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OD that doesn't rob bottom end

#44
micguy said:
It does some math with 56 bit numbers, but its converters are 24 bit. The dynamic range spec (108 dB) means that it's effectively using 18 of those 24 bits. That's not what will clue you in that its digital though - it's the slight latency that eventually bothered me enough to take it off the board. The overdrive models that I liked most also needed gobs of make up eq to retrieve the lost low end, which made it a pain to work with. It was close, but not quite there for my use.
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I've not found any low end loss with any of the engines, even the ones that traditionally have low end loss (RAT, Klon and Tube screamers come to mine). You must have something weird going on with your board that's sucking low end tone out. You did use the 4 semi parametric 4 band eq's and the HFP didn't you? There's a ton of adjustment, far more than you would find on an analogue pedal...I've not seen any latency at all. I find that I rarely use the mix with the aftershock, the drive control can go from no grit to light break up into fuzz.
I haven't found it a pain to work with at all...if one re-maps the mix control to bass, you then have +/- 15db of bass gain and the tone control has a few options too.
I've not found any latency either...maybe a slight delay when I switch patches...but to be fair I have a number of analogue dirt that do this too as their caps can take a few mill-seconds to swell up.
 
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#45
^ That just goes-to-show different strokes for different strokes.

I accept that not everything is going to work for everyone's tastes/needs/playing style.
A furniture mover isn't going to choose the same vehicle as Gilles Villeneuve would for their respective jobs.
(Whipper-snappers may twig better to Lewis Hamilton, in the above reference.)

Since the OP asked for ODs other than just SVT-wannabes, I'll suggest the lovely, versatile Dr Scientist The Elements.

Gain Vol Blend with a 3-band EQ and some toggles to switch up the gain level, clipping types, bass response and mids-corner freq. Great pedal! AND expression input to control the blend.


Ric5 said:
This is a classic problem ... the reason is most fuzz / distortion / overdrive boosts mids and reduces bass.

There are a few solutions ...

You can use a 2 pickup bass and run each pickup to a different amp, the neck pickup goes clean and bassy and the bridge pickup goes dirty and overdriven. Ric-o-sound and Geddy Lee use this solution.

Run a powered sub from you bass amp

Run your pedalboard parallel instead of serial. Most people run one signal thru the effects. But if you split the signal and run it into 3 or 4 paths and then recombine them then you can mix clean and distorted signals and get the best of both worlds.
Click to expand...

Also Billy Sheehan and his Yamaha. I'm sure there's more I'm unaware of, maybe in the Ibanez line. I'd be interested in finding others, purely out of curiosity... perhaps some threads in the basses sub-forum, I haven't been over there in ages.
 
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#46
One Control Blackberry is the best sounding light, tubey overdrive I've used. I've tried a bunch. It sounds great with my class D stuff ie my Tone Hammer 700, Traynor SB500 along with my old tube and ss heads. It has mids("Depth") and bass ("Body") controls that interact with the drive. There's no loss of bass. You can add bass with it
 
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#50
I use a crossover pedal. With one of these, you can use any distortion pedal that you want (I like the Rusty Box) and dial in the crossover frequency point, high end level (distorted), and low end level (clean). Absolutely gigantic low end, if that's what you want: it gives you complete control.

Here's a thread that has more info: Cross-Over (Crossover or Splitter) pedals
 
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#51
I have a few OD like an always on Barbershop and SS/BS Mini, OCD V2, and Fifth Gear. The secret weapon is a Wounded Paw Blender then you can make sure to keep the low end. As for SVT tone, there is nothing than a SVT. I have found that the hybrid 3Pro (at home) or 4Pro (at rehearsal space) can give everything you need in term of scooped SVT tone that you can dial in to be very very similar to a full tube SVT. YMMV.
 
#56
Kipp Harrington said:
Hey guys/gals... here's my situation:

I have been running my Tech 21 VT Deluxe preamp in front of my Mesa Subway D-800. I regularly run that amp through a Subway 112 and 115, combined. I have tried many different settings and applications to avoid my limit light illuminating and nothing seems to work. The indicator light is flashing more often than I would like and I don't want to risk damaging the amp and/or drivers.
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If all of that is true, you should be concerned that your amp or preamp might be defective, or that you don't know how to use your equipment. You shouldn't be shopping for an overdrive in this situation. (If all you want is to buy a new overdrive you don't need to make up an excuse.)

If your limiter light doesn't come on when you eliminate your preamp from your signal chain, then there is something wrong with your preamp, or your output level is too high (user error). Someone else already asked what happens when you turn down the output level of your preamp? You know there's no reason to have it higher than unity gain with the dry signal out of your bass? Have you tried setting the input level on your amp head with only the bass plugged in and then setting the output level on your preamp to match?
 
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#57
Wow! Thanks guys! Many responses and suggestions... and I shouldn't be surprised :thumbsup:

After reading these posts, it appears that I should be looking for an OD that includes a blend knob for manipulating the dry signal. This makes total sense and is something I ignorantly didn't consider.

The crossover/splitter approach presents a sensible alternative also. Unfortunately, it seemed a bit complicated (for me, anyhow) and something I would struggle with.

Thanks so much to everyone for the suggestions! I will be doing some more research, armed with your background knowledge and experience with these pedals.
 
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#58
GMC said:
I've not found any low end loss with any of the engines, even the ones that traditionally have low end loss (RAT, Klon and Tube screamers come to mine). You must have something weird going on with your board that's sucking low end tone out.
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The Klon model (the one I liked the overload characteristics of) definitely has low end loss - and lots of it. No, I don't have any low end loss on my board - the difference is between on and off.

If a rig doesn't have much real low end (like most bass amp cabinets), that's a situation where you wouldn't notice the difference.
 
#59
coyote1 said:
My solution with ANY effect is to run a clean sound in parallel. All effects will rob bottom end from your signal chain. So I bi-amp, and keep the lows solidly underneath whatever effect I'm using.
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This is incorrect or at least a bit misleading. There are effects that inherently preserve a good amount of your dry signal, so mixing them with more dry signal can lead to phase issues. Chorus and Flanger pedals work by keeping about 50% of your dry signal by default, and a reverb pedal will have more than that.
 

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