Sansamp live sound

[jeffgnr90]

With back line equipment, it's usually best to use what is provided or completely bypass it. With a quick turnover of bands (my guess) it is best to stick with what works for you. Although you can finally try something new, doing so in front of a bunch of people can turn out to be a nightmare sound wise for you. Especially if you have no time to adjust it.

I have thought about just using their rig too, cause theyre probably most familiar with their own back line and are able to help me out more so then if I brought my own stuff. If if was using both the cabs I imagine it would be an easy fix to just turn off the amp and maybe re wire how I'm plugged in, no more than 10 seconds I bet

 

[jeffgnr90]

if the sansamp is "your sound", then use either your own rig or the house rig (don't bother with both) but use the regular 1/4" out to your stage rig; in fact, you might be best off running that 1/4" out into the effects return or power amp in of the stage rig, bypassing the other preamp entirely so it's just a straight power amp.

I've tried running into the fx return of the power amp and did like the sound, but the only way I was able to control the volume was either the wet/dry mix dial on the back of the amp or by controlling the volume via the pedal, which means bending over mid song possibly. And i dont have a volume pedal or anything unfortunayely. I could just turn it up as loud as it needs to go and then go with a more dynamic approach playing wise.

 

[walterw]

huh?

no, you set the sansamp output for a good strong level and the tone you like, leave it alone, then use the amp's master volume control (which usually still works) to control your stage volume without changing what the soundguy gets.

 

[jeffgnr90]

huh?

no, you set the sansamp output for a good strong level and the tone you like, leave it alone, then use the amp's master volume control (which usually still works) to control your stage volume without changing what the soundguy gets.

whenever I go in to the fx return in my amp, the master volume does nothing. i assume that's not the case with every amp, but i'll have to give it a go again and see

 

[walterw]

whenever I go in to the fx return in my amp, the master volume does nothing.

hmm, yeah, that's no good. the whole idea is to adjust your stage volume without changing what the house gets.

does the amp have a "power amp in" jack besides the effects loop? that might be worth a try as an insert point for the sansamp.

 

[eagle67]

whenever I go in to the fx return in my amp, the master volume does nothing. i assume that's not the case with every amp, but i'll have to give it a go again and see

My amp has a knob on the back, near the effects return input, that allows you to choose the % mix to the master section of the amp, which is controlled by the main volume.

 

[jeffgnr90]

My amps currently at a friends house for a practice tomorrow, when I get there ill take a look. Yea it never made much sense that the master was unresponsive when I went into the fx return. I'll have to see if there's a power amp in. Im actually gonna check out the manual for my amp and see, its an acoustic b600h. And there is a mix knob which is what I've had to use in order to get any change in the volume.

 

[walterw]

crank that mix knob all the way over to "wet", which gives you 100% of the sansamp into the amp, at which point the master volume should probably work.

 

[jeffgnr90]

so i tried it out today and got the same results. The sound into the fx return is great, but it leaves the master and gain knobs on the amps useless. I turned the dry/wet knob all the way to wet which made things louder, but not nearly loud enough for a live situation. There's no power amp in jack that I can see unless it's called something different. There's direct out for xlr with a DI volume knob for that too, tuner send, fx switch, and effects send. I tried the fx send and got the same results.

 

[walterw]

well that's annoying!

you might as well plug into the front then.

 

[tech21nyc]

Many amplifiers master volumes are before the efx return which will render the master volume inoperative if using the efx return jack.

You can either just use the pedal's level control as your master or you can also plug the pedal into the front end of the amp but set the tone as flat as possible to work best with the pedal. This is not to say you can't adjust the tone on your amp "and" use the pedal but keep in mind that a very drastic EQ setting on the amp will make it harder to dial in the pedal.

There is also a way to use the pedal with an A/B box with certain amps and use your amp's preamp and the SansAmp independently. Basically a channel switching amp.

If you have something like an SVT, you can also use an A/B box to route the SansAmp to one channel optimized for the pedal and use the other channel as normal.

 

[djaxup]

I've had that problem too with two amps (Hartke 3500 and GK 1001 RB-II). The PBDDI has a special button for a boost, that actually worked.

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Called the 1/4 out boost. That was enough to bring the volume up. It was still louder when used over the standard input without that switch engaged.

 

[walterw]

same as the regular BDDI, you can switch either or both the 1/4" out and the XLR out from line level (boosted) to instrument level (not boosted).

instrument level would be better for the front of an amp, line level for the power amp in.

 

[lustersilk]

Somewhere along the way players started using the Bass Driver as a distortion box into the front end of their bass amps via the 1/4" output and sending the XLR SansAmp output to the mixer. This is fine as long as you leave the pedal engaged. If you switch it on and off like a regular stompbox you will have a very inconsistent DI signal at the board.

Yep - this is exactly how I roll and it's not just for distortion, it's for consistant, wonderful tone. The sound people I come across are always happy to see my BDDI when they approach with a cable in hand. Great tone on stage and great tone through FOH. I'm a huge fan.