Yeah, I know it's pretty decent. Hence the question, would it be an enhancement or just a pain to try to run the RNDI at the end?
Looking more for advice from folks who have run both live or have tried a similar setup. Thanks though
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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison
- Thread starter chadhargis
- Start date
Yeah, I know it's pretty decent. Hence the question, would it be an enhancement or just a pain to try to run the RNDI at the end?
Looking more for advice from folks who have run both live or have tried a similar setup. Thanks though
GK PLEX
Found a deal on a GK Plex preamp and I've been playing with it for a few hours. I was very skeptical about it based on some comments I had read about noise and quality issues. When I first hooked it up, I did hear some hiss from it, but I figured out what was going on and dialed in the gain properly and now it's pretty quiet. Can still hear a bit of it if you're really listening for it, but the pedal actually has a noise gate on it and will cut it off after a few seconds.
The preamp actually sounds pretty good. From other comments I'd read, people didn't like the compressor and weren't complimentary of the overdrive. But I have found a useful setting for both. At this point, it's the best "all in one" pedal I've tested. It has a tuner, a compressor, overdrive, amp sim, EQ, audio interface, and a DI. That's a lot packed into something a little bigger than a couple of decks of cards.
This thing is really growing on me. It's not a transparent pedal for sure. Dialing up the amp sims give you a tasty tone that might not be everyone's cup of tea, but so far it's worked for me playing various genres of music and various basses. The only thing that is just absolutely terrible on the pedal is the way you access the tuner function. You have to double tap the compressor button. Too fast and it won't work...too slow and you'll toggle your compressor. It's just poor execution of a very frequently used function. Should be a hold to tune switch like my Line 6 Pod Go.
As soon as I get a chance I'll make some sound clips.
Found a deal on a GK Plex preamp and I've been playing with it for a few hours. I was very skeptical about it based on some comments I had read about noise and quality issues. When I first hooked it up, I did hear some hiss from it, but I figured out what was going on and dialed in the gain properly and now it's pretty quiet. Can still hear a bit of it if you're really listening for it, but the pedal actually has a noise gate on it and will cut it off after a few seconds.
The preamp actually sounds pretty good. From other comments I'd read, people didn't like the compressor and weren't complimentary of the overdrive. But I have found a useful setting for both. At this point, it's the best "all in one" pedal I've tested. It has a tuner, a compressor, overdrive, amp sim, EQ, audio interface, and a DI. That's a lot packed into something a little bigger than a couple of decks of cards.
This thing is really growing on me. It's not a transparent pedal for sure. Dialing up the amp sims give you a tasty tone that might not be everyone's cup of tea, but so far it's worked for me playing various genres of music and various basses. The only thing that is just absolutely terrible on the pedal is the way you access the tuner function. You have to double tap the compressor button. Too fast and it won't work...too slow and you'll toggle your compressor. It's just poor execution of a very frequently used function. Should be a hold to tune switch like my Line 6 Pod Go.
As soon as I get a chance I'll make some sound clips.
Based on that I'd LOVE to see your thoughts on the Microbass III - all it's missing is a cab sim
Okay folks, as the OP of this thread...which honestly has moved far beyond where I thought it would ever go thanks to all of your collective knowledge....I'm tossing in another review and some sound samples.
GK PLEX REVIEW & COMPARISION
As mentioned above I picked up a used GK Plex. I've long wanted to test this preamp but when one popped up for a good price I either missed it or had my cash tied up with something else. Testing this stuff is expensive. I don't get things provided to me to test like some of the YouTubers and such. It all comes out of my pocket.
So...back to the Plex. First off, for the TLDR people...it's good. Really good...with a few caveats.
First off, they are retailing for $400...which is just dumb. The Pod Go can be bought for $450 and it is FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR superior to anything in that price range and most things costing more than double that price. The tonal options of the Pod Go are such that I don't think you'd ever be about to use them all. But we're not here to talk about the Pod Go (although there will be a comparison clip of it as it's my current gold standard). If you can grab a Plex used for cheap...do it. It's a great do it all preamp in a small package that's built like a tank.
First thing I had to do was update the Plex to the current firmware. It was super easy. Just plug it in with a USB cable while holding one of the switches and it shows up as a hard disk on your computer. Delete the existing firmware file, drop in the new one, and you're done.
Once updated, I messed around with all the various amp sims and settled on the RB800 which seemed to have the most robust bottom end and a warm tone. More so than the tube amp emulation it has, which I thought was odd. I've never played through a GK rig, so I can't say if the emulation is accurate. But the RB800 one sounds good and it does have that real amp "feel" if that makes any sense. There is a coloration for sure.
I ended up using the "bump" function for the bass and adding +6db then turning the bass knob just past noon. I'm a fan of big full low end. The rest of the EQ knobs stayed flat. Rolling off the treble knob did give a nice tone too, but for the purposes of this test it was flat.
The compressor on the Plex is...um...well...it's okay. If you just want a little fattening in your tone it works fine. I fiddled with it a bit to get it to my liking. I don't really like to hear the compression. I just want it to level things out and fatten things up. It does that. The drive is fair. I'm not a big distortion fan, so none of them really wow me, but the Plex OD did maintain the low end well and it wasn't unpleasant as long as you used the "1" or "2" setting. Beyond that it it sounded like death metal wanna be.
I didn't try it as an interface because I run a PreSonus StudioLive mixer that serves as my interface. So I can't comment on the pedal as an interface to your DAW.
At first, I thought the pedal was crazy noisy, but I took some time to adjust the input gain to the proper level and it got fairly quiet. There is an audible hiss that comes from it if you listen really hard and nothing else is coming out of the speakers. But then you hear it go away....the Plex has a noise gate and it works pretty well.
SOUND COMPARISON
I took some time to compare the Plex with the Pod Go and my trust old analog board anchored by a Shaw Tube Injection. The two digital rigs obviously had the upper hand with compression and more comprehensive EQs. But the Tube Injection held it's own and there is a warmth and smoothness to the all analog tube tone.
My plan is to use the Plex at band rehearsals instead of putting the wear and tear on my Pod Go. It's small and will easily fit in the pocket of my Mono bag. Because it has a tuner, comp, EQ, drive, and DI....it's all I need for rehearsals. Speaking of the tuner....HELLO GK...PAY ATTENTION HERE....you have to double tap the compressor switch to engage the tuner. Too fast...it doesn't work. Too slow...it doesn't work. It's maddening!! Why not just have a hold to tune like everyone else? Why double tap to get out of the tuner? If you're tuning, and you're done...just a tap on any switch should take you out of the tuner (um...just like the Pod Go...Yamaha/Line 6 has their act together!).
Without further adoo....here's the samples.
Signal chain is:
Moonshine Custom Guitars bass with Nordstrand ZenBlades in 60's Jazz position, passive mode --> TC Electronic Ditto Looper --> JHS buffered splitter --> to respective preamp --> PreSonus StudioLive AR8c Mixer --> GarageBand (no plug-ins or EQ)
The Tube Injection did have one handicap. The Becos compressor on that board developed a short in the switch and is currently back in Romania getting some TLC from it's creator. So the Shaw is uncompressed.
The Pod Go and the Tube Injection both have high pass filters on them. The Pod Go is, of course, digital and set at 30hz. The Tube Injection has a sfx microThumpinator in front of it. These let you push the low end without a bunch of sub sonic mud...which is fabulous. The Plex doesn't have any HPF functions.
GK Plex:
Line 6 Pod Go:
Shaw Tube Injection:
Let me know what you think. But keep in mind cost of these units:
GK Plex: $399
Pod Go: $449
Tube Injection: $949
If the Plex was $250 - $300 it would be an amazing deal. The Tube Injection is expensive, but consider that what you are hearing is just old school analog tube tone. There is no amp sim, no cab sim, no compression, no 10 band parametric EQ, etc. So it's pretty dang impressive for what it is. A very high quality hand made preamp.
GK PLEX REVIEW & COMPARISION
As mentioned above I picked up a used GK Plex. I've long wanted to test this preamp but when one popped up for a good price I either missed it or had my cash tied up with something else. Testing this stuff is expensive. I don't get things provided to me to test like some of the YouTubers and such. It all comes out of my pocket.
So...back to the Plex. First off, for the TLDR people...it's good. Really good...with a few caveats.
First off, they are retailing for $400...which is just dumb. The Pod Go can be bought for $450 and it is FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR, FAR superior to anything in that price range and most things costing more than double that price. The tonal options of the Pod Go are such that I don't think you'd ever be about to use them all. But we're not here to talk about the Pod Go (although there will be a comparison clip of it as it's my current gold standard). If you can grab a Plex used for cheap...do it. It's a great do it all preamp in a small package that's built like a tank.
First thing I had to do was update the Plex to the current firmware. It was super easy. Just plug it in with a USB cable while holding one of the switches and it shows up as a hard disk on your computer. Delete the existing firmware file, drop in the new one, and you're done.
Once updated, I messed around with all the various amp sims and settled on the RB800 which seemed to have the most robust bottom end and a warm tone. More so than the tube amp emulation it has, which I thought was odd. I've never played through a GK rig, so I can't say if the emulation is accurate. But the RB800 one sounds good and it does have that real amp "feel" if that makes any sense. There is a coloration for sure.
