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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#4,761
R&B said:
Effectrode PC-2A question (it’s a compressor AND a preamp!) Besides, you guys made me do it. :D

I hooked mine up to the Cioks DC 5 with a parallel cable (white, white, green, center positive) using both 300 mA terminals set to 12V. Should have been putting out 12V, 600 mA, no?

The LEDs on the Cioks 12V outputs immediately went dark. (!!) Yet the PC-2A lit up and sounded great.

Specs from Effectrode are 12V, 600 mA, center positive. Should have been getting enough current. Apparently though, it was drawing enough juice to upset the Cioks.

Comments? Should I stick with the Effectrode power supply for headroom? Or is it OK to use the DC 5?
Click to expand...
Afaik...the red-tipped (pos/2.1mm barrel) Cioks cable is the only one to use. The green is 2.5mm. Have not read of anyone using the DC5...the DC7 will get it done for sure.
 
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#4,763
kevk said:
Afaik...the red-tipped (pos/2.1mm barrel) Cioks cable is the only one to use. The green is 2.5mm. Have not read of anyone using the DC5...the DC7 will get it done for sure.
Click to expand...

scubaduba said:
Are both LEDs off or just one? It is normal for one LED to go off. Cioks explained it to me once... Something to do with both LEDs effectively becoming one visualization of the current draw.

The green flex cable is 2.5mm the red is 2.1 mm. The red should fit better.
Click to expand...
The 2.5 fits fine. Could not find an equivalent 2.1 mm. Both LEDs go out.
 
#4,769
I think Hilbish got me hooked on their sound. I’m running my synth through the Pessimiser fuzz and Sol preamp, and it just sounds “right” to me. I’ll turn the fuzz off and things still sound good with just the preamp, but it doesn’t quite work for me the other way.

I’m giving more consideration to their compressor than I should. There’s probably better and/or more adjustable boxes for the money, but I’m intrigued by how they’ll all fit together. The comp is a two knob Dyna Comp design, with a few refinements based on the Premier Guitar article. Maybe not the best utility tool for bass, but still intriguing.
 
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#4,770
Not sure if I’ve seen this discussed before, but has anyone had issues with using the same DI/Pre with multiple instruments? Do some preamps impart enough character that using the same pre for bass, guitars, and synths on the same recording results in crowding in certain frequencies when everything is layered together? For example, if an Oracle (or REDDI, or Edison, or...) sounded great on every solo instrument, would it create too much of a good thing in mix?
 
#4,771
monsterthompson said:
Not sure if I’ve seen this discussed before, but has anyone had issues with using the same DI/Pre with multiple instruments? Do some preamps impart enough character that using the same pre for bass, guitars, and synths on the same recording results in crowding in certain frequencies when everything is layered together? For example, if an Oracle (or REDDI, or Edison, or...) sounded great on every solo instrument, would it create too much of a good thing in mix?
Click to expand...

The same as in the same model but two units (e.g. I'm planning to get two RNDIs - one for the bass pedalboard and one for the Moog Sub Phatty) or the same unit running both instruments and using an ABY switch?

Using the same channel path / same unit for both instruments would most probably be problematic, as your sound guy won't be able to process the instruments separately - and you're be limiting yourself to one setting for both of them if you're full analog (maybe the other instrument needs a different type of compression idk?)
If you're going to jam or rehearse though then sure, just match the levels and it should be fine.

Something like the RNDI-S (the two channel stereo one) could be a good compromise if you're looking for an all in one unit to run two instruments through, but I decided to go with two separate units instead just to have more flexibility.

I know this doesn’t really answer your question but it’s just something to keep in mind if you’re thinking of going this route. :)

EDIT: Read your post again and realized that you’re referring to recording, not live situations.

I recently talked to a guy that has a studio in another city (he got the RNDI and I asked him what he thought about it) and he told me that different gear works for different stuff.

The Oracle/Noble/whatever may sound really good on bass but I doubt it will help having one on the snare bottom channel for example.
It may sound good on guitar though so bottom line is to experiment more?
(not helping the GAS am I?)
 
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#4,773
alecvbass said:
The Oracle/Noble/whatever may sound really good on bass but I doubt it will help having one on the snare bottom channel for example.
Click to expand...

I was thinking more like bass, guitar, synth/keys all using the same. Drums are obviously a fairly different beast. I was thinking Instruments with more significant potential for overlapping harmonic content.
 
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#4,776
Rocksolid said:
An IEC Y cable will power it and your DC-7
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I do:

148FE387-1018-45DB-90A8-91AB5938A1AD_1_201_a.jpeg
 
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#4,777
After about 30 weeks without being in front of a live audience, I finally got to play yesterday. It was good to be back, but it was the first go around with the Oracle/LA-1A combo live. I had a small panic when the sound engineer said, "Someone is noisy, looks like it's bass". UGH!! WTH!! He ended up gating me. I've played at this venue dozens and dozens of times and never had an issue. I run a power conditioner before my board. I heard the noise....it's not 60 cycle..it's HISSSSSSSSSS.

