Would love to own an Avalon. . My buddy has a UA Solo/610 he recorded my through on his demo and it sounded so good, and I played pretty rootsy on his Americana tunes my recordings were used on the cd released. Loved that box.
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Anybody else not using amps?
- Thread starter decentbassbreh
- Start date
- Aug 21, 2003
- 11,619
- 18,701
- Disclosures
- A-Designs Mike Lull GK Tsunami Cables GHS Strings RMI Basswitch Nordstrand Pickups Darkglass
This is a good point...For Upright I really dig the JDV is hard to beat.
I will say this, the REDDI might not be the DI for everyone, and agree its a colored piece...But Man what a color. LOL If you tend towards bright basses graphite or ebony boards ect, its worth a listen.
Good point on considering how the source of the sound affects the output.
Another thing about "ampless" -- with IEMs we're hearing a more sonically pure mix than anyone in the audience will hear, and as they say, we are our worse critics! IEMs really do reveal everything, so the differences in sonic output by various high end DIs can be perceived. If a high end DI makes you play better, go for it!
Off stage, out there in acoustic listener land, I doubt any of those ultra fine distinctions are audible - especially to booty shakers who are engulfed with the experience. In that scenario, for the audience, a DI like the Radial JDI is just fine because it "Gets The Job Done." The high-end DI is more for us and the band - or perhaps for a recording engineer who might be using the feeds for post event sales (and then onto a consumer who might listen with equipment that actually reveals the distinctions).
Anyway, differences between the higher end DIs are mostly variations of goodness. And preference.
Another thing about "ampless" -- with IEMs we're hearing a more sonically pure mix than anyone in the audience will hear, and as they say, we are our worse critics! IEMs really do reveal everything, so the differences in sonic output by various high end DIs can be perceived. If a high end DI makes you play better, go for it!
Off stage, out there in acoustic listener land, I doubt any of those ultra fine distinctions are audible - especially to booty shakers who are engulfed with the experience. In that scenario, for the audience, a DI like the Radial JDI is just fine because it "Gets The Job Done." The high-end DI is more for us and the band - or perhaps for a recording engineer who might be using the feeds for post event sales (and then onto a consumer who might listen with equipment that actually reveals the distinctions).
Anyway, differences between the higher end DIs are mostly variations of goodness. And preference.
I agree. This is why I am using a JDI right now. It gives me a decent sound in my ears. I might notice a difference if I went to a REDDI or Avalon, but do I NEED to have a "better" tone in my ears to play better? I don't know. For the 2 Sundays I play a month at church, maybe my JDI is good enough.
This discussion can get a little nasty, but I think in the right situation, some people may notice a difference. For example, at a church - like my gig - where it's the same room, FOH, mix, eq, etc., every Sunday, it may make more of a difference than if you're playing different rooms every week. Again, I think this is mostly a thing we notice and that's fine. If you're recording your live shows you may want that "step up" DI.
I think it boils down to this. When you get to this level of DI (REDDI, Avalon, Basswitch) it's all variations of goodness. One needs to be comfortable with what they want to spend and to what level of quality you can comfortably play/listen/record with. I am happy with my JDI, but when we move into our new worship space this spring, with new flown FOH, pairs of stereo subs, etc., I may try to "step up" a little - or maybe the JDI will kick ass through the new system.
I mostly play at 2 churches. One is stage amp and cabs with floor monitors and the other is now ampless with IEM's. The first I use my regular rig, TC RH450/RS210/RS212 from my bass through my PT-3 board and DI out post EQ to the board/FOH. The second I will play through my board into my RH450, then DI OUT POST EQ so I keep my tone into the Board/FOH back through the new Behringer IEM System to our Behringer mixers to my 1954 Quads.
So far so good! Consistent.
So far so good! Consistent.
Not sure if it has been mentioned, but take a good look at the Arkham Octling. it is a 6SL7 Pre, modeled after the B15. Amazing tone.
Weird. Whether you keep the B-3 or not, you ought to have it looked at. Signal coming out of the DI, whether the switch is set to "PRE" effects or "POST" processing, should be pretty clean...unless you are using that ridiculous "BOMBER" pedal emulation (triggered handgun and bomb sounds) in your signal chain. LOL!!
If it is stationary, the U5 is great, but if you move between campuses the bassbone od is great. I looked at the microbass ii before I bought it, but the bassbone is built for live music, you can tell they designed it for stage use and abuse.
I play in 2 different churches and a country band every week. In the churches, I use passive DI's going to the house, with Aviom's for the IEMs. With the country band, I use a stage rig (Markbass SD800 w/ a 610 cab.) with a passive DI to the front, with shure psm200 for IEMs. My main bass is a Stingray 5 HS. I've gone ampless with the country band a couple of times, and I'm thinking about continuing the trend. What preamp/DI would you recommend if I'm using the Stingray? here's some potential contenders: Sansamp VTDI, Sadowsky DI pedal, Radial Tonebone, Aguilar Tone Hammer, EBS, Eden, MXR? I'm usually a plug n play, set it and forget it, kind of guy. Which would be the best for my application?
I really dig the the sansamp!! but it can have a little to much character sometimes, the tone hammer is sick!! and I have liked the mxr for a more modern tone. No sound guy will complain about a sansamp
I play in 2 different churches as well and have used a Sansamp BDDI, an Eden WTDI, an Aguilar Tonehammer DI and now a Zoom B3. They have all worked well. I still have the Eden and am just learning the Zoom. Once I figure out all the amp parameters on the Zoom, I think it will be great with lots of different amps to choose from as well as DI / preamps. The thing I like the most is you can have your amp / di plus a compressor, plus a noise gate, mute switch and tuner all in one box. Very handy.
I had my first ampless experience a couple of weeks ago, and liked it. I went to a jam session and the house band's bass player didn't show up, so there was no bass amp. I plugged my bass straight into the mixer, no DI, set the low EQ knob at 2:00 and the hi at 10:00, and dang, it sounded great! It seemed like my sound was much more "spread out" through the mains and monitors and could fill the room without being uncomfortably loud in any one spot. At most of my gigs the PA is vocal only, so I need to fill the whole place with sound just from my amp, and even the few gigs I've done with really good FOH sound I turned my amp up just as loud anyway out of habit. If I could get that sound and volume regularly without an amp, I'd do it every time.
