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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison
- Thread starter chadhargis
- Start date
Guys.....um....the Melvin Lee Preamp....is legit.
I will expand on this later.
I will expand on this later.
Just received mine today. Haven't had a chance to mess with it yet but looking forward to hearing more of your experience.
Lowendtech
Happily trending in my own peculiar direction.
Dang, how cool is that. Anxiously waiting for mine to get through two postal systems.
For those of you with a NuX NBP-5 Melvin Lee Davis Bass Preamp, please pop over to the New bass preamp pedal from NUX thread and let us know if you get it working as an audio interface in Windows
Thanks,
John
Thanks,
John
jacoby75
Supporting Member
- Mar 11, 2010
- 5,661
- 10,716
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Mike Lull Custom Guitars, DR Strings
Update the firmware first. Here are the directions Scuba shared with me. Worked like a charm:
You first need to get the firmware updated before you'll be able to use the editor.
Step 1: Open the NUX firmware editor
Step 2: Hold down both footswitches while powering on the NUX
Step 3: The device should now be recognized by the firmware software and you can update the firmware.
Step 4: Disconnect power
Step 5: power on the device normally
Once the firmware is updated, the editor software should recognize the device.
The Firmware Updater, Editor Software, and Windows Driver are on the NuX site.
Hi there, could you possible provide dimensions of this pedal? Top width, bottom width, and length?
Ok where to begin on the NuX Melvin Lee.
First off, physically, it is very small considering the features packed in. Here is a side by side of it and a Studio One:
The software breaks the pedal down essentially in to two halves. The "amp" (or preamp) and the "cab sim" (or IR). Both can be on or off independently. So you can run just preamp (no IR), just IR (no preamp), neither, or both.
The preamp/eq section has two pre-loaded emulators. Aguilar and MLD (Melvin Lee Davis). They do sport different flavors and the eq's respond well using both. A cool thing about the software, especially the Mid section is that when you sweep the Freq knob, you can see, in the software, what frequency you are landing on. So you dont have to guess, "yeah this should be around 500hz," the software tells you. As you turn knobs on the physical unit they change within the software as well.
The Drive is not heavily distorted. It is a much warmer type of "drive." More like a warm boost pedal to me, even with the Blend/Gain dimed. It actually works really well, always-on, mixed in with the preamp section. Kind of like how a Tone Hammer with AGS can be dialed in to play nicely together (though this pedal has far less gain than the AGS).
Also, something I didnt know. There is a built in Noise Gate that is adjustable! It is basically in a "sub-menu" of the pedal. It can be adjusted physically on the unit or within the software. To access it on the pedal, hold down the Drive switch for 1.5 seconds until the green light begins to blink. Then use the Drive's Blend and Gain knobs for Latency and Threshold. When done, hold the Drive switch until the green light stops blinking. Voila. I used the Noise Gate to dial out some single coil hum I was getting from a Jazz bass (with neck pickup solo'd). Worked as expected.
The pedal comes with 4 pre-loaded IR's that are actually really decent. The pedal can hold up to 8 total. I loaded another 4 mixing from Shift Line, Ownhammer, and 3 Sigma. All of them sounded good through the pedal. There is a separate volume knob for the IR sim so you can dial in the level of the IR. Keep in mind though, it isn't a "Blend," it is a volume knob.
The Aux In and Headphone Out work as expected making this also a great practice tool!
XLR, Normal, and Through outputs combined with Pre/Post switch mean you can send an effected signal to the house and a separate, clean, bypassed signal to your stage amp which is really nice. This thing is just packed with features!
It runs off of 9v/150mA so it is pedalboard power supply friendly as well.
Oh and it can also be used as an audio interface....
I haven't tested this yet but I will soon. Also, I haven't tested the XLR out yet, but again, will soon.
I can safely say that this would be my first recommendation to anyone looking for a preamp/DI under $250 or so. It is making me re-think some things.It is that good.
First off, physically, it is very small considering the features packed in. Here is a side by side of it and a Studio One:
The software breaks the pedal down essentially in to two halves. The "amp" (or preamp) and the "cab sim" (or IR). Both can be on or off independently. So you can run just preamp (no IR), just IR (no preamp), neither, or both.
The preamp/eq section has two pre-loaded emulators. Aguilar and MLD (Melvin Lee Davis). They do sport different flavors and the eq's respond well using both. A cool thing about the software, especially the Mid section is that when you sweep the Freq knob, you can see, in the software, what frequency you are landing on. So you dont have to guess, "yeah this should be around 500hz," the software tells you. As you turn knobs on the physical unit they change within the software as well.
The Drive is not heavily distorted. It is a much warmer type of "drive." More like a warm boost pedal to me, even with the Blend/Gain dimed. It actually works really well, always-on, mixed in with the preamp section. Kind of like how a Tone Hammer with AGS can be dialed in to play nicely together (though this pedal has far less gain than the AGS).
Also, something I didnt know. There is a built in Noise Gate that is adjustable! It is basically in a "sub-menu" of the pedal. It can be adjusted physically on the unit or within the software. To access it on the pedal, hold down the Drive switch for 1.5 seconds until the green light begins to blink. Then use the Drive's Blend and Gain knobs for Latency and Threshold. When done, hold the Drive switch until the green light stops blinking. Voila. I used the Noise Gate to dial out some single coil hum I was getting from a Jazz bass (with neck pickup solo'd). Worked as expected.
The pedal comes with 4 pre-loaded IR's that are actually really decent. The pedal can hold up to 8 total. I loaded another 4 mixing from Shift Line, Ownhammer, and 3 Sigma. All of them sounded good through the pedal. There is a separate volume knob for the IR sim so you can dial in the level of the IR. Keep in mind though, it isn't a "Blend," it is a volume knob.
The Aux In and Headphone Out work as expected making this also a great practice tool!
XLR, Normal, and Through outputs combined with Pre/Post switch mean you can send an effected signal to the house and a separate, clean, bypassed signal to your stage amp which is really nice. This thing is just packed with features!
It runs off of 9v/150mA so it is pedalboard power supply friendly as well.
Oh and it can also be used as an audio interface....
I haven't tested this yet but I will soon. Also, I haven't tested the XLR out yet, but again, will soon.I can safely say that this would be my first recommendation to anyone looking for a preamp/DI under $250 or so. It is making me re-think some things.It is that good.
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Nice summary. I continue to be very pleased with the little NUX.
Top width 3", bottom just shy of 2.5", length a tad over 4.25", and the overall width because of the gain knob is about 3.5". Sorry it's not exact, but I'm cooking dinner.
NuX, Edison, SLO...squirrel!!Crap. You guys and all your talk about the Nux……...Freakin' GAS....
This thread should be renamed "The GAS Station."
Lowendtech
Happily trending in my own peculiar direction.
True, but....Don't kid yourself, I can reasonably say that most of us would love to own an SA200.NuX, Edison, SLO...squirrel!!
This thread should be renamed "The GAS Station."
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