Ampeg DTI

Some soundmen are frightened by amp DI's, yet they have no problem plugging you into a $30 BSS or Behringer POS. In the old days, I remember built-in DI's as being noisy, but nowadays, that problem has long been fixed in pretty much every amp. I've gotten in a couple arguments about it in my day, but really, there's not much you can do other than put your foot down and insist. This can work against you, though, if the soundman works for the venue and blabs to the owner about you being difficult.

 

yeah sometimes i have problems dealing with soundguys.

i bought a 2 stingrays and a behringer sans amp clone to help deal with it, when needed.

all is great if i can: plug my fender bass into my zoom B2, and then into my GK1001rbII, and then they use the GK's DI (post EQ). usually this is not a problem and most soundguys are cool. my sound goes to the board. happy happy!

after trail and error, I found decent B2 settings that compliment my fender basses and GK head. i use my zoom B2 to slighly pad (with limiting/volume) the input signal of my hot active basses (my Fenders have EMGs) because the GKs input gain is quite touchy, and the amp's pad is too drastic. i also use a touch of the zoom's eq to compliment the GK's eq and the use of 5 string switch (12+ db at 20Hz) which adds a lot of low end.

...but this all goes out the window if a soundman won't use my head's DI. so now, just using my zoom B2 (with the limiting and EQ) into a direct box makes my sound a little anemic because it is designed to be fed into the GK.

i learned a way around it, by using my stingrays and not my fenders. then i can replicate boost and cut the EQs that my GK head would of done in conjunction with the zoom B2.

on church gigs (which are almost always straight to DI). i use the behringer sansamp thing to also replicate the EQ/ gain vol needed, especially if i know the soundguy is inexperienced (often happens at churches).


i also find it odd that a club will favor a $30 DI box over a $800 amp's DI.

 

I posted about this exact issue a month or two ago, and JimmyM contributed to that one as well.

A soundguy at a big-name place in LA told me he "hated" the balanced out from my SVT-AV and ran me through a cheap DI box, and it pretty much ruined my tone in the house.

After doing some research, I found that the balanced out level on the SVT-CL (and -AV) is post-master volume, and I can see why a sound guy wouldn't necessarily want variable levels coming to his board (not that I change volume on stage anyway, but I see the argument). Sound-wise, I like the quality of my amps DI, so the volume thing is the only issue that I can guess a sound person would have with it.

I'm not sure if your Ampeg's balanced out is set up similarly. I know, for example, the SVT-II Pro's balanced out gives a little more flexibility than my AV does.

Regardless, my solution has been to insist on getting my cabinet mic'ed up. We have it in our stage plot and I ask them during load-in. They're usually OK with it.