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The Great Bass Preamp/DI Comparison

#6,401
The Quad Cortex arrived on Friday but I was out of town on Saturday and didn't get a chance to do much with it. I was busy most of Sunday too, but did get to spend a couple of hours with it.

I downloaded the "Secret Sauce" capture @scubaduba created. It does give the tone a little extra magic. I have it at the end of my chain right now, before the cab.

The things you can do with this thing seem limitless. I was quickly able to get a sound I liked. I have never been a fan of cab sims as they sound a bit dark and muddy, but the SVT 8x10 cab sounds pretty good. Shockingly, it sounds through my headphones the way I remember that rig sounding when I played through one live when it was a supplied backline.

Still way too early for sound clips and I'm busy trying various versions of the SVT amp. There are several captures out there. My ears are fatigued, so I'm calling it a night and will pick it up again tomorrow. I have to play out a week from today, so it will get its first live run soon.

And for those running a QC...I'll be sharing my preset in the cloud when I get it dialed in.
 
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#6,402
sears said:
RNDI vs Grace Bix/Alix? Without looking at the features as much as how it sounds?
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I have and use both the RNDI and ALIX. There is no comparison, one is just a great DI and the other a great pre amp with lots of useful features with a great DI build in. The difference you may find on a blind test in a quiet studio won't be apparent on a real world gig when you are on stage, much less to the audience. The HPF, mute and boost (in addition to great EQ and DI) makes the Alix the go to reliable piece for me on almost any gig, Initially, I got it for upright (which excels at) but I am also using it a lot on electric, specially when going out of town and don't know what rig I am going to get.
 
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#6,403
I've been in the Stomp world for my preamp for a while now. It works just fine. I run a Shure Wireless to a Stomp to a Khan DI. It sounds good, it works and it's basically paid for. Yet, I am debating going to just the Shure, maybe a compressor and the Khan. The Khan sounds REALLY GOOD al on it's own. I really only use chorus on a handful of songs, drive on even fewer. If I didn't I don't think anyone would care. I used to use it for synth songs but I am back to my Yamaha MODX6 for that. It just sounds better - even though the Stomp was good for that as well.

The thing I depend on most is the pitch shift so I don't have to swap basses. If I dumped it I'd need to have an Eb bass and swap mid set which I can do (guitar player has 4 per gig) but I've gotten spoiled by just stepping on the switch. I suppose I'll keep my Stomp but maybe reduce what I use it for. I think I'm going to get an Empress Bass Compressor again. I just loved the sound and metering. I'll use the Stomp for some eq, hi and low pass filters, chorus and pitch shift. Seems like overkill with what it can do, but it fits the board and works so...
 
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#6,404
SteveC said:
I've been in the Stomp world for my preamp for a while now. It works just fine. I run a Shure Wireless to a Stomp to a Khan DI. It sounds good, it works and it's basically paid for. Yet, I am debating going to just the Shure, maybe a compressor and the Khan. The Khan sounds REALLY GOOD al on it's own. I really only use chorus on a handful of songs, drive on even fewer. If I didn't I don't think anyone would care. I used to use it for synth songs but I am back to my Yamaha MODX6 for that. It just sounds better - even though the Stomp was good for that as well.

The thing I depend on most is the pitch shift so I don't have to swap basses. If I dumped it I'd need to have an Eb bass and swap mid set which I can do (guitar player has 4 per gig) but I've gotten spoiled by just stepping on the switch. I suppose I'll keep my Stomp but maybe reduce what I use it for. I think I'm going to get an Empress Bass Compressor again. I just loved the sound and metering. I'll use the Stomp for some eq, hi and low pass filters, chorus and pitch shift. Seems like overkill with what it can do, but it fits the board and works so...
Click to expand...

You could downsize to an HX One and still have the effects you used. Just no more than one at a time.
 
