Sansamp BDDI vs. Mic Tone

[Deunoro Jomo]

I played a gig at a nice club last night, and I really liked the mix I was hearing onstage. My rig is a hotrodded Jazz into a mid-boosted Carvin amp into a 15" Peavey speaker. I run my signal through a Sansamp BDDI, which gives a nice mid-scooped sound that complements my mid-boosted amp tone. Last night I had the sound guy run a DI from the BDDI, in lieu of micing my cab. However, listening to a FOH board recording, the sound was comparatively dead when I engaged the BDDI distortion as compared to how it sounded on stage. Should I just run a cab mic as well, or is there a more elegant way to get some midrange to my FOH signal?

[Oreomeister365]

I would love to both mic and di at every show...but it's hard enough to convince the sound guy to let me mic, let alone mic AND di.

[BassMonstrum]

Played a gig last night and after we had rigged the stage with our gear, the soundtech told us to get started on setting up mics while he had a soundcheck on another stage nearby. I put a mic in front of my cab, but when the tech came, the first thing he did was too remove and put a DI on top of my amp...

I do the same as the OP, mids on my GK and a bit midscooped on the sansamp... what I did is I cut the treble and bass and set the blendknob at 9 o'clock.

[tech21nyc]

Originally Posted by Deunoro Jomo

I played a gig at a nice club last night, and I really liked the mix I was hearing onstage. My rig is a hotrodded Jazz into a mid-boosted Carvin amp into a 15" Peavey speaker. I run my signal through a Sansamp BDDI, which gives a nice mid-scooped sound that complements my mid-boosted amp tone. Last night I had the sound guy run a DI from the BDDI, in lieu of micing my cab. However, listening to a FOH board recording, the sound was comparatively dead when I engaged the BDDI distortion as compared to how it sounded on stage. Should I just run a cab mic as well, or is there a more elegant way to get some midrange to my FOH signal?

Were you leaving the BDDI engaged the entire time or were you switching it on and off?

Board recordings are usually not a good representation of your live sound unless they actually recorded each channel individually and mixed it separately. The reason for this is that the FOH mixer is also hearing the sound of your bass amp in the room so he will probably not be mixing as much bass signal through the board as it is already present in the room sound. Usually board mix's tend to be pretty vocal heavy.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by tech21nyc

Were you leaving the BDDI engaged the entire time or were you switching it on and off?

Board recordings are usually not a good representation of your live sound unless they actually recorded each channel individually and mixed it separately. The reason for this is that the FOH mixer is also hearing the sound of your bass amp in the room so he will probably not be mixing as much bass signal through the board as it is already present in the room sound. Usually board mix's tend to be pretty vocal heavy.

i agree with this. board tapes aren't the best indicators.

however, i still like to mic up my cab even when using my vt deluxe because there's just something about the sound of a mic'ed cab that excites the tone in a way i don't quite get with a di'd vt deluxe. not that i don't get a great tone with the vt deluxe di'd...i do. i just like the mic'ed tone a little better.