When I record or play live via my sansamp PBDDI, it sounds great. Latley however, I've noticed that my overdirves, wah's and other effects don't seem to come through the house speakers, or into the recording mixer. My signal chain is bass>effects>Sansamp>amp. Everything comes through great from the 1/4" out jack that goes into my amp, it seems to be just the D.I. feature that is taking all the effects out. Even full-on distortion sounds extremly weak. Anything that I am missing? I don't thnk I have the XLR pad on, so I don't think that's the problem. Thanks for any help.
How is your clean signal to the board? Is it just the effects that are weak or is it your signal as a whole? If your signal is weak, then it's probably something as simple as something not matching up (output too low on the SansAmp, input gain too low on the board, maybe even a low cut/high pass filter getting in the way, etc.). If the clean signal is fine but the effected signal is still crap, then I really don't know. Check the eq on the channel or the board maybe? Since you're running your effects before the SansAmp, that effected signal is obviously getting sent to the board, something's just preventing it from being heard and distinguished much from your clean signal. Brian P.S. I've had some experience running live sound, too. Those boards are so full of knobs and switches. Make sure that everything is set right. Even if it seems time-consuming or stupid, start from the very beginning of the signal path and follow it through to the end, making sure that everything is set the way it should be. Good luck
Is there any chance that your sans Amp signal is being blended with a miked signal from your amp or a direct signal from the bass? Sounds obvious but you never know.
I'm pretty sure the sansamp is putting out enough juice, I've checked the levels coming out of it. Clean or using the sansamp's own overdrive feature sounds wonderful. There's no D.I between my bass and effects, and I acutually wish I could mic the cabinet because everything comes through crystal clear. The signal is going straight from the 1/4" out of the sansamp to my poweramp. For some reason the D.I. portion is the only thing that's cutting the effects off somehow. I suppose I could use an XLR female/1/4" male cable to hook it up and play with it for awhile to see if it really is the sansamp or something with the P.A./recording equipment. Thanks again for all your help
It's got to be a function of the setup. There's no way the SABDDI could magically filter out whatever effects happened to be in front of it in the chain.
the same thing happened to me with an older trace head i was using - there was too much compression and the graphic EQ ruined the sound. i don't know if that helps, but you could talk to the soundguy about it.
Compression was my first thought when I read this. Sometimes soundmen won't trust you if you have a lot of pedals and such, so they'll overcompress your sound to make sure that you don't blow anything up.
It seems overcompression may be the culprit here.I use only a small amount with my rig, but heavy compression from another source would take the overdrives out. Ill check the compressor settings on the recording equipment and the p.a. next time we play there. Would a compressor squeeze out wah's though?
Maybe, but he hears the effects fine from the amp that is after the sansamp, so that's not the problem.
True - just wanted to throw that out there... Maybe the EQ on the amp is compensating in some way, by restoring the midrange... that or the sound guy is screwing with your sound - dramatically! There's only one thing for it - some quality time spent with the PA system without the soundguy looking over your shoulder!
ME: "Hey, somebody said there's a white van outside being broken into!" SOUNDGUY: "AW FUDGE!" (runs out of room.) ME: "Unplug insert cables, check. Zero sends and EQ controls, check......."
i noticed that effects seemed less prominent when i ran them thru the sansamp also but they were still there.
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