - it's nice to have a loud bass.
If you are playing in a band together with a bass player, it is still nice to have a loud bass amp for your synth. For you. But for the rest of the band - and the audience! - it is definitely better to cut the bass frequencies for the synths to better fit in the bands total frequency spectra. Cut the synths from, say, 150 Hz and down and let the bass player manage the lower frequencies.
That's a general advice ...

[gabrielstigmatic]

I just ordered my Moog Little Phatty today! I'll be playing it both live and at home. I've got a set of old Snell Type K speakers I'm thinking of using for the mids/highs. Then I'm thinking of buying a Snell sub and one of their sub amps. They don't happen to sell amps for the Type K's though or even for their newer mid/high based speakers. Any suggestions as far as amps go for the Type K's?

[agarver]

I use my Little Phatty Stage in a rock band and I use a powered Tapco Thump (cheezy-ish but cheap and light) and recently added a Yorkville LS200p powered sub (200 watts 1-10") to put some lows in - it whips the Tapco's 15" hands down. It weights about 55#, which isn't too bad for a guy that used to haul his SVT all over the country.

http://www.yorkville.com/products.asp?t ... t=2&id=239


I added the sub because when I would do low pass filter sweeps or play bass lines in the moog I'd smell the tapco's 15" toasting, a smell that once you know you never ignore, kinda like bad meat after you ate it. Works great with the top high passed at around 100.

To me 150 would be way too high of a high pass for the music I play but could make sense for you. I find the sound a lot richer with the sub.

With bands it is all about note choice and arrangement - when I go low like that the bass is usually playing high and percussive/melodic. We trade.

[Voltor07]

I use a slightly modified Peavey KB/A 60 keyboard combo amp. I say slightly modified, because it has a low frequency driver and piezo tweeter that I added myself. The keyboard amps I've seen, including the Rolands, are sorely lacking in the bass department...but then, if it were up to me, all keyboard amps would go down to 10Hz.

[JWaltman]

I use a bluesky mediadesk, not top of the bill, but it does have a subwoofer. Besides that, my main monitoring device is a set of cans, Ultrasone Pro 750, superb cans which really show the sonic depths of the phatty! (Especially when using the phatty's onboard headphone output)