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Preamp - DCX Bass or Mantle?

#4
I have the DCX and think it’s a great piece of kit. It sounds and feels high quality. If you don’t need to DI of the Mantle I say get the DCX and save yourself some cash. I only use my DCX as an always on character pedal with very light breakup, but it is much more than that if you want it to be.

The Mantle does look like a well thought-out piece of kit though. If it were a bit cheaper I’d probably be interested.
 
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#7
Gogoplata1980 said:
How?
Click to expand...

How will I have a Mantle or how will i record comparisons? I've got a bunch of recent releases and classic options here at the moment so wanted to record a bit with them all, both for my own sake and for anyone who might find it interesting/useful. Will try and get something on Youtube in the next few days, have captured a bunch but the Mantle arrives tomorrow!
 
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#8
Switcharoo said:
How will I have a Mantle or how will i record comparisons? I've got a bunch of recent releases and classic options here at the moment so wanted to record a bit with them all, both for my own sake and for anyone who might find it interesting/useful. Will try and get something on Youtube in the next few days, have captured a bunch but the Mantle arrives tomorrow!
Click to expand...
How will you have the Mantle so quickly? I appreciate the other stuff. Just curious on how you are getting it so fast.
 
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#12
Mantle is gonna be pretty clean, with some very very light saturation options and the stepped EQ, which includes hi-pass/lo-pass on certain settings.

DCX can get super gritty and blown out, and has somewhat of a LPF built in, though it is set at 4k and 2k respectively, and is somewhat responsive to playing dynamics.

Planning on using both lol. Still waiting on the mantle to arrive!
 
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#13
The magic that I believe the mantle is imparting comes mostly from the transformers in my opinion. Every piece of gear I own that has transformers does that "thing" were it seems to expand the sound out at the edges and saturates it. Hard to explain without having my board in front of me (and your ears) but after using either of my two color box mk2s or my RNDI, I wouldn't be surprised if my gig rig also has (Super Vintage in my case) a transformer in it because it gives the same effect while adding the tonality of the amp that inspired it. I personally haven't heard any overly compressed Youtube demos that impressed me really but at it's price point, I'm not that interested in it considering the options I already have. Using my RNDI with my Bass ParaEQ at the end an a DCX bass up towards the front can give me all I need (and more) in terms of what the mantle brings imo. You most likely can also get some of that transformer mojo from a Lightning Boy Audio 23Fe+ and/or a 2020S, not experimented with them yet but they look promising and the reviews seem pretty good. Supposedly they are fantastic after drives so I might put one after my DCX to see what happens when I push it. Never know when you might need an even SMALLER board so having transformers I can just plug in directly and store underneath the board sounds appealing.
 
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#14
MojoPin said:
The magic that I believe the mantle is imparting comes mostly from the transformers in my opinion. Every piece of gear I own that has transformers does that "thing" were it seems to expand the sound out at the edges and saturates it. Hard to explain without having my board in front of me (and your ears) but after using either of my two color box mk2s or my RNDI, I wouldn't be surprised if my gig rig also has (Super Vintage in my case) a transformer in it because it gives the same effect while adding the tonality of the amp that inspired it. I personally haven't heard any overly compressed Youtube demos that impressed me really but at it's price point, I'm not that interested in it considering the options I already have. Using my RNDI with my Bass ParaEQ at the end an a DCX bass up towards the front can give me all I need (and more) in terms of what the mantle brings imo. You most likely can also get some of that transformer mojo from a Lightning Boy Audio 23Fe+ and/or a 2020S, not experimented with them yet but they look promising and the reviews seem pretty good. Supposedly they are fantastic after drives so I might put one after my DCX to see what happens when I push it. Never know when you might need an even SMALLER board so having transformers I can just plug in directly and store underneath the board sounds appealing.
Click to expand...
My observation as well. I place an LBA 2020 after my DCX to excellent effect, smoothing the triggering of the Becos mini compressor that follows them.
 
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#15
jpaulo said:
Both are said to be studio grade preamps - DCX a UA/610 and Mantle, some sort of Neve/API.
Considering a precision bass, rock/ hard rock - which would provide a better harmonic content for live use?
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The DCX can get pretty gnarly (think Rex Brown territory - his FOH DI rig is a Cali76 -> DCX -> Super Vintage -> Noble), but also do a harmonic EQ driven sweetener thing.

Anything Neve flavored (at least 1073 family) is going to give you a bigger booty with some sweetened top end and harmonic richness. API will give you a tighter low with a more aggressive set of mids (at least 312 family). Both of these are going to stay on the cleaner side of things.

IMO the question is how much drive do you want. If the answer is "moar", go with the DCX. If you want something a bit more flexible but staying on the cleaner side, the Mantle is going to have a wider palette. If you like the UA 610 polish, go with the DCX.

Either is going to make your signal sound fancy and expensive.
 
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#18
@jpaulo Both Options Clean:



Both options with a Browne Protein:



Walrus Mantle is first, DCX Bass 2nd. Both are direct into an Apollo with no processing. Walrus at 12db Balanced, DCX at 27 into the instrument input. Both with a little Bass and Treble boost, and the DCX has the voice set to Med for the dirty tones. Both have a whole range of sounds so this is just where I landed first!
 
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#19
Switcharoo said:
@jpaulo Both Options Clean:



Both options with a Browne Protein:



Walrus Mantle is first, DCX Bass 2nd. Both are direct into an Apollo with no processing. Walrus at 12db Balanced, DCX at 27 into the instrument input. Both with a little Bass and Treble boost, and the DCX has the voice set to Med for the dirty tones. Both have a whole range of sounds so this is just where I landed first!
Click to expand...


Switcharoo said:
@jpaulo Both Options Clean:



Both options with a Browne Protein:



Walrus Mantle is first, DCX Bass 2nd. Both are direct into an Apollo with no processing. Walrus at 12db Balanced, DCX at 27 into the instrument input. Both with a little Bass and Treble boost, and the DCX has the voice set to Med for the dirty tones. Both have a whole range of sounds so this is just where I landed first!
Click to expand...

@Switcharoo, this is great! Tks for the effort!
To me, they sounded pretty close, with the DCX being brighter/clearer.
Apart from the DI functionality, I guess the DCX can be more versatile.

What were your impressions?
 
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#20
Personally I lean towards the Mantle, I just find the bottom end it's capable of is a little more supportive. That said, pair the DCX with the right DI (which i've done in my comparison) and that's possible. I was impressed at how close they were to be honest! They both felt great to play, and I would't feel hard done by with either. The Mantle really changes in mid character as you play around with the gain level whereas I feel that the DCX is a little more fixed there (not necessarily a bad thing!). The DCX will also drive by itself... i set this just before it would break up.
 
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