My Dirt Bender - Another Jounal

[el murdoque]

That was my hope.
For example, we play I Ran (So Far Away) by a flock of seagulls and the solo part, I just wanted to plug the gap and amplify the bass with some light grit but it was lost. This was in EQ mode with the drive about 3/4

The pedal that was the most "completely hidden in the mix, but jumps right in your face once solo'ed" I ever played was, I think, the Free The Tone Bass Blaster. It had more of an angry, bold sound when playing alone, heaps of dirty drive, yet in the mix, it was completely gone.


Thinking back on the DCX, I realize that I did return it the first time I bought it, because I thought that in EQ mode, it was too subtle to work in a mix and in OD mode, it was way too in-your-face.

I wonder how it pairs up with the Origin Fifteen.

 

[Charlie Tuna]

Thinking back on the DCX, I realize that I did return it the first time I bought it, because I thought that in EQ mode, it was too subtle to work in a mix and in OD mode, it was way too in-your-face.

I wonder how it pairs up with the Origin Fifteen.

Somebody ( @Origin_Effects ) get this guy a Fifteen to review! I don't know how many pedal purchases he's influenced but I do know my wallet is much slimmer because of his reviews. (Bassrig '64 and Cali76CB x2 so far)

 

[sunbeast]

The pedal that was the most "completely hidden in the mix, but jumps right in your face once solo'ed" I ever played was, I think, the Free The Tone Bass Blaster. It had more of an angry, bold sound when playing alone, heaps of dirty drive, yet in the mix, it was completely gone.


Thinking back on the DCX, I realize that I did return it the first time I bought it, because I thought that in EQ mode, it was too subtle to work in a mix and in OD mode, it was way too in-your-face.

I wonder how it pairs up with the Origin Fifteen.

I now have both, but I still haven't brought in my little board to run it into the Fifteen yet. I think it could be an interesting combo- to my ears the DCX seems to have a slight inherent mid-scoop going on while the Fifteen has the opposite. The pretty dramatic LPF of the cab-sim could really tame the "fizz" of the DCX too I suspect.

 

[projectapollo]

I needed to share my favorite DCX Bass demo video. Bryce Vaughn. I love his P Bass tones.

 

[SemiDriven]

The pedal that was the most "completely hidden in the mix, but jumps right in your face once solo'ed" I ever played was, I think, the Free The Tone Bass Blaster. It had more of an angry, bold sound when playing alone, heaps of dirty drive, yet in the mix, it was completely gone.


Thinking back on the DCX, I realize that I did return it the first time I bought it, because I thought that in EQ mode, it was too subtle to work in a mix and in OD mode, it was way too in-your-face.

+1

IMHO, both pedals are awesome. However, it depends what your musical goal/tone is and how you use each pedal in the mix.

Currently, both pedals are not on a board.

But I DO want to get 'em both on a board at some point!

 

[el murdoque]

I did modify my plotting script so it can do multiple graphs now.

Some examples:

The workings of the Tone knob on the Tube Drive:


The workings of the Storm King Shape knob:


And the Tone Hammer vs. Storm King

 

[el murdoque]

Plus, I finally updated my home mixer.
I used to have a Behringer Flow 8, but did not get along with it so well, because of the limited amount of knobs, the reliance on a smart device to access several bits and the digital nature of the knobs.
I wanted analog style knobs for headphone and master volume, and a better way to control the bluetooth volume.

After a ton of overthinking and a lot of back and forth, a Mackie ProFX 10 v3+ popped up in my local classifieds for quite the bargain, and I pulled the trigger.
I was actually looking for a deal on a Presonus AR8c at this point, but now I got a Mackie, and it's working precisely as I would want it to.

 

[el murdoque]

+1

IMHO, both pedals are awesome. However, it depends what your musical goal/tone is and how you use each pedal in the mix.

Currently, both pedals are not on a board.

But I DO want to get 'em both on a board at some point!

Plus, of course, it depends on the rest of your signal chain.
We all have different tonal goals and expect different things from pedals.
I do have encountered several specimen that felt and sounded great when solo'ed, but less so when dropped into the intended place on the pedal board.