#6,406
SteveC said:
I did think about that. I only use one effect at a time. But with the Stomp I can get some hi and low pass filter and compression at the same time as any effect I might use.
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The Regal DI in the HX One will allow high and low pass, plus some other tone adjustments.

The quality/flexibility of Stomp + Khan seems hard to beat.

This is a stupidly great board though:
 
#6,410
Parzival said:
Yeah, if you got the Stomp and it’s not a money savings or board space thing, might as well keep it, mainly because, you never know.
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The HX Stomp is an amazing device. It punches far above its weight, especially for the money. I have been comparing it to my Quad Cortex, and I am able to get great tones out of both. Not identical tones (except for my Neural Capture of my HXS rig), but great none the less.

The Quad Cortex has the advantage in terms of interface and physical functionality as it has more switches (which are also knobs) and a much bigger screen. It's just as easy to manipulate using the pedal itself as it is with the software. The HX Stomp has a lot more variables in the amp sims.

The biggest differentiator is the capture capability of the Quad Cortex. I have done a few captures, and it's pretty amazing. I'm hoping to get with some fellow bassists and do captures of their rigs.
 
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#6,412
Parzival said:
I’m just replacing my HX One with a Stomp. Gonna really take my time getting into it. I’ve got analog pedal board I can use at any time so I won’t feel rushed and get frustrated. Excited to see what I can do with it.
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One can put mic preamp(for hpf and some boost), deluxe comp(or LAcomp), and noble preamp and have a perfectly fine clean tone forever.

Then later on play around with cab sims in parallel or drives in frequency splits.
 
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#6,413
Couldn't agree more about the HXS. I bought it because it came up cheap, and I wanted to try it. Used it to replace a MS-60B and give me more options with effects, and for a time I was using it in front of a Super Pre. Once I started playing with the Amp sims I was totally sold. Loving the Manderin, even more than the Super Bassman sims. Using it with a MXR M81 after it so I can eq for stage, running it in the loop of an LS-2 in case I need to volume match or take it offline. Shure GLXD16+ for wireless and tuning. That's my complete board on a Rockboard 2.1, all powered by a Cioks 4.
 
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#6,415
mrperkolator said:
…yeah I was looking at that one too. I saw it has a line out at line level, wouldn’t that be too hot for a normal input? My practice amp doesn’t have a fx loop
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The preamp output can be turned down to instrument level.
 
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#6,419
SteveC said:
I've been in the Stomp world for my preamp for a while now. It works just fine. I run a Shure Wireless to a Stomp to a Khan DI. It sounds good, it works and it's basically paid for. Yet, I am debating going to just the Shure, maybe a compressor and the Khan. The Khan sounds REALLY GOOD al on it's own. I really only use chorus on a handful of songs, drive on even fewer. If I didn't I don't think anyone would care. I used to use it for synth songs but I am back to my Yamaha MODX6 for that. It just sounds better - even though the Stomp was good for that as well.

The thing I depend on most is the pitch shift so I don't have to swap basses. If I dumped it I'd need to have an Eb bass and swap mid set which I can do (guitar player has 4 per gig) but I've gotten spoiled by just stepping on the switch. I suppose I'll keep my Stomp but maybe reduce what I use it for. I think I'm going to get an Empress Bass Compressor again. I just loved the sound and metering. I'll use the Stomp for some eq, hi and low pass filters, chorus and pitch shift. Seems like overkill with what it can do, but it fits the board and works so...
Click to expand...
You and I think alike. At church I run a Sadowsky PJ through a Keeley Bassist and a Khan. Done and done.

Yes, I could get more beef with the Effectrode LA-1A and the Sonic Farm DI. But why be greedy?
 
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#6,420
NEW PREAMP DAY!

Wasn't planning on this...but it's a pleasant surprise.

So as you guys know, I picked up a Quad Cortex, and it's incredible. The possibilities are endless. I've been getting some very good tones out of it, and I'm sorry I haven't posted any clips yet. There is a very good reason for that though.

