Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal
- Thread starter el murdoque
- Start date
I kinda hate that the thing says TUBE all over the place.
First of all, Laney are Brits, so they should say VALVE,
but actually more important: I'd expect this thing to run a tube when it says so on the box.
I considered this preamp soon after it was released because Nathan East switch to using their 500 watt head. I don't need or use a preamp for dirt. Clean headroom matters most to me. Ended up with the Genzler Magellan Pre-amp and have been completely satisfied.
Also, anything claiming to be tube like never really is IME.
Wow.If you're done enjoying the pictured settings, flick the upper switch to OD, the lower switch to FLAT and turn the gain past 1 o'clock, then try that in a mix
That's a mean tone.
Did some more exploring with it today.
It's range is incredible for being such a straightforward pedal.
Definitely understandable why someone would want two of'em.
One for clean/warm OD, and another for heavy OD/Distortion.
If I lost all my pedals right now, the first I'd replace is the DCX Bass.
This thing is so good.
This thing is so good.
Absolutely. And that mean tone sits in a mix like a ball of tungsten.
I've had so many pedals that are all over the place and finally get completely lost between the guitars and cymbals. The DCX capabilities to hold it all together is nothing short of magic.
Origin_Effects
Commercial User
- Feb 12, 2018
- 76
- 1,030
- Disclosures
- British Boutique Effects Pedal Builders
Pretty much yeah, both EQ bands operate pre and post clipping. The LF mainly cuts pre-clipping and mainly boosts post-clipping. The HF mainly cuts post-clipping and mainly boosts pre-clipping. They never just operate pre or post, so when for example you boost the LF, it boosts a little pre-clipping and then a lot post-clipping. This is true whether the pedal is in EQ or OD mode.
The voice control (an extra HF cut) acts post-clipping.
When the EQ controls are set flat, the DCX (in EQ MODE) is flat response from 30Hz - 10kHz within +/-0.5dB, with the 3dB point being outside the range of human hearing.
While I am deeply wounded by the mistrust shown by certain individuals in this thread (this is an outrage!),
I find it extremely cool that you can simply toss in a @manufacturer and get a reply. In the case of Origin Effects, that is.
I do know why I consider myself an Origin fanboy.
FWIW,
The DCX Bass is my first experience with Origin Effects.
I appreciate their online presence here.
I am beyond impressed by this pedal.
Build quality, sound quality, dynamics.
As I said earlier, if I was starting from scratch, I'd start with this.
BTW my dude,
It wasn't mistrust,
I just wanted confirmation from da builder, since I know they're on here.
Ah, so the EQ is somewhat asymmetrical in its function/implementation? (WRT boost/cut)
More rambling about the Riverside:
I toyed around with the higher gain settings. As I said, that mid bump switch injects more violence into the circuit than anything else.
It took a while to come to a conclusion here: I don't really love the higher gain sounds, but it's not you, it's me.
They work fine. There is a ton of tweakability in there and you can go seamless from setting to setting.
On most dirt pedals I found sweet spots. Turn up that knob until it feels just right - turn up more and it feels worse. Sometimes, it'll get better further down the line and there's another good one. The Strymon tries to balance everything so you're constantly traveling along the sweet spot, and it's making a remarkable job of it, too! This is so smooth, it's super annoying.
But Mr. Jounalist, you cry, is that not a good thing?
No it is not. The best pedal has a baked in sound - which is the sound that you've had in your head.
You get a few knobs to match it to the bass output strength and maybe match the EQ to your setup.
Switch it on and bam. Your sound.
On the Strymon, you feel like you're not there because there is no there. Instead of the spot which is just large enough to rest comfortably on, you get the size of a football field (that is soccer for the one country in the world that uses the term wrong).
Is a football field a cozy place where you can snuggle in? If you answered yes, please speak to someone professional about it.
If you answered no, you're right. It is not. You can move sideways and front and back a lot, and you're still right there on the field.
Same with the Riverside, you have the sweetspot at all times, and you can move up or down just a little, or even a little more, and you're still there.
I think this is a problem of the mindset. I really like this one edge the pedal can offer - turn up the drive until you can barely make out audible dirt and that's your first sweet spot. Turn down a notch and you have your clean signal back. You're standing on the sideline of the football field and you are, at least, unable to move in one direction. That's probably why I like that setting, because it represents a solid point.
I toyed around with the higher gain settings. As I said, that mid bump switch injects more violence into the circuit than anything else.
It took a while to come to a conclusion here: I don't really love the higher gain sounds, but it's not you, it's me.
They work fine. There is a ton of tweakability in there and you can go seamless from setting to setting.