From there, three ways forward exist:
1. Build around it. The pedal is so great that it has to make it into the signal chain, so the offending ones have to go, or the order has to be re-shuffled.
( @Charlie Tuna would chime in at this point and say that eventual phase issues might be remedied by a simple phase flipping pedal and to test for that)
2. Keep it, because it's too good to sell, and put it on a shelf, waiting for the right moment, when a pedal board needs to be constructed for a specific thing, and that's the moment for that pedal to shine.
3. Sell it and keep it in good memory.

In my current situation, I am in two bands that have very different setups, so I run two different pedal boards.
That's a total of only six dirt devices:
-Xotic BB Bass Preamp
-Crowther Prunes & Custard
-Fuzzrocious BDPG (4 knob)

for one board and

-Audio Kitchen Fake Plastic Trees
-Verellen Meatsmoke
-Origin Bassrig SV
for the other.

The shelf currently holds
-BJFe Blueberry
-Effectrode Tube Drive
-Origin DCX
-Fuzzrocious BDPG (3 knob)
-Sansamp PBDDI

The ones I really liked but sold nonetheless are too many to mention here.



...but I see myself constructing a small, minimal board for jam sessions. Something to go straight to PA that works in a variety of styles.

Based on a Nano, I foresee a preamp with DI capabilities, some sort of dirt pedal, something for fun and a tuner.

 

[Renno]

I needed to share my favorite DCX Bass demo video. Bryce Vaughn. I love his P Bass tones.

This was pretty much the clip I saw that I knew, or thought this pedal was for me.
I’ll have another go this week, chopping it around the board placement to see if it will work but the Fake Plastic Trees has my attention now

 

[el murdoque]

to my ears the DCX seems to have a slight inherent mid-scoop going on

DCX with the gain set at three o'clock and the master set at 9 o'clock,
in EQ mode:

in OD mode:

 

[el murdoque]

...quite fascinating to see how in EQ mode, raising both HF and LF seems to create a mid scoop,
while the area between 300 and 1k is more or less untouched in OD mode.

 

[sunbeast]

...quite fascinating to see how in EQ mode, raising both HF and LF seems to create a mid scoop,
while the area between 300 and 1k is more or less untouched in OD mode.

That is interesting. That would help explain why I tend to be much more liberal with the EQ when I use my DCX in Drive mode- I assumed it was the added harmonics filling in what I heard as a slight mid scoop, but maybe just the design of the circuit. I think I’ve also just gotten used to drive pedals that have a lot of midrange going on- I’m noticing the same phenomenon when comparing the Origin Fifteen and Super Vintage, where the Super Vintage sounds relatively mid-shy but likely just because the Fifteen is more tight on the bottom. I’m definitely curious what else is going on in the DCX circuit when switching to the Drive mode besides just a boost into the amplifiers causing more clipping.

 

[el murdoque]

That is interesting. That would help explain why I tend to be much more liberal with the EQ when I use my DCX in Drive mode- I assumed it was the added harmonics filling in what I heard as a slight mid scoop, but maybe just the design of the circuit. I think I’ve also just gotten used to drive pedals that have a lot of midrange going on- I’m noticing the same phenomenon when comparing the Origin Fifteen and Super Vintage, where the Super Vintage sounds relatively mid-shy but likely just because the Fifteen is more tight on the bottom. I’m definitely curious what else is going on in the DCX circuit when switching to the Drive mode besides just a boost into the amplifiers causing more clipping.

On my metal board, I had the DCX in drive mode for a long time, because it was able to hold its own in a dense and crowded mix.
The Way Huge Green Rhino also worked well in that regard. With FTP into Meatsmoke into Super Vintage, there's no chance to raise the mids.

That's where the sensible mind pipes up and tells you that when you're running three drives that all sound sweet when you let them expand the lows a little and also put a little something up top, you're gonna get two things:
1. An asteroid crater sized mid scoop.
2. A life time ban from the club of people who understand EQ.
The sensible mind tells you to maybe take off one or two of the offending scoopers, to get a simpler board, because simpler is better.

well, then there's always 3. make it more complicated and add another pedal that pushes mids.

 

[el murdoque]

I did really just consider the following for a moment:

Being on the Thomann website, ordering three cables, my grand total is a bit shy of what you need for free shipping. About €4.
I literally did consider adding the Fifteen to the shopping basket to circumvent having to pay the shipping fee.
It lasted for but a moment, though.
Then I checked my PayPal account. I've sold quite a few pedals and drum parts recently.
Luckily, I was about €60 short.

 

[tommyeadg]

I've just received a Singular Audio Tubedrve and decided to do a little demo of it. I had already posted it in the Singular Audio thread but I thought this might also be a good place to share it. Signal path is Pbass with flats> SA Tubedrve > Sushibox Finally (gain at noon) straight into Logic. I am very pleased with this pedal.

 

[Renno]

I recently had both the Fifteen and SVT.
Fifteen sounded great purely through IEM & FOH but found it was lacking when using as preamp with my Mesa head. It changed the sounded too much and not in a good way

The SVT sounds great through both methods and isn’t changing the sound of my Mesa cab.

If I could have afforded both, then would have found a way to stay in my board but SVT won for the versatility and EQ options.

 

[el murdoque]

I've just received a Singular Audio Tubedrve and decided to do a little demo of it. I had already posted it in the Singular Audio thread but I thought this might also be a good place to share it. Signal path is Pbass with flats> SA Tubedrve > Sushibox Finally (gain at noon) straight into Logic. I am very pleased with this pedal.

First of all, let me say that I dig your bass tone. P-Bass into finally sounds awesome.

The Tubedrve did something magical when you flicked the switch to pentode and had the bias all the way down. With a little less gain, I imagine the saturation just on the brink of breakup really adds a whole lot of that "little bit of magic".

 

[sunbeast]

I recently had both the Fifteen and SVT.
Fifteen sounded great purely through IEM & FOH but found it was lacking when using as preamp with my Mesa head. It changed the sounded too much and not in a good way

The SVT sounds great through both methods and isn’t changing the sound of my Mesa cab.

If I could have afforded both, then would have found a way to stay in my board but SVT won for the versatility and EQ options.

I agree that the Fifteen is not a great option if you are looking for transparency. With both EQ controls in the middle the tone is definitely not neutral even without the cabsim- it's tighter and midrange-forward once you get into the saturation range. I really like it personally, but not for everyone! I haven't yet had the opportunity to use it in a band (kind of a down-time this month), so not sure how it will translate. Fantastic "bedroom tone" though, maybe one of the best I've heard!

 

[el murdoque]

End-of-25-shortlist-for-future-gear-acquisitions:

1. With @tommyeadg 's contribution, the Singular Audio Tubedrve has made it back to my shortlist. There used to be one floating around the second hand market for what felt like too much money for a while, but that has sold, it seems. I'll look around for another, though.

2. No surprise that I want to get my grubby hands on an Origin Fifteen. As a certified Origin Fanboy, I got to at least give it a try. I am envisioning this as a probable center piece for the nano board, but I could be mistaken. On the Headrush (don't laugh, please!), I did opt for the fliptop amp and used a HPF/LPF instead of a cab sim, and then I played some obscure EQ-Boost pedal named "Bass EQ" in there, with a slightly raised level and that brought an edge to the lower notes. I quite enjoyed that and would want to recreate it with real pedals.

3. Lusithand Rosa. I've never played a Lusithand pedal, but the Rosa has gotten some great reviews, and it is a recent addition to the ever growing pool of bass dirt pedals, so I'd like to smell it.

4. Those pedals that come into my crosshairs on some random used market browsing when I have a twitchy trigger finger.

 

[el murdoque]

I recently had both the Fifteen and SVT.
Fifteen sounded great purely through IEM & FOH but found it was lacking when using as preamp with my Mesa head. It changed the sounded too much and not in a good way

The SVT sounds great through both methods and isn’t changing the sound of my Mesa cab.

If I could have afforded both, then would have found a way to stay in my board but SVT won for the versatility and EQ options.

Interesting review - in so far as that I'm even more interested in the Fifteen now. The Super Vintage is a great pedal for that amp and FOH combination and I do use it in exactly that manner - sending both to FOH and to the amp for my sound.

On the Fifteen, I'd hope for more of a dense, well rounded sound that is stuffed with a pillow.
@sunbeast : When I tried the Broughton Fliptop, I was underwhelmed, mainly because of two things. First and foremost, it could not do a clean(ish) low end with a six string's low B. It felt stable with a low E, but any note below that made it struggle, and second I did not really enjoy the drive, because it sounded somewhat artificial, more like overloading a console than a tube amp. Would you say the Fifteen does the same?