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Thanks. I've got a battery in at the moment. May as well keep it in!
Re. The fizz. While investigating things I noticed vibrations on the guitar around the nut and at the bridge. The were faint, but could be heard clearly if I put my ear to the guitar. The vibrations were loudest at the end of the note. I ended up changing the strings to heavier gauge, and tightening a few areas which almost completely stopped the vibrations. When I plugged back into the BDDI, no more fizzy sound on the decay of the note! I am guessing the sound I was hearing was the vibrations being picked up by the pickups, and amplified by the BDDI. Fizz may may not be the best description of the sound I heard, but it's the only way I can describe it, especially as it was only occuring at the decay of the note.
Actually really enjoying the BDDI now, before I was just going direct into the preamp.
Anyway, all seems ok for now. I plan to record a bit tomorrow so will test it again then.
Just to add: BDDI V1 can have noise if powered by phantom power AND has 9V battery inside. Removing battery solves problem.
Also, adding lots of gain through signal path can amplify noise. Ideally you want to keep unity gain from bass, and pedal to pedal, than amplify only at the end (bass amp).
As for E string making noise, it is easy to distinguish from nut or bridge problem - just play F at first fret. Reasons for nut or bridge noise can be many (faulty or bend string, not sitting in grove, other parts vibrating, and so on).
Also, adding lots of gain through signal path can amplify noise. Ideally you want to keep unity gain from bass, and pedal to pedal, than amplify only at the end (bass amp).
As for E string making noise, it is easy to distinguish from nut or bridge problem - just play F at first fret. Reasons for nut or bridge noise can be many (faulty or bend string, not sitting in grove, other parts vibrating, and so on).
Ok, so the fizz sound returned. I may have jumped too quickly to a solution when thinking it was vibrations from the bass. Although the vibrations did create some unpleasant overtones, which have been reduced.
In doing further testing I plugged the bass directly into the interface as someone suggested (bypassing the warm audio preamp), and... No more fizz sound in the decay.
So it seems that the fizz is actually the bass clipping the warm audio preamp and creating some slight distortion.
The weird thing is that when going straight into the warm audio, I have to raise the pre and output volumes quite a lot to get the bass to the desired volume (around -12db in my DAW levels). But when I do this, the warm clips. It doesn't do this with any other source (guitars, vocals, synth). I can even hear the clipping slightly when the sansamp is removed completely, so it's not the sansamp, however the sansamp will increase the clipping if it's level is set above unity volume.
So I guess my solution is to go straight into the interface, however, I would like to have the option of going into the warm (because it has a nice eq section), but getting a completely clean signal seems difficult.
Am I doing something wrong with gain staging here? I'm puzzled as to why it's clipping when the warm levels need to be raised in order to get it to -12db - this tells me the bass signal isn't too hot.
And thoughts are appreciated!
In doing further testing I plugged the bass directly into the interface as someone suggested (bypassing the warm audio preamp), and... No more fizz sound in the decay.
So it seems that the fizz is actually the bass clipping the warm audio preamp and creating some slight distortion.
The weird thing is that when going straight into the warm audio, I have to raise the pre and output volumes quite a lot to get the bass to the desired volume (around -12db in my DAW levels). But when I do this, the warm clips. It doesn't do this with any other source (guitars, vocals, synth). I can even hear the clipping slightly when the sansamp is removed completely, so it's not the sansamp, however the sansamp will increase the clipping if it's level is set above unity volume.
So I guess my solution is to go straight into the interface, however, I would like to have the option of going into the warm (because it has a nice eq section), but getting a completely clean signal seems difficult.
Am I doing something wrong with gain staging here? I'm puzzled as to why it's clipping when the warm levels need to be raised in order to get it to -12db - this tells me the bass signal isn't too hot.
And thoughts are appreciated!
Paging @tech21nycHi,
This is my first time posting on TalkBass. I am a relatively new bass player, but have been playing guitar for many years.
I did a lot of googling to try to find if anyone else had experienced my below issue, but couldn't find anything that matched exactly.
I just purchased a brand new Sansamp Bass Driver DI, hoping to get a better tone for recording bass while going direct. My bass is a Squier Classic Vibe Jazz bass. My signal chain is bass - BDDI - WA273-EQ preamp - inserts of Audient iD44 into Logic DAW.
The issue I have experienced is that is seems I cannot get a totally clean signal when using the BDDI. Even with the drive knob turned all the way down, I can hear a fizzle sound behind the notes when playing. It appears to be worse when the treble is turned up and/or when playing low notes. It's almost as if the drive doesn't turn completely off.
Also, when turning the drive knob up, the drive sounds more like a broken speaker than the type of drive sounds I heard on YouTube before buying the pedal. They way the drive sounds on mine I wouldn't ever use it.
These issues remain regardless of whether I am powering the pedal through battery, 9V power supply, or phantom power with XLR.
If I remove the BDDI from the chain, the above issues disappear. I also don't experience this issue when recording any other instruments through my set up, including guitars with OX Box direct, mics, keyboards/synth.
I am thinking that the unit I have is likely faulty, but would be really appreciative for any insights or advice, or if anyone has experienced anything similar, and if this can be resolved without having to return the unit. I really like the pedal except for this issue!
Thanks
Jiriho,
I see in the WA-73 manual that the detented input gain has markings for starting points for mike and line inputs, with line needing much less gain. The direct output from a guitar or bass should fall somewhere in between. So I’d expect to set the gain somewhere between 10 and 30.
You wrote that your bass needs more input gain then your guitars. Do your guitars have preamps in them? I’d expect some difference in signal strength from different instruments but not more than 10 dB.
I would bypass the EQ section and with the output pot at 12:00, double check the levels from your bass and guitars plugged directly into the WA-73 instrument input looking at the 4 LEDs under the output knob. If the output is close to 0dB, make sure you are using the line input on your iD44 interface, not the mike input when connecting the WA-73.
In fact with the output gain at 12:00 you want to adjust the input gain and later the EQ so the output is peaking around 0 regardless of the source…mike, instrument or line.
I see in the WA-73 manual that the detented input gain has markings for starting points for mike and line inputs, with line needing much less gain. The direct output from a guitar or bass should fall somewhere in between. So I’d expect to set the gain somewhere between 10 and 30.
You wrote that your bass needs more input gain then your guitars. Do your guitars have preamps in them? I’d expect some difference in signal strength from different instruments but not more than 10 dB.
I would bypass the EQ section and with the output pot at 12:00, double check the levels from your bass and guitars plugged directly into the WA-73 instrument input looking at the 4 LEDs under the output knob. If the output is close to 0dB, make sure you are using the line input on your iD44 interface, not the mike input when connecting the WA-73.
In fact with the output gain at 12:00 you want to adjust the input gain and later the EQ so the output is peaking around 0 regardless of the source…mike, instrument or line.