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Mxr m80 di+ vs. tech 21 sans amp

#3
The MXR has a much harsher distortion while the Sansamp has a warmer overdriven tone. Personally, I love the sound of the Sansamp BDDI but the MXR has two seperate channels to switch between clean and distorted tones (which appealed more to me) while the BDDI is restricted to one tone on one channel. You can always get a programmable BDDI which has three channels to play with but its still a bit expensive.

For thrash/death, I'd probably go with the MXR but I wouldn't overdo the distortion. It can get pretty violent if you crank it even for thrash/death metal standards.
 
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#4
I tried the Sansamp BDDI and thought it sounded great but(and this is a BIG but) it seems to have a compressor circuit on it that you cant adjust or turn off. I hear alot of bassist slappers in particular and good soundmen that swear by a good compressor and Ive tried everything I could get my hands on from pedals to rackmounts with hefty $ tags and I just cant stand the loss of feeling and control of playing, like having sex with a smoking hot chick by remote control. When I play live if a soundman has a decent compressor I'll tell by all means put it on my sound out front- as long as I cant hear it Im good. For this reason I went w/ the MXR and cant imagine playing w/out it. The dist is always on, even for mellower tunes I just back off the blend knob a bit and the noise gate is a must have esp if you crank the dist and that beats a compressor IMHO any day. The MXR goes in the front and I use the Boss ME50-B in the effect loop that I use for the tuner, volume pedal, chorus and delay in that order. The filters dont sound too bad but not great either, lotta tweaking there. Compared to the MXR dist channel tho the Boss's are pretty worthless. The MXR has to go in front of the amp and the Boss in the fx loop. Reverse either one and they totally sound like @ss. Not sure why. Rig is 2 Ampeg SVT 3 pro's in master/slave comfig, one pwr amp each into an Ampeg 410HE. I like the MXR's control layout; Short sweet and simple. 10 mins setup outta the box, a few tweeks to see what they do and this thing will roar.
 
#5
Our Bass Driver DI has no compressor circuit. It does offer tube amp emulation and distortion. Compression is a byproduct of distortion.The more your signal distorts, the more compression you get. Because a pedal like our Bass Driver allows you to get a "cranked amp" tone at any volume it becomes quite easy to set the gain too high and lose definition.That's because the distortion is not "volume dependent" like on a tube amp.
 
#7
The MXR M-80 will give you the Meshuggah bass sound exactly. I owned one, NOT a fan at all. When the distortion is turned on a mid-scoop is automatically engaged. The centers on the EQ frequencies were all wrong. Clean it sounded pretty good though, and it was quiet. It was good for recording clean bass, but that was about it.

I would go with the Sansamp any day, unless you're going after the Meshuggah bass sound.
 
#8
runmikeyrun said:
The MXR M-80 will give you the Meshuggah bass sound exactly. I owned one, NOT a fan at all. When the distortion is turned on a mid-scoop is automatically engaged. The centers on the EQ frequencies were all wrong. Clean it sounded pretty good though, and it was quiet. It was good for recording clean bass, but that was about it.

I would go with the Sansamp any day, unless you're going after the Meshuggah bass sound.
Click to expand...

Do you mind sharing the settings to make it sound like meshuggah?

cheers
 
#9
I own both... OVERALL.. I prefer the M80... value... ease of use... size etc.. durabiltiy.

Sound guys enjoy the ease of use adn stright forward controls.

Folks that don't like the MXR crank the distortion to 10 and say "geeze that sux"... I'm not a fan of distorted bass.

Overall it's a great value.

I own about 30 DI boxes (long story why) overall the MXR is the most receptive to all of my basses (I own a ton in various configs)
 
#12
Just to elaborate on what I was trying to get across earlier, I think the SansAmp is a unit designed to give you a vintage tube rig sound whether you're going to the front of the house or the mixing board or, as a lot of people use it, directly into a solid state amp. I don't regard it as a "distortion effect" pedal. It's only an "effect" if you're playing a night of jazz fusion with it off and then turn it on for a Led Zeppelin cover. Lots of people just treat it as an always-on type of unit. That's mostly what I do.

The M80 strikes me as a slightly different animal. It can serve the purpose of the SansAmp (not nearly as well is my guess), but has one more trick: a second channel you can utilize as a true distortion effect stomp. The gain on the M80 when cranked up high is probably going to work better than the SansAmp for heavier genres.

It's a natural combination of purposes, i guess. Me, I'll stick with my SansAmp for a full-time bit of grit and a great DI--and go to another pedal entirely for the occasional face-melting distortion effect. YMMV.
 
#15
The clean channel on M80 is fantastic. I personally don't like the distortion channel, but have heard several people here say that it sounds much better in a band/live setting. I will have to try when I get a chance. Previously, I had the Sansamp and it was great too. I don't really care or understand a lot of the nuances people here are talking about, but both sound really good to my ear. I think you won't be happy with something if you personally don't like it so much but you get it and use it because that's what people on this forum said. So you really have to try them and see which one you like better yourself. My 2 cents.
 

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