TC BAM200 - Flat response settings

[Alex Kenivel]

Edit: I did this test with pink noise, which I guess doesn't give quite an accurate reading as a sign sweep can. I'd delete this thread but we don't do that here, so it can now serve as a "How Not To Measure Shit" thread.


There has been some discussion online about how to make the TC BAM200 bass amp work as a solid-state power amp for guitar cabs, including settings to make it so.

Since I've had it, I've been a little skeptical about the currently posted online opinions on how to manipulate the knobs for a flat response so I decided to dig a little deeper.

I ran pink noise into the BAM, tapped the speaker output and ran it into FabFilter Pro Q3 to see what's going on with the frequency response and this is what I've come up with:

and the settings used:

Compare the frequency response when using the older posted settings (B:10/M:3:30/T:10):

That is all. Thank you for listening to my NerdTalk.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I was totally gonna make a video about the subject but I got shit to do today

 

[Los-D]

There has been some discussion online about how to make the TC BAM200 bass amp work as a solid-state power amp for guitar cabs, including settings to make it so.

Since I've had it, I've been a little skeptical about the currently posted online opinions on how to manipulate the knobs for a flat response so I decided to dig a little deeper.

I ran pink noise into the BAM, tapped the speaker output and ran it into FabFilter Pro Q3 to see what's going on with the frequency response and this is what I've come up with:

View attachment 32822
and the settings used:
View attachment 32825

Compare the frequency response when using the older posted settings (B:10/M:3:30/T:10):
View attachment 32823

That is all. Thank you for listening to my NerdTalk.

Much appreciated!

 

[Alex Kenivel]

I would like to mention that ears are King. Although this gives me a very ruler flat response on the Spectrum analyzer, I found that lowering the bass to around 2:00 makes things more pleasant in the room.

 

[banned]

Those are some interesting settings to get things flat on a bass amp...seems like you're bumping UP the bass.

Have you tried something like the Seymour Duncan Power Stage units? They're pretty flat out the box with everything at noon.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Those are some interesting settings to get things flat on a bass amp...seems like you're bumping UP the bass.

Yes, I turned up the bass knob so the low end starts sloping off at 100hz instead of 400hz.

Honestly, in practice, I kind of like the bass dialed back to non-flat! Flat doesn't always equal pleasing!
Now that I've had some uninterrupted time going back and forth between Amp and Amp Capture, I've moved the bass knob back to 10:30 to make them sound alike

Maybe I'm doing something wrong? idk..

Have you tried something like the Seymour Duncan Power Stage units? They're pretty flat out the box with everything at noon.

I have not! I probably should, though!

 

[mbenigni]

Have you tried something like the Seymour Duncan Power Stage units? They're pretty flat out the box with everything at noon.

But the Seymour Duncan stuff > 2x the price. I'll just turn the knobs.

 

[bikescene]

How did you tap the speaker output? Did you use a DI box in between the speaker output and your cab? I was thinking about adjusting my PS170’s EQ in a similar way to get a flatter response.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

How did you tap the speaker output? Did you use a DI box in between the speaker output and your cab? I was thinking about adjusting my PS170’s EQ in a similar way to get a flatter response.

Wow. I didn't notice this reply until just now. Sorry @bikescene

Yes, I used a DI to split before the cab.

To be clear about my findings ITT, I reverted to using the BMT settings that had been floating around. I believe it was @Jim Soloway who tipped me to using a sine wave sweep instead of pink noise for analyzing the frequency response and I think that's where I erred.

 

[BenIfin]

Wow. I didn't notice this reply until just now. Sorry @bikescene

Yes, I used a DI to split before the cab.

To be clear about my findings ITT, I reverted to using the BMT settings that had been floating around. I believe it was @Jim Soloway who tipped me to using a sine wave sweep instead of pink noise for analyzing the frequency response and I think that's where I erred.

Hey Alex - do you mean you found the settings below to be more "accurate" / "flat-er-er" than your Pink Noise-DI results ?

 

[DrewJD82]

Surprised I never saw this thread when it was originally posted!

I've got both a Duncan PS-170 and the BAM200 and prefer the BAM. I remember something about the top end being a bit more pleasing, but size and cost are the two biggest factors!

 

[Richard_G]

I bought one of these earlier this summer to have as a backup, but haven't really explored it yet - let alone measured anything.

So is the consensus that the 10:00-3:30-10:00 is flat-ish?

 

[aflynt]

I bought one a month or so ago and used it for the first time live on Saturday. It actually sounded great driving my old G1265 loaded Twin-sans-chassis cab. I did pretty much the same 10:00-3:30-10:00 thing to start and tweaked it a bit here and there to the room.

Some observations:

• It starts to compress quite a bit as you hit the input harder which kind of homogenizes things. I kind of wish there was a visual representation of how much it's compressing (like an led or something).
• The high end seems a bit harsh and I wound up adding a 12k lowpass filter on my presets.
• The tone controls aren't stepped with detents, but they seem to kind of be stepped sonically as I adjust things. IE - as you turn the controls it seems like the tone will suddenly change in ranges. I could just be hallucinating this though.

-Aaron

 

[EOengineer]

I have the BAM as a backup poweramp so I can push my helix into a cab if the venue has a back line cab. The thing fits into the small Helix backpack pocket like it was built for it.

 

[synthpenguin]

Has anybody here experienced the overheating / failures some people were reporting before? I remember a lot of talk about that when they first started to catch on as power amps for modelers, but it was hard to tell how widespread it was.

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Hey Alex - do you mean you found the settings below to be more "accurate" / "flat-er-er" than your Pink Noise-DI results ?

View attachment 50559

Pretty much, maybe even a bit higher. It's hard to tell without indicators for the knobs but here's a picture of the settings I leave it at:

 

[Alex Kenivel]

Has anybody here experienced the overheating / failures some people were reporting before? I remember a lot of talk about that when they first started to catch on as power amps for modelers, but it was hard to tell how widespread it was.

Mine gets pretty warm and the fan is annoying AF when not playing but I've accidentally left it on for most of a day with no issues.