I haven't really fallen in love with any of the compressors in the QC. They are "fine", in the way your wife says things are "fine". I am getting more of that pumping sound and less of the fatness that I like from a good comp. So I have a Templeboard Solo 18 on order so I can build a board to run my comp in the effects loop. Yes, I could just hook it up and make some clips, but I want to get everything dialed in with the QC and my Becos Stella (my preferred comp...I love it). The only issue is the Templeboard stuff is all backordered. So I have to wait on it.

So I broke apart my old HX Stomp board and sold the Stomp and the Finally DI. That left me with an empty Pedaltrain Nano+. I had a Sonic Turbo Tuner Mini laying around. So I started thinking about doing something all analog. Just the polar opposite of the QC. I started looking in the classifieds here and something caught my eye. My very first album I ever owned was Beach Boys Endless Summer. Got it when I was 5yo for a penny from one of those "get 10 records for a penny" clubs. You can thank my big brother for that, he was 17yo...he should have known better. Anyway...I see this JHS bass preamp called the Punchline and it has "The Beach Boys" written on it. I did some research and found out they only made 1000 of them as part of a tribute documentary on The Beach Boys. I started watching some videos of the pedal and everyone liked it. That's rare when you get a consensus on reviews. No one had anything bad to say. The used version was $100 less than a new one so I figured "why not", and I picked it up. But what to do about my need of the occasional effect? The Punchline has a drive and compressor built in, so I really don't need anything elaborate. Well I loved my HX Stomp...so I just found a HX One used on Reverb and bought it. I already had some AUX buttons I used with the HXS, so I tossed them on the board to toggle between presets. I set it to true bypass since I don't typically run effects with tails...so 90% of the time it will be doing nothing, but I'll have all the Helix effects I enjoyed on my HXS.

JHS Punchline

So about the punchline. As of the time of this post, I've owned it for about an hour and have maybe 15 minutes of playing time on it. Let me just say this. As good as digital rigs are, especially if you put in the time to really tweak them and experiment with the various options, a good simple analog pedal can be a blessing. That's the Punchline. I was in love with it from the first note. Holy cow, they did a good job on this pedal. And I should mention, calling it a "pedal" is really not accurate. It's more akin to an aircraft carrier. It's a BIG boy. It's a little shorter front to back than the QC, but otherwise nearly the same size.

My initial impression...and I want to play with it some more...is that this thing is magnificent. I've had a lot of preamp pedals (as evidenced by this thread) and I'd put the Punchline immediately in the top 5. It's really that good. No tubes in it. No digital anything. No IR cab sims. No USB port. It's just an EQ section (which of course I can expand using the HX One), an Amp Sim section, a Drive section, and a Compressor.

So I already mentioned that I was less than thrilled with the comps in the QC. I think compressors are hard to emulate just by the nature of how they work. The Punchline had several co-developers besides just JHS. One of those guys was Robert Keeley. If you aren't familiar with Keeley compressors, they are very good comps. I used to have one back when I was on my compressor sampling kick. It was one of my favorites. Well...the comp in the Punchline is excellent. Just a gain, Comp/Ratio, and threshold knob with a pre/post switch. Very simple, but obviously tuned for bass. It's fantastic.

The Drive circuit is good too. Nothing magical, but it sounds good. The amp sim is actually really good too. I feel like it also has a cab sim in there too as it does darken things up some, but the EQ can fix that as can the "Presence" knob which is similar to that on a SansAmp.

So I owe you guys some clips, and I promise I'll get you some. I can't wait to do a shootout. The $2000 QC vs the $400 (used) Punchline. David vs Goliath. Spoiler alert, the QC will kill it as I can simply capture the Punchline and store it in the QC...and I plan on doing that. :)

So here's what my kinda sorta analog board looks like. You can clearly see the signal path...pretty simple. Tuner, HX One, and Punchline. I am powering everything with a Ciocks Sol (also used off Reverb).

IMG_0428.jpeg


IMG_0429.jpeg
 
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