My practice environment at home is not running filtered power and my board sits next to two very electronically noisy RAID5 arrays hooked to my computer so I constantly hear the drives whirring and clicking through my board. So I didn't notice any issue at home.

I got back home after playing and hooked everything up moved well away from any interference. Well crap..there it is. HISSSSSSSSS. What the hell is it? Only new things are the comp, preamp, and DI. Unplugged the DI from the preamp. Silent. Bypassed then unplugged the compressor....still hissing. Ugh! It's the Oracle.

Good news though, I found the fix. It was a byproduct of having my gain at 3 o'clock and the master dimed. When I lowered them both, the hiss disappeared, but now I was having to crank the gain on the mixer and it induced some noise. So I lowered it back to where it was. I have a buffer at the front of my chain which has two "channels" to set the level for different basses. This allows me to hit the compressor with the same level regardless of what bass I have hooked up. I raised the level on the buffer which is uber clean. Then I lowered the threshold on the comp as it was getting a hotter signal. Then I cranked the gain on the compressor which is also super silent. This gave me the same level hitting the RNDI and my mixer without any noise.
 
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#4,778
chadhargis said:
After about 30 weeks without being in front of a live audience, I finally got to play yesterday. It was good to be back, but it was the first go around with the Oracle/LA-1A combo live. I had a small panic when the sound engineer said, "Someone is noisy, looks like it's bass". UGH!! WTH!! He ended up gating me. I've played at this venue dozens and dozens of times and never had an issue. I run a power conditioner before my board. I heard the noise....it's not 60 cycle..it's HISSSSSSSSSS.

My practice environment at home is not running filtered power and my board sits next to two very electronically noisy RAID5 arrays hooked to my computer so I constantly hear the drives whirring and clicking through my board. So I didn't notice any issue at home.

I got back home after playing and hooked everything up moved well away from any interference. Well crap..there it is. HISSSSSSSSS. What the hell is it? Only new things are the comp, preamp, and DI. Unplugged the DI from the preamp. Silent. Bypassed then unplugged the compressor....still hissing. Ugh! It's the Oracle.

Good news though, I found the fix. It was a byproduct of having my gain at 3 o'clock and the master dimed. When I lowered them both, the hiss disappeared, but now I was having to crank the gain on the mixer and it induced some noise. So I lowered it back to where it was. I have a buffer at the front of my chain which has two "channels" to set the level for different basses. This allows me to hit the compressor with the same level regardless of what bass I have hooked up. I raised the level on the buffer which is uber clean. Then I lowered the threshold on the comp as it was getting a hotter signal. Then I cranked the gain on the compressor which is also super silent. This gave me the same level hitting the RNDI and my mixer without any noise.
Click to expand...
Getting Gain staging right so everything plays together nicely is sooo important and sometimes frustrating. Well resolved!
 
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#4,779
chadhargis said:
After about 30 weeks without being in front of a live audience, I finally got to play yesterday. It was good to be back, but it was the first go around with the Oracle/LA-1A combo live. I had a small panic when the sound engineer said, "Someone is noisy, looks like it's bass". UGH!! WTH!! He ended up gating me. I've played at this venue dozens and dozens of times and never had an issue. I run a power conditioner before my board. I heard the noise....it's not 60 cycle..it's HISSSSSSSSSS.

My practice environment at home is not running filtered power and my board sits next to two very electronically noisy RAID5 arrays hooked to my computer so I constantly hear the drives whirring and clicking through my board. So I didn't notice any issue at home.

I got back home after playing and hooked everything up moved well away from any interference. Well crap..there it is. HISSSSSSSSS. What the hell is it? Only new things are the comp, preamp, and DI. Unplugged the DI from the preamp. Silent. Bypassed then unplugged the compressor....still hissing. Ugh! It's the Oracle.

Good news though, I found the fix. It was a byproduct of having my gain at 3 o'clock and the master dimed. When I lowered them both, the hiss disappeared, but now I was having to crank the gain on the mixer and it induced some noise. So I lowered it back to where it was. I have a buffer at the front of my chain which has two "channels" to set the level for different basses. This allows me to hit the compressor with the same level regardless of what bass I have hooked up. I raised the level on the buffer which is uber clean. Then I lowered the threshold on the comp as it was getting a hotter signal. Then I cranked the gain on the compressor which is also super silent. This gave me the same level hitting the RNDI and my mixer without any noise.
Click to expand...

Gain staging. Something they don't teach in school. :)

Glad you got it figured out.

What do you think about the tone?
 
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#4,780
scubaduba said:
Gain staging. Something they don't teach in school. :)

Glad you got it figured out.

What do you think about the tone?
Click to expand...

Tone seemed fine in my ear mix. I forgot to bring my recorder to hear what it sound like in the house. The most impressing thing to me was the bottom end was nice a warm and round while still giving a nice top end with some sheen to it. I played some runs up high and it just sang. That's a pretty rare combination.

Once song was in D and I played several low D notes including a big greasy slide down to the low D on the B string. It sounded like the hand of God himself played it. Of course, I was wearing my BackBeat, so maybe it just felt powerful to me. LOL! :)
 
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