Gig nightmare with AI Coda!

[thisