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Sansamp BDDI mid-scoop

Q

Qvist

Jul 20, 2007
795
10
Denmark
#1
Hey people, I have a question concerning the Sansamp BDDI's mid-scoop, as I've seen a lot of people having trouble with this in live and recording circumstances.

From what I've understood (forgive me, but I'm quite inept in all this), mids are important for your sound in order to be present in the mix, yet this pedal is very popular even though people complain that it makes their sound become nothing but low end mud and treble clicking in a band situation - what are your tricks to make it sound really sweet in the mix? 'Cause this is without a doubt a really neat pedal!

Gig situation example: If I had a setup up of lets say, an average expensive bass, a BDDI and a GK700rb with a 4x10" cab, couldn't I just boost the mids on the the GK700rb and be fine with it?
 
#4
First things first, I would say to try it as-is in a live situation, since you MAY be totally cool with the tone shaping it does do. I've used one in various gigs and liked it - never thought it sounded particularly "scooped" in the band context but then I usually ran all the knobs at the high noon position.

What I DID learn was that, in a bar or small-to-medium-sized venue, it's just really flipping hard to get a sound out of a bass that you would describe as "good" in a bedroom situation. This often has more to do with the acoustics of the room and PA situation than anything else, and I couldn't expect a pedal or even a soundguy to offset these characteristics. What the BDDI did for me was make the best of a bad situation, as the low-end boost helped the note be heard over the drums and guitar while the high-end boost helped me hear myself for tuning/rhythm.

YMMV.
 
#6
Hey people, I have a question concerning the Sansamp BDDI's mid-scoop, as I've seen a lot of people having trouble with this in live and recording circumstances.
Click to expand...

When I tried a BDDI I encountered the same thing. That's why I opted for the Sansamp Paradriver DI. It's Identical to the Bassdriver except it has a sweepable mid control.

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You may be able to sell your BDDI and pick up a Paradriver for close to the same money.
 
#7
Thanks for all the fast replies people, much appreciated! :D

jb63 said:
When I tried a BDDI I encountered the same thing. That's why I opted for the Sansamp Paradriver DI. It's Identical to the Bassdriver except it has a sweepable mid control.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

You may be able to sell your BDDI and pick up a Paradriver for close to the same money.
Click to expand...

Are you sure it's 100% identical?! That doesn't make any sense, is the BDDI cheaper or what?
 
#8
well sansamp's goal has always been to put the svt sound in a small box. i don't think either of them do it nearly as well as the vt bass pedal, but they're more versatile since there's no di on the vt. i think instead of trading to a paradriver, i'd wait a week or two and see what new products tech 21 is announcing at namm. lloyd schwartz is hinting about big stuff they have for bass. won't say what it is, but it may be worth waiting for.

but if you want mids out of the bddi, the best way i've found to work them is to slightly cut bass and maybe a little treble.
 
#10
Most importantly, never, EVER, turn the blend any higher than noon. The tech21 processing is mid-scoopy, but as long as you leave your blend around 11 o'clock and don't get wonky with the bass/treble boost, you'll usually have sufficient mids. Maybe not uber quacky amounts, but more than enough for most applications.

I've found that, for me, it is more useful to set the blend level lower (ie: more clean signal) and boost the drive a bit more. This gets more tubiness into the signal path while still keeping mids present.
 
#11
Plug into the effects return, to bypass the preamp. You will have a double mid scoop, that will be muddy. You might want to turn the boost all the way down. But it does add some compression for speaker protection. If you don't mind the fact that you will hear something different than what goes to the FOH.

Both Ampeg and GK have a mid scoop in the preamp, as part of their voicing.

The effects return is flat and so is the power amp, your cab may not be. I think the BDDI is really meant for a FOH and a powered monitor setup. Thankfully you can use that GK as a nice little powered monitor through the effects return.
 
#13
Kael said:
Most importantly, never, EVER, turn the blend any higher than noon. The tech21 processing is mid-scoopy, but as long as you leave your blend around 11 o'clock and don't get wonky with the bass/treble boost, you'll usually have sufficient mids. Maybe not uber quacky amounts, but more than enough for most applications.

I've found that, for me, it is more useful to set the blend level lower (ie: more clean signal) and boost the drive a bit more. This gets more tubiness into the signal path while still keeping mids present.
Click to expand...

I'm gonna try this myself with an RPM.

Riis
 
#15
Are you sure it's 100% identical?! That doesn't make any sense, is the BDDI cheaper or what?
Click to expand...

What I mean is the Paradriver is in the same housing as the Bassdriver. You trade the Presence control on the Bassdriver for a semi-parametric mid control on the Paradriver. Also the blend knob on the Paradriver is a tiny one next to the Freq knob. Other than that they are essentially the same.

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#16
For best dirt sounds: set both "drive" and "presence" relatively high BUT with "blend" much less than noon.

SVT setting: back off the "blend" knob to about 50%. I think more is over kill and more hiss.

Another good tip: since the drive knob adds a ton of volume vs the clean signal, you'll need to reset the blend knob with any changes to "drive". In other words, 50% blend is not the same with Drive at 10% vs 70% on.

Ver. 1 of BDDI has fewer switches (9v or phantom power operable).

BDDI.gif
 
#17
Everyone... this is great information. I'm going to try backing-off the Blend on my gigs this weekend. I've always run the Blend on my BDDI wide-open (with the level at just a slight boost and the rest of the knobs at high noon), and it sounds great coming out of my amp but a lot of times I get the "your bass is kinda muddy in the house" comment.

Thanks for the insights.
 
#18
wow, i guess i'm the odd one out!

i dime the blend so it's all "sansamped", and just tweak the other controls accordingly.

"drive" then becomes preamp volume which i keep pretty low, "level" becomes master volume, treble and presence stay around noon and bass gets boosted a little.

with my passive P-bass into a PA power amp, it's deep and grindy for rock stuff, and the inherent mid-scoop lets me have room-filling bass without masking the rest of the band.

it indeed sounds sorta like my old magnavox svt head with that bass boost rocker switch engaged.
 
#19
Qvist said:
Hey people, I have a question concerning the Sansamp BDDI's mid-scoop, as I've seen a lot of people having trouble with this in live and recording circumstances.

From what I've understood (forgive me, but I'm quite inept in all this), mids are important for your sound in order to be present in the mix, yet this pedal is very popular even though people complain that it makes their sound become nothing but low end mud and treble clicking in a band situation - what are your tricks to make it sound really sweet in the mix? 'Cause this is without a doubt a really neat pedal!

Gig situation example: If I had a setup up of lets say, an average expensive bass, a BDDI and a GK700rb with a 4x10" cab, couldn't I just boost the mids on the the GK700rb and be fine with it?
Click to expand...

The trick is to buy a ParaDriver DI instead. It has a semi-parametric mid control that enables you to cut or boost mids at the frequency of your choice. It still has the drive control, but sacrifices the quasi-useless presence control. If I had to give up one of the two, it'd be bye-bye SABDDI.

I went through the board at our last rehearsal using only the ParaDriver and got a lot of great comments back from the band. It just has so much more tonal control than the SABDDI.

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