Our Idea - AER Basscube Operating Instructions Manual

Basscube

3. Our Idea

The BASSCUBE is fundamentally different from oth-
er amplifiers on the market.
As in the case of our ACOUSTICUBE IIa we have tried
to produce a professional amplifier with compre-
hensive facilities producing excellent tone qualities
in a small transportable cabinet. It is well known
how innovative and experimental contemporary
bassists are and this has resulted in greatly increased
demands on tone and technology, and thus greater
challenges for the developer.
To say in concrete terms:
1) Distortion-free powerful low-bass reproduction
in particular is constantly at odds with physics, hu-
man perception and what cost accounting admits
as being marketable. The following points have to
be kept in mind:
Much more energy is required to make really deep
tones as audible as mid-range or treble tones. The
goal is a balanced reproduction of the authentic
tone of the instrument independantly of resonance
and formants. This is where several problems can
theoretically add up:
• Human hearing is much more sensitive to the mid-
range than to the other ranges.
• The instrument does not display its individual spec-
trum at all uniformly. There are great differences in
level, diffraction and vibration period. There are
concellations and intensifications
• Low-bass reproduction requires more energy and
places considerably greater demands on both the
material and the components, in particular when
supplementary amplification is made by the means
of the tone control (for example: + 15dB at 80 Hz
corresponds to 5.6 times the voltage at that point).
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2.) The "bass" is a very demanding instrument as far
as its tone is concerned. Its soundproducing capac-
ity ranges over the entire audio spectrum. Howev-
er, the distribution with respect to the level is quite
disproportional. Except in the case of the contra-
bass, there is little natural bass to be found, but a
considerable amount of "lower mid-range" and
"mid-range", and little in the way of useful natur-
al treble. Particularly when the sound is to be am-
plified, the spectrum of instruments played (double-
bass, electric double-bass, passive electric bass-gui-
tar, active electric bass-guitar, acoustic bass-guitar)
require an acoustic processing of the bass signal in
order to acquire a tone that will felt to be "beauti-
ful". As a rule, the bass and especially the treble
range are considerable amplified in order to acquire
a more balanced signal to be processed further by
means of lavish tone-controls. The chance coordi-
nation of tone pick-ups, pre-amplifiers and power
amplifiers, each with control facilities of variable
qualitiy of its own, quickly leads to boundaries con-
sisiting in a mediocore signal-to-noise ratio of the
system as a whole, as well to an impaired dynamic
range since the power amplifier, the power source
or the components too quickly reach the perfor-
mance limit.
The double-bass presents even more problems. It
can be bowed or plucked and it is supposed to be
electrically amplified not only to sound "beautiful",
but also so that it will sound "authentic", it has a
sensitive resonance pattern and a larger sound range.
At this point, that should be enough to make it clear
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