I ended up using the "bump" function for the bass and adding +6db then turning the bass knob just past noon. I'm a fan of big full low end. The rest of the EQ knobs stayed flat. Rolling off the treble knob did give a nice tone too, but for the purposes of this test it was flat.
The compressor on the Plex is...um...well...it's okay. If you just want a little fattening in your tone it works fine. I fiddled with it a bit to get it to my liking. I don't really like to hear the compression. I just want it to level things out and fatten things up. It does that. The drive is fair. I'm not a big distortion fan, so none of them really wow me, but the Plex OD did maintain the low end well and it wasn't unpleasant as long as you used the "1" or "2" setting. Beyond that it it sounded like death metal wanna be.
I didn't try it as an interface because I run a PreSonus StudioLive mixer that serves as my interface. So I can't comment on the pedal as an interface to your DAW.
At first, I thought the pedal was crazy noisy, but I took some time to adjust the input gain to the proper level and it got fairly quiet. There is an audible hiss that comes from it if you listen really hard and nothing else is coming out of the speakers. But then you hear it go away....the Plex has a noise gate and it works pretty well.
SOUND COMPARISON
I took some time to compare the Plex with the Pod Go and my trust old analog board anchored by a Shaw Tube Injection. The two digital rigs obviously had the upper hand with compression and more comprehensive EQs. But the Tube Injection held it's own and there is a warmth and smoothness to the all analog tube tone.
My plan is to use the Plex at band rehearsals instead of putting the wear and tear on my Pod Go. It's small and will easily fit in the pocket of my Mono bag. Because it has a tuner, comp, EQ, drive, and DI....it's all I need for rehearsals. Speaking of the tuner....HELLO GK...PAY ATTENTION HERE....you have to double tap the compressor switch to engage the tuner. Too fast...it doesn't work. Too slow...it doesn't work. It's maddening!! Why not just have a hold to tune like everyone else? Why double tap to get out of the tuner? If you're tuning, and you're done...just a tap on any switch should take you out of the tuner (um...just like the Pod Go...Yamaha/Line 6 has their act together!).
Without further adoo....here's the samples.
Signal chain is:
Moonshine Custom Guitars bass with Nordstrand ZenBlades in 60's Jazz position, passive mode --> TC Electronic Ditto Looper --> JHS buffered splitter --> to respective preamp --> PreSonus StudioLive AR8c Mixer --> GarageBand (no plug-ins or EQ)
The Tube Injection did have one handicap. The Becos compressor on that board developed a short in the switch and is currently back in Romania getting some TLC from it's creator. So the Shaw is uncompressed.
The Pod Go and the Tube Injection both have high pass filters on them. The Pod Go is, of course, digital and set at 30hz. The Tube Injection has a sfx microThumpinator in front of it. These let you push the low end without a bunch of sub sonic mud...which is fabulous. The Plex doesn't have any HPF functions.
GK Plex:
Line 6 Pod Go:
Shaw Tube Injection:
Let me know what you think. But keep in mind cost of these units:
GK Plex: $399
Pod Go: $449
Tube Injection: $949
If the Plex was $250 - $300 it would be an amazing deal. The Tube Injection is expensive, but consider that what you are hearing is just old school analog tube tone. There is no amp sim, no cab sim, no compression, no 10 band parametric EQ, etc. So it's pretty dang impressive for what it is. A very high quality hand made preamp.
Last edited:
Hmmkay so half a century after the popularization of transistors, tube still sounds better
As with anything musical, it's a matter of personal opinion. One person's beloved tone is another person's crap.
My Pod Go is emulating a tube amp. The GK is not. The Tube Injection has a 12SL7GT octal tube in it and is hand wired to various pots and jacks.
Most emulations are done using EQ settings. Pink noise is played through the device and recorded. The resulting output is measured and the response is used as the emulation.
Tubes don't really work that way. While they do have harmonic content that can be measured and replicated, the tone changes with how hard the tube is worked, how hot it gets, and even the type of tube and how it's constructed. Tubes can sound different from one another and even from one use to another. You literally have electrons flying through space and striking a plate after passing through a grid (or multiple grids depending on the tube). Some of those electrons make it straight through, some bounce around before hitting the plate.
If you want accurate true sound, then a solid state is probably the best choice, especially if it's digital where it uses an AD converter to digitize the signal, process it, then a DA converter to send it back out. But if you want color in your tone and and a "feel" of the signal being what I refer to as breathing or alive. It just feels different playing tube gear. There is something to it. But the fact that your tiny ouput from your instrument is passing through a grid which controls the flow of electrons between an anode and a cathode...to me...that's just cool. And it's so old school you can actually see the parts.
