The Preamp/OD/DI rabbit hole

[cchorney]

Believe that and you will believe anything!
Peter Drake
teacher Hexham

Because of the poor wording on your post I can't tell if you're knocking my opinion or the mfg prose. Which are you knocking and if you disagree with it, what's your opinion as to what it does?

 

[Btbp]

I have gone down the rabbit hole so far down it's not funny.
Posting here might raise more question and more option than a mind can deal with.

After trying most units on the market (my profile list them), I settled on the SansAmp Para Driver DI which is a good DI, a powerful EQ and a natural sounding distortion that is reminiscent of a B15 pushed a little hard. The pedal has some added features such as the ability to take out booming bass (a knob labelled as Rumble filter) which I find myself using quite often.

Many moons ago a Sans Amp representative posted on this site that the SansAmp Bass Driver DI distortion sounds like a pushed SVT and that the SansAmp Para Driver DI sounds more like a B15 distorting. That is right on the money as far as I am concerned.

The Para Driver DI gets little attention, particularly compared with Dark Glass offerings, but it's a useful hidden gem in my book.

Looking back at my first preamp, despite all I read I couldn't determine the actual differences between the BDDI, PDDI and VT without trying them. I was able to A/B the BDDI and VT and went with the former because I felt it was more flexible. That was before the Q Strip was out.

I use differ pres now and haven't had the SansAmp on my board in a long time.

You had too many pedals list, I can't imagine having exposure to so many.

You went with the PDDI, how did you find that vs. the Q Strip?

 

[dmc79]

@Ed455 How are you enjoying the VTDI? I play mostly P&W too. It’s great as an all in one cab sim & DI with EQ. It’s very versatile, certainly have a good play with the Speaker Sim & Bite buttons, as ‘on’ they are not to everyone’s taste, and with how the Character & Drive knobs interact. Also whilst an obvious thing to say, it can sound quite different at home solo to how it sounds in the band mix.

For IEMs / silent stage, I like to get a clean-ish amp tone that’s not clanky / scratchy, yet gives some sweet grit when I dig in with a pick. Bite button disengaged helps with this. I’m still experimenting with Blend, Character & Drive positions

 

[Ed455]

I'm still playing around with it at home, but it's been a busy winter. I want to make sure that when I deploy it at church, I know what to adjust to get the right tone in THAT environment. As mentioned, what sounds good in the man cave doesn't always translate on the platform. I love the tone I'm getting at home, just enough hair to sound vintage (per the name). I also just added a G&L L2500 to my arsenal and the pickups, even in passive mode, are super hot, so I need to play around with the settings there as well.

 

[HKSHAMAN]

I'm new to Darkglass. The Darkglass ADAM (now $350), Microtubes Infinity, and the Alpha Omega Photon have, DI/OD. They all have an amazing clean, fat and warm tone. And of course it can play rip-your-face-off-metal haha. I'm a Christian bassist and I sometimes play in a praise band. So for what it's worth I say go Darkglass. Their Ultra series all have DI/IR and headphone jacks (so do the ones listed above) so you can play with headphones and not upset the neighbors.