Exactly man. People get so frustrated with this box for it's "lack of mids" but don't have the patience to find the mid range that does exist within it!
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SansAmp Bass Driver DI
- Thread starter Chicken Steve
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- bass driver di driver sansamp
Exactly man. People get so frustrated with this box for it's "lack of mids" but don't have the patience to find the mid range that does exist within it!
The best thing I did was eventually ignoring the manual and it's recommended setting points. They basic set you up for scoop city, 100% wet. Use the ears as mentioned. A versatile pedal for sure once it's controls are figured out.
bass40hz
Cigar smoker, scotch drinker, American Patriot
Use one all the time, have since...well...forever. Now in the form of the Bass FlyRig.
First pedal I bought for bass. I feel like it adds a lot to my sound, regardless of which bass I use. I play through a GK 700RB-ii + GK SBX410 Plus using either a Mustang or Jaguar bass. Both sound awesome with it.
I have the sansamp para DI latest version that has the rumble and air button. It's my goto. it has all the quality stuff you'd expect on a good di box like a -20db cut, a +10 db boost for amp out, phantom power, good build quality.
It has also a separate mid control with a separate knob that lets you pick your freq center. To me that's the most useful thing on it. Following a close second is the drive knob used in conjunction with the blend. The conclusion you would jump to with that is that it's for adding overdrive dirt. If you use the blend knob together with the drive knob subtly, you can downplay low end boominess by injecting a little midiness and then blending to taste so it's only as growly as you want. I don't use much of that but have to have some. Also, I think you get a little bit of natural compression with that as well, so there is that.
Sorry for all the technical terms in this post:
Boominess - more uncontrolled bottom end frequencies than you want
Midiness - the secret sauce that makes your tone sound magical - like candy, the right amount is awesome, too much will make you sick.
Growly- the way silence sounds after a hard night of boozing.
Hope this helps!!
It has also a separate mid control with a separate knob that lets you pick your freq center. To me that's the most useful thing on it. Following a close second is the drive knob used in conjunction with the blend. The conclusion you would jump to with that is that it's for adding overdrive dirt. If you use the blend knob together with the drive knob subtly, you can downplay low end boominess by injecting a little midiness and then blending to taste so it's only as growly as you want. I don't use much of that but have to have some. Also, I think you get a little bit of natural compression with that as well, so there is that.
Sorry for all the technical terms in this post:
Boominess - more uncontrolled bottom end frequencies than you want
Midiness - the secret sauce that makes your tone sound magical - like candy, the right amount is awesome, too much will make you sick.
Growly- the way silence sounds after a hard night of boozing.
Hope this helps!!
I make liberal use of the SansAmp Paradriver - which I think might have pre-dated the Bass Driver?
For me it's a literal Swiss Army knife device because I get effective use out of it for Double Bass (w a PJB Double Four Amp) and it sound amazing, is portable, needs no power supply and gives me just enough mmmph and tone to be able to play upright for 3 or 4 hours with no finger issues.
It's also great as a pre and /or DI for use with mandolin or acoustic guitar.
Love this thing.
My alternative is a Felix by Grace Designs - which has even more flexibility and tonal options (and can even be used to run two different basses or instruments without having to pull cables in and out them.) The negative is that it's much larger than the SansAmp and needs to be plugged in.
For me it's a literal Swiss Army knife device because I get effective use out of it for Double Bass (w a PJB Double Four Amp) and it sound amazing, is portable, needs no power supply and gives me just enough mmmph and tone to be able to play upright for 3 or 4 hours with no finger issues.
It's also great as a pre and /or DI for use with mandolin or acoustic guitar.
Love this thing.
My alternative is a Felix by Grace Designs - which has even more flexibility and tonal options (and can even be used to run two different basses or instruments without having to pull cables in and out them.) The negative is that it's much larger than the SansAmp and needs to be plugged in.
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DSM's OmniCabSim Deluxe is a super-sweet device with some great features... you may want to look at this as well.
One of my favorite live bass tones is a midrange heavy tone (with an eq pedal) into a Sansamp. It moves air like no other, and FILLS the room at reasonable volumes.
Get one, whether it's version 1 or 2. Or the para driver. You will not be let down.
Bonus points: Tech21, the company who makes Sansamp, posts here on TB from time to time. They've answered questions for me in a very timely manner. No disappointments.
Get one, whether it's version 1 or 2. Or the para driver. You will not be let down.
Bonus points: Tech21, the company who makes Sansamp, posts here on TB from time to time. They've answered questions for me in a very timely manner. No disappointments.
I've been using one for the majority of the past 10 years, more recently the V2 with the mid control. I can almost always get what I want out of it. Everyone knows and it respects it. Hard to go wrong.
The Sansamp is kind of like the P-Bass of preamp pedals.
The Sansamp is kind of like the P-Bass of preamp pedals.
I own one. Great as a front end for recording direct or a PA. I think of it as a device for "enriching" a bass' tone.
