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Confused about preamps and DI

I

IanLewis

Oct 16, 2009
1
0
#1
Lately it has been apparent that I need to invest in some kind of DI, but I am a bit confused about what I actually need. To give you a bit of context, I play a lot at my church where I run an SWR Working Pro, take the built in DI signal from that and then monitor through an Aviom system with custom quad driver iem. Any other gig, I will usually use my Ashdown ABM as stage monitor, and use the supplied DI as the Ashdown DI is unusable due to noise. My main bass is a 2012 American Deluxe Jazz.

I was recording with a producer friend of mine recently and he said that I should look into getting a Sansamp or something similar.

The thing that I'm confused about is whether I should be getting some kind of preamp with a DI built in (Sansamp, Tone Hammer, etc.) or just getting a good stand alone DI, especially considering I have an onboard preamp on my bass. I keep hearing mixed opinions, some saying that FOH engineers prefer the cleanest tone possible to work with, making me lean towards a straight DI, while others say having a tone shaping DI is best as the FOH engineer will have a consistent DI signal.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
#7
schecter5string said:
The parallel out on the BDDI is unaffected. This signal will go to foh.
The other out is effected,this would .go ti your amp.
Click to expand...

i actually use my sans bddi opposite. i run unaffected to my amp with the "colored" signal going to the board. although i've lately been having lots of buzz issues with that configuration.

the last two gigs we've played i used an ART tube pre-amp straight to the board and relied on the stage monitors. both gigs were well set up so there wasn't any issue at all. the ART tube box is like less than a hundred bucks new!

i'm selling my sans and looking for a real tube DI.

for a church setting you could most def get away with just a simple tube DI like the ART. in fact, you can get by most gigs unless there's a subpar PA, then you'd need your cab.
 
#8
I often wonder why manufacturers even bother putting a DI in their heads since most live sound engineers seem to avoid them like the plague. I did a gig recently where in the middle of a 30 minute set the sound guy was swapping out for a mic. Not sure what was wrong since everything sounded great in the monitors but he looked really concerned. Didn't have time to check in with him afterwards due to a quick changeover.
 
#11
Yeah I understand that part. This was mid-song with maybe ten minutes left in the set. I am thinking of putting a Radial JDI on my pedalboard to give sound guys the option. What gets me is when they set it up with the amp then change later with no issues present. I used to have a full rack based rig but went back to pedals because if this type of situation. I was using the tuner output on a previous head and when the sound guys changed from my di to a box it killed my ability to tune silently without unplugging.
 
#13
Personally, I'm gonna spring for that shiny new VT Bass DI that just became available. The tone shaping it provides is very versatile, and you can always take a line out of the parallel out or turn the blend more towards the clean side for a cleaner sound.
 
#15
You could consider something like the Zoom B3 - you can choose to send effected or uneffected signal through the DI by simply changing the Pre/Post DI button.

You could still hook up to the front of your amp with a 1/4" cable and send effects just to the amp. Besides SansAmp emulation included in the list of effects, you have a great array of fantastic sounding effects, compressors, choruses, overdrives, amp sims, great on-board tuner, etc. And it's simplistic to use to boot. :)

Best of luck no matter which option you decide on. :cool:
 
#16
gen8hawaii said:
Not sure if this is the right place but here goes. Can I use an art tube preamp be fore my combo amp to get a warmer tube tone?
Click to expand...
Yes. But you should go to the effects forum and search on words like "warm", "tube", "tubey", etc. to see the many options out there and what is recommended. Bear in mind that just because something has a tube does NOT mean it will have the "tubey" effect you imagine it should.
 
#17
My ms-60b should be arriving tomorrow ;-)

I have my setup pretty much as I like it now. All effects and wireless (line6 g50) on the floor and just the head, cab, and power conditioning behind me. I've see some put an Avalon u5 in between the bass/pedals and head as well. That would mean more rack space and I like keeping it down to 4u.
 
#18
mike_mckaigg said:
I did a gig recently where in the middle of a 30 minute set the sound guy was swapping out for a mic. Not sure what was wrong since everything sounded great in the monitors but he looked really concerned. Didn't have time to check in with him afterwards due to a quick changeover.
Click to expand...
Whenever a soundman changes the signal chain in the middle of a set for no apparent reason, either you're sending crappy tone, his (or your) stuff isn't playing nice and started buzzing for no reason, or you have great tone and playing and he's done figuring out the rest of your band and wants to help you shine.
 

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