StarLifter Deep Dive part 3

Ok, let’s get into the StarLifter, literally. The 1/4” input has a 10db pad if you’re coming in too hot. I almost never use this with my basses so there’s a lot of headroom either way. There’s a 10M ohm load switch with adds compatibility with passive piezo pickup installations and makes the StarLifter very very useful for upright bass players.

Next let’s imagine I’m sitting down to try one of our new Acinonyx 5 basses after Mo flawlessly builds it up for listing on our site (or any bass really but this is an opportunity to let y’all know about these new basses coming along soon :-)

I’m going to start with the eq set flat. These days I tend to leave the contour switch in the “modern” setting but I will often briefly check if the “flat” sound lives up to its name. “Modern” has become the default for me because I just love the way the bottom becomes subtly huge but stays controlled and never gets boomy. This tends to lead me to dark dubby places rather quickly :-) There’s a reason I have extra dark tone controls on all my personal basses. And I love to pop a mute on the bass and thump away. The StarLifter encourages this madness with all its heart.

Ok, on to the next check. Now let’s see how clean we can get. I like to use a heavy pick as well as my fingers for this. With the bass set flat with no impact from a tone knob or onboard preamp I’ll look at pulling some mids out, maybe adding some treble. The bass might get brought up a bit to see how wide we can make things without blowing out the deep bottom with too much energy, which is something the StarLifter will happily do to whatever comes next along the signal path, so use caution. I’ll start with the mid frequency dipped a bit at about 9 o’clock clock and explore between there and 12 o clock. This tends to open up the tone, often making room for thick guitars or the fatness of a big vocal track. It can make the bass leaner if it’s too fat or boomy, not that that’s a problem with my Cat 5.

At this point one might go ahead and see what kind of R and B / Gospel vibes we’re working with since what we’ve done is basically go after a scooped modern vibe, perhaps in the direction of a Marcus Miller kind of thing. And I guess that means slapping :-) Which is not something I do a lot of in my music, for whatever reason. I’ve got nothing against slapping if that’s your jam, and I certainly have to know how my products work in this context, but I’m not an expert by any means, as least as a player. But it’s always fun to get an indulgent fat slap groove going.

Ok, grab the pick again. Now let’s look at a mid forward approach. We might find this useful for an aggressive present grindy kind of thing, maybe reminiscent of Justin Chancellor or some of the heavier metal styles. This is a fun sound to add chorus or flanging or delay to. You can get a track that really kind of swims through the midrange while still absolutely grounding the deep bottom on the mix. I usually end up with the mids at 11 o’clock boost around 11 o’clock frequency. I might also add a bit of treble to taste. This really puts an edge on the tone, making it more present in the mix.

Next we can go back to the contour switch and flip it up to vintage and see how that affects where we’re at. This is the upside down to the modern setting, presenting what we might call a mild frowny face or a more mid forward eq. We feel like this tends to add an old amp kind of quality - an old amp that doesn’t have the top and bottom extension of more modern gear.

I like to think of the contour switch as the starting point and then use the eq controls to dial things in more acutely. 

Ok, so now that we’ve got a sense of the breadth of what we’re working with tonally let’s take a look at some use cases for the StarLifter.

In the scenario above I’m running the preamp into my UA Apollo x4 and I really like the color I get from the V76 plugin in a unison slot, but this is a matter of taste. You don’t need anything else between the StarLifter and “tape”, but I have a hard time not putting a little extra sauce on the tone on the way in most of the time.

I should mention that I personally don’t like compression to tape. It gets in the way and feels strange when I’m trying to snuggle into the groove so I stay away, but you could of course add it to the scene if that’s your thing.

You may have to try the DI pad switch to make it match your input level. Make sure you’ve got your levels right and start making music!

Ok, that’s what I consider the most commonly used approach, but let’s look at adding an amp, cabinet, and mic to the picture. Here I’ve got my StarLifter running into a Genzler Magellan 800 but I’m skipping everything on the front by accessing the power amp directly through the line in jack on the back. Only the volume knob on the amp works now. One can certainly plug the StarLifter in to the front of the amp but then you’re putting a lot more stuff in the signal path and that kind goes against the cleaner simpler approach that the StarLifter offers and that I personally prefer.

So set up your mic and run it into your recording system however you like. I’m not going to get deeply into “how to’s” on miking a bass amp as I’m sure there are tons of videos out there with many, many great approaches. So pick your fave and set it up. I’m using a Roger Baer 2x10 cabinet and a SM7 mic.

Don’t forget to hook up the DI and get that killer direct sound we sorted out above also. Now you got options!

In some of my more recent mixes I tend to use the DI track for the meat of the bass and the mic’d sound ends up being the presence and character, maybe with some dirt mixed in for more excitement. I might also use this track for sending to effects since it has less bass in it to muddy things up and make a mess. But this is by no means the right way for everyone and you could just as easily flip these approaches for a whole other vibe and make the mic’d track the fat one and the DI track the cleaner one. Or really you can try anything you can come up with, even adding re-amping into the mix. The point is - using the StarLifter in this way gives you options!!

In the finale, part 4 will concentrate on live situations.