The SansAmp Bass Driver DI (BDDI) has been hugely popular for very good reason: when used properly, it can sound great. Since not long after it came out pretty much every major recording studio has had one, many live sound techs have carried them. Nowadays there's a ton of competition for the BDDI, but it was The One for a long time. Matter of fact the reason I heard of the BDDI decades ago was after a bassist friend's band did an album for Interscope in a top L.A. studio. He said the studio recommended the BDDI, so he used it, and loved it.
The BDDI's immense popularity doesn't mean everyone has to like it, and no device will please everyone. However as noted by many, it's not intuitive and some give up on it too quickly. For example:
Also, the sample settings in the manual all have Blend set fully wet. The biggest tip to the BDDI is "Blend is your friend". If you think the sound is too mid-scooped, set Blend at noon and tweak from there. Also as noted by others, you can enhance mids by rolling treble and bass back. Finally, I'll add that many bass amps are scooped by default, and/or have mid scoop contour controls (such as the Ampeg "Ultra Lo"). That's because scooping some mids often sounds great... but adding BDDI scoop to Ampeg scoop can be too much of a good thing.
It's great that we have so many choices these days -- in fact I have a bunch of preamps in addition to the BDDI -- but the BDDI is legendary and rightfully so.
The BDDI's immense popularity doesn't mean everyone has to like it, and no device will please everyone. However as noted by many, it's not intuitive and some give up on it too quickly. For example:
- Treble and Bass are cut/boost, but Presence is boost only
- Treble and Bass are post-OD, but Presence is part of the tube emulation: turning up Presence will increase saturation (overdrive/distortion)
Also, the sample settings in the manual all have Blend set fully wet. The biggest tip to the BDDI is "Blend is your friend". If you think the sound is too mid-scooped, set Blend at noon and tweak from there. Also as noted by others, you can enhance mids by rolling treble and bass back. Finally, I'll add that many bass amps are scooped by default, and/or have mid scoop contour controls (such as the Ampeg "Ultra Lo"). That's because scooping some mids often sounds great... but adding BDDI scoop to Ampeg scoop can be too much of a good thing.
It's great that we have so many choices these days -- in fact I have a bunch of preamps in addition to the BDDI -- but the BDDI is legendary and rightfully so.
The wife isn't going to like me telling her, "Honey, I found something else I need."...
... oh well...
sans amp has nothing on darkglass!!!! sorry guys but deal with it, darkglass is the bees knees!b7k all day
Seems that the V1 of the BDDI was oft maligned because of its lack of the midrange control. A little research finds that the eq section of the V1 was based on the early Fender tone stack where increasing the Bass/Treble effectively scoops the Mids and cutting the Bass/Treble effectively boosts the mids.
As MANY of said already, the Blend function is your best friend with these pedals. It's amazing how good one can sound going straight to FOH with an uneffected signal. Adding a little bit of "seasoning" can go a long way in most cases. I have yet to hear a situation where having the blend 100% to the Sansamp side really sounded good to my ear. A blend of 10 - 2 (situationally dependent) usually sounds best to me. The only time I've heard a 100% blend sound good was when there were 2 distinct lines, and the other happened to be a perfectly clean signal.
As MANY of said already, the Blend function is your best friend with these pedals. It's amazing how good one can sound going straight to FOH with an uneffected signal. Adding a little bit of "seasoning" can go a long way in most cases. I have yet to hear a situation where having the blend 100% to the Sansamp side really sounded good to my ear. A blend of 10 - 2 (situationally dependent) usually sounds best to me. The only time I've heard a 100% blend sound good was when there were 2 distinct lines, and the other happened to be a perfectly clean signal.
It has been mentioned multiple times that the BDDI is the "granddaddy" of the bass DI pedal world and now there are many other options as well as possibly better sounding options. The B7K is indeed good in its own right and has a sound of its own. However it is also roughly 30% more expensive than a new BDDI v2 ($209 vs $330) and there aren't too many options for finding older ones cheaply. Darkglass stuff is still relatively new and maintains its value based on demand. The OP could easily find a BDDI v1 used to experiment with. There are roughly a dozen BDDI v1's on GC's used site now for $139. Craigslist would likely be even less. OP may not be ready to drop the kind of change required to get into the Darkglass game.
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I happen to love the built-in midrange "scoop". To me it sounds great with the controls pretty much set flat (varies with the room, of course). I use one all the time.
We all have different ears, though. See if you can audition one.
Um, and don't get in the habit of doing everything your drummer tells you
We all have different ears, though. See if you can audition one.
Um, and don't get in the habit of doing everything your drummer tells you
It's my always on effect. But im using the emulated version from a Zoom MS-60B pedal. Sounds good with all my basses ( P-bass, active ibanez and an acoustic bass).
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MDBass
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An essential part of my bass tone for a long time now.
The KEY is the Blend knob: there is none of the dreaded "mid scoop" with it set low (around 9 or 10 o clock) but still a huge amount of coloration available between the Drive and the EQ.
Keep in mind also that the Presence control is boost only, so "flat" would be full counter clockwise
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