Here's the tube that is in the Tube Injection:
I'm really amazed at how good the pod go sounds. I've heard a few demos of it and it's surprising.
Yes...and that's just an amp sim, compressor, and EQ. I really have nothing else running on it. And it's actually a guitar amp sim.
But if you want to sound of an SVT, you can get it. B15..yep...it's in there. For the money, there is no other piece of gear out there that can touch it. I've actually debated about getting a Helix LT just for the parallel processing capability.
I've been using the Stomp for a few years now and the HX Effects shortly before that, and the Pod Go is part of the Helix ecosystem and uses all the same models. Pretty invested in the Stomp and loving it at this point, which is a main reason I've waffled so long on getting one of the dedicated (tube) DI boxes.
5sg.
5sg.
I've been using the boss 1000core using the four cable method with the shift line Olympic mkiiis using it as a di. Works great.
Yeah..Yamaha/Line6 really has their act together. The Helix family (including the Pod Go) are excellent. I see more and more Helix gear every time I play.
A few years back I tried some of the digital emulation stuff and it was just not quite there so I went back full analog. But now, it's not only really good and mostly indistinguishable from the gear it emulates, it's gotten remarkably affordable.
I'll always have a soft spot for the old gear, especially the boutique hand made stuff. But the time has come where that uber expensive gear no longer provides any advantages in tone, but there are lots of downsides to it. It's big, fragile, heavy, expensive, etc. You could take a Helix HX Stomp that you can toss in your bass case and it be your only piece of kit.
Yamaha even makes some really nice basses. The BBP35 is on my list of basses I will buy if I see a deal on one.
Modeling has indeed come a long way, it's a good time to be a bassist with all the choice out there. I've done exactly that with the Stomp... Gig bag pocket with a few cables and IEM, one bag option for a gig. No trouble or even negative comments. The Stomp has made it tough to justify other pedalboard gear.
Can't argue with you on still loving other gear though, and there's plenty out there that I'd still love to get my hands on. "Need and want are two different things."
Like maybe that ValveDrive DI that might be suddenly in view now that I've got a bass that might be headed back for a refund.And also agreed on the Yamaha BB. Tried a friend's BB735 a few months ago back and loved it, and oh my... look at the Custom Shop BB that Amos Heller plays here.
(Trivia fun fact, if true: I heard somewhere that the AOP is actually a digital modeler of the Alpha Omega line.)
5sg.
Modeling has indeed come a long way, it's a good time to be a bassist with all the choice out there. I've done exactly that with the Stomp... Gig bag pocket with a few cables and IEM, one bag option for a gig. No trouble or even negative comments. The Stomp has made it tough to justify other pedalboard gear.
Can't argue with you on still loving other gear though, and there's plenty out there that I'd still love to get my hands on. "Need and want are two different things."
And also agreed on the Yamaha BB. Tried a friend's BB735 a few months ago back and loved it, and oh my... look at the Custom Shop BB that Amos Heller plays here.
(Trivia fun fact, if true: I heard somewhere that the AOP is actually a digital modeler of the Alpha Omega line.)
5sg.
Oooh...that is a nice bass.
Apparently API has a new box:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The Sweetwater demo hit my info feed.
5sg.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
The Sweetwater demo hit my info feed.
5sg.
Humm....I love API gear, but their last bass pedal was underwhelming and they discontinued it. Now they have launched a new bass preamp...with no XLR or even a balanced TRS that you can use a converter on to get you to the board. So they want you to pony up $300 for an analog 3 band EQ then you have to purchase a DI.
I'm thinking this is a miss. Of course, I'd love to try one and when I start seeing them show up used I might pick one up just to test it.
Carvin just released a new all-in-one bass preamp @ $240; definitely seems like a better value than the API
Eq + compressor + mute, FX loop, and XLR out
BX1 Bass Preamp
Eq + compressor + mute, FX loop, and XLR out
BX1 Bass Preamp
Nicely done Carvin. Under $250 and you get a compressor, sweepable mids, and TWO balanced outputs. And....it will run on a 9v battery to boot.
But how will it sound? I have never been too impressed by Carvin.
Agree, none of the Carvin amps I have used in the past remain in my possession. I had a BX500 for a while with the BRX410 cabinet, and it just didn't have grunt. I always wanted to like Carvin, and my buddy still uses the power amp and gigantic rat fur speakers we got 15 years ago. But for now my PJB PE5 is safe.
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