awsome. could you post any sound clips of it with a bass and EQ flat. and then switch it on and off or something, that would be a huge help. anyone? thanks a lot!
I have a really nice custom bass now, and I figured the sansamp couldn't possibly make the tone any better.. I was wrong, it's an indispensable unit. I only blend mine between 25% and 40%, but that little bit of blend really fills out the tone and adds some nice grit. I definately recommend it, and I'm sure many people here do as well
Who uses these, what are some song examples of this in use (I don't want to have to download clips, I'm just curious what kind of tone it gets)
Its a subtle sound that fattens up your tone. its a tube amp emulator/preamp and it does a great job at it. so it wont sound drastic like an overdrive unit, in fact you'll get used to it being on all the time, but when its gone, you'll wonder where your tone went. i got mine as part of a trade, and expected it to be a toy to play with, but its an integral part of my rig now.
I do use one, but mainly for eq only. I've found the tube emulation muddy's up the sound, so I use it sparingly if at all.
The drive on it always strikes me as more of dist, rather than an OD. Especially when maxed. I agree with David on the 100% tube blend. Too muddy for MY sound, though it came in helpful when trying to cop some Tim Commerford lines. I appreciate that the option's there. Blend is usually about 12:00 for me.
The BDDI is a pretty powerful unit: subtle changes of the controls can make a noticeable difference. Blend is an important control. Nearly all of the example settings in the manual show Blend maxxed, but I didn't appreciate my SABDDI until I kept Blend at 50% or below... that's when running my BDDI in front of another preamp or amp head. When using the BDDI (or its rack-mount sister, the RBI) by itself, I keep Blend at 50-60%. Some bassists I know (who mostly play passive Fender style basses) are happy with Blend maxxed. But cranking Blend intensifies the mid-scoop EQ curve which is a function of the tube emulation, and not all of us care for scooped tone. Opinions vary about Drive, too... some bassists crank it, others keep it off. One thing to note: the output of your bass will have a huge effect on how much overdrive you get. Using my passive Fender RB5 in single-coil mode, I only noticed overdrive when Drive was set above 75%. But with high-output active basses, you can get plenty of distortion even with Drive set much lower.