On most dirt pedals I found sweet spots. Turn up that knob until it feels just right - turn up more and it feels worse. Sometimes, it'll get better further down the line and there's another good one. The Strymon tries to balance everything so you're constantly traveling along the sweet spot, and it's making a remarkable job of it, too! This is so smooth, it's super annoying.
But Mr. Jounalist, you cry, is that not a good thing?
No it is not. The best pedal has a baked in sound - which is the sound that you've had in your head.
You get a few knobs to match it to the bass output strength and maybe match the EQ to your setup.
Switch it on and bam. Your sound.
On the Strymon, you feel like you're not there because there is no there. Instead of the spot which is just large enough to rest comfortably on, you get the size of a football field (that is soccer for the one country in the world that uses the term wrong).
Is a football field a cozy place where you can snuggle in? If you answered yes, please speak to someone professional about it.
If you answered no, you're right. It is not. You can move sideways and front and back a lot, and you're still right there on the field.
Same with the Riverside, you have the sweetspot at all times, and you can move up or down just a little, or even a little more, and you're still there.
I think this is a problem of the mindset. I really like this one edge the pedal can offer - turn up the drive until you can barely make out audible dirt and that's your first sweet spot. Turn down a notch and you have your clean signal back. You're standing on the sideline of the football field and you are, at least, unable to move in one direction. That's probably why I like that setting, because it represents a solid point.
Origin_Effects
Commercial User
- Feb 12, 2018
- 76
- 1,030
- Disclosures
- British Boutique Effects Pedal Builders
Just in where it boosts/cuts following what I said previously. In total, both bands cut/boost around the same amount of content, they just do that cutting and boosting at various points in the circuit, kind of in the opposite places to each other.
The aim being to keep the EQ controls as useable as possible throughout various amounts of drive levels. Not becoming too farty when boosting lows, not loosing a bunch of drive when cutting highs.
You can see some plots of the EQ bands (with the pedal set clean) here: New Origin Effects DCX Bass
I uploaded the Jounal entry for the Strymon Riverside.
thedirtjounal.com
For those interested, there are clips.
Strymon Riverside – The Dirt Jounal
thedirtjounal.com
For those interested, there are clips.
Will definitely check those clips out when I'm home. In the world of non-dirt jounalism, I've just taken possession of an Analog Man ARDX20 delay, in the original curvy custom enclosure, which I much prefer to the newer square box, not least because it has an easily accessible battery compartment on the back. Delay is easily my favourite effect, and if I'm only going to have one pedal it will be this or compression. I love my Boss DM-101, but it's big and has no battery option, which I like for my little jam sessions so as to have as easy a setup as possible.I uploaded the Jounal entry for the Strymon Riverside.
Strymon Riverside – The Dirt Jounal
For those interested, there are clips.
It really is a beautiful-sounding delay, not a million miles from the Boss DM-2, but clearer and less noisy and with about twice the delay time available (~630-650 ms). Apparently it was based on the old Maxon circuit and designed along with Analog Man's Japan-based collaborator. It's very straightforward, but has two separate foot-switchable channels with independent delay time, feedback and level controls for each. Modulation can be added into a loop or through an external digital pedal which also allows for tap tempo. I'm not sure I would bother; I'll just use the Boss if I want all the extra stuff, and reserve this for its lovely simplicity.
Sorry for the derail, but this did seem the place for a cork-sniffer's soliloquy.
The Cork Sniffer's Monologue.
I'm not a big fan of delay, but I'm seeing all the right things here. It's made by AnalogMan. It's the old version. Reverb currently has none of them it seems.
All green flags by my book.
Thanks for the explanation and EQ plots- I wish every company would do that!
I'm glad Analogman remains relevant! I remember back before there were many certifiably "boutique" pedal makers (early-2000s, not really that long ago!), and his were some of the first. I still think the Analogman Chorus with depth mod is the tops for an analog bass chorus and returned to one last year after several years rocking a (digital) Tech 21 Bass Boost Chorus (I mostly use(d) the Tech 21 for detune settings rather than true chorus, these days I have more sonic space to use an actual chorus effect).
If a chorus crossed my path for reasonable money, I’d check it out, but it would need to be bloody good to top my Echo Fix chorus.
I've had this one made and sent over from AnalogMan, including the hassle with international shipping and taxes, because I could not find one with depth switch and top jacks.
In my estimate, it has one big advantage over many others: The effect is fat and audible if you desire it to be so.
The disadvantage is that it is a bit noisy.
I mainly use it as the final pedal of the synth chain and there it really shines - because when you pump it with a synth bass, some noise floor does not matter at all.
My other Chorus is a Julia, which is a bit more subtle and a bit more HiFi - I think both have their uses.
