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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#4,782
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...

Im glad you figured it out. I had a verrry smilar experience as well. Oddly enough I have very similar settings as you did when I had a noise issue. Gain staging properly sorted that out as well.
 
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#4,784
SteveC said:
Gain staging and H/LPF. I had our sound guy put both high and low pass filters on my bass and it tightened up the sound noticeably. My amazing B string was even better. Bass was just tighter.
I need a pedal now so I can do the same with my amp.
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Turns out my Genzler head has a built in HPF at about 30 Hz. Guess I don't need a pedal for either when I use it as a DI or as my amp.
 
#4,785
SteveC said:
Turns out my Genzler head has a built in HPF at about 30 Hz. Guess I don't need a pedal for either when I use it as a DI or as my amp.
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I think it's part of the "secret sauce" of those amps when you play through one for the first time. It tightens up the low end and makes you sound better through any cab, but you have to read the manual to know it's there. I hope if there is a V2 of the Magellan amps some day they will make the HPF cutoff adjustable like on the Mesa stuff.

I think the HPF is part of the preamp, though, so if you use an outboard pre into the power amp of the Genzler you would still want to use an HPF pedal.
 
#4,787
SteveC said:
Turns out my Genzler head has a built in HPF at about 30 Hz. Guess I don't need a pedal for either when I use it as a DI or as my amp.
Click to expand...

I consider the variable high-pass filter critical to adjusting my rig to each venue; a HPF that isn't adjustable helps, but the magic is a combination of a variable HPF and the bass tone control, IME. Of course, for recording, etc., the venue seldom interacts with backline the way it does live.
 
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#4,788
SteveC said:
Turns out my Genzler head has a built in HPF at about 30 Hz. Guess I don't need a pedal for either when I use it as a DI or as my amp.
Click to expand...

I consider the variable high-pass filter critical to adjusting my rig to each venue; a HPF that isn't adjustable helps, but the magic is a combination of a variable HPF and the bass tone control, IME. Of course, for recording, etc., the venue seldom interacts with backline the way it does live.
 
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#4,789
I've been using the Mesa Subway Plus for about six weeks now and absolutely love it. The built in HPF has been a game changer for me and I can't see myself not needing one from here on out. Can't wait for COVID to pass so I can test this thing in a live environment.

My only complaint is that it lacks a headphone out, but my Rolls PM351 fills that need perfectly. Plus now I have more output options than I know what to do with!
 
#4,790
I don't use an outboard pre into my Genzler at this point. I have my LA-1A in front through the normal means.
I'm sure a variable filter is better, but for now, I'll live with the one baked into the head. Most of my gigs are DI/IEM and now that the sound guy has filters set on those boards I'm probably good - especially at church where it's the same every week.

We'll see what happens when we start playing out again in the cover band but the basic 40Hz/8K seems to work well.
 
#4,792
fivestringgecko said:
Another one I've been curious about along the way, but never really found a good bass demo of it until @Proton Lenny posted this. What's the temperature on the Automatone? Anyone here tried one? Zach did a great demo and makes it sound pretty great. Sure seems like a Swiss Army Knife. Plus, the moving faders...

5sg.

Click to expand...


Based on the first 90 seconds, that's a hard pass on the distortion sounds for me. The bass he uses can be part of the issue. His Ding isn't always my thing, though the clean sound at 3:40 isn't bad at all, so I either don't like the pre, but it could be the pre with his playing and bass. That said, I listened to a few other demos a while back and I'm probably just not a fan of the pedal.

The faders look cool. The fader sliding while playing is a nifty trick. The preset ability is nice.
 
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#4,793
monsterthompson said:
Based on the first 90 seconds, that's a hard pass on the distortion sounds for me. The bass he uses can be part of the issue. His Ding isn't always my thing, though the clean sound at 3:40 isn't bad at all, so I either don't like the pre, but it could be the pre with his playing and bass. That said, I listened to a few other demos a while back and I'm probably just not a fan of the pedal.

The faders look cool. The fader sliding while playing is a nifty trick. The preset ability is nice.
Click to expand...

Not all gear matches everyone's tastes, of course. I'm personally on the other side of that coin, and am digging most of the sounds in that demo. The gain/distortion seems like it's probably on the darker side of the dirt spectrum, which I'm into. I'm not 100% into the fuzz sound by itself, but it sounds like it could be quite tasty for making synth sounds. The MIDI control could definitely come in handy.

5sg.
 
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#4,794
fivestringgecko said:
Not all gear matches everyone's tastes, of course. I'm personally on the other side of that coin, and am digging most of the sounds in that demo. The gain/distortion seems like it's probably on the darker side of the dirt spectrum, which I'm into. I'm not 100% into the fuzz sound by itself, but it sounds like it could be quite tasty for making synth sounds. The MIDI control could definitely come in handy.

5sg.
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Regarding synth sounds, I’m always amazed at how some distortion or fuzz works well on guitar or bass, yet sometimes the same box sounds awful on a synth. It also seems IME that guitar and bass benefit from cab sims with dirt but synths can sound fine without one when using fuzz.

Gear is different. Goals are different.
 
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#4,796
So all the talk earlier in this thread about the Grace ALiX had me thinking. I already had the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ/DI but I only ever used it for my ABG. After receiving the Effectrode LA-1A every other preamp I had sounded great, but there was just something that I couldn’t put my finger on that I didn’t like about all of them. So remembering all the praise that the Grace ALiX got; I thought: I wonder how the Fishman would sound with the LA-1A. It clicked for me! Now this board may not look like it would sound all that great, but for me it sounds awesome. Perhaps I went a little overboard with all the EQ options, but once I got them all set I had no complaints.
1FA861B7-853E-49E7-B407-D8C38CF58049.jpeg
 
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#4,797
Deleted member 360599 said:
So all the talk earlier in this thread about the Grace ALiX had me thinking. I already had the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ/DI but I only ever used it for my ABG. After receiving the Effectrode LA-1A every other preamp I had sounded great, but there was just something that I couldn’t put my finger on that I didn’t like about all of them. So remembering all the praise that the Grace ALiX got I thought I wonder how the Fishman would sound with the LA-1A. It clicked for me! Now this board may not look like it would sound all that great, but for me it sounds awesome. View attachment 3998864
Click to expand...

Interesting to see that board. I have the Linden (which is never leaving btw) and am hopefully getting the Grizzly. Why have the Linden after the drive? Thanks,
 
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#4,800
JRMK said:
Has anyone heard / used Trickfish Minnow? Looks like their gear is overall in high regard but I don't see any mention of their Pre-DI ?
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There's definitely been some discussion along the way in this thread. If you use the search function for "minnow" and click the "in this thread" box, you can find the discussion without having to wade through the whole thread.

But in particular, check out Jayme Lewis' demo video of it in particular. It's a long watch, but he does a great dissection/demo of it with lots of great info!

5sg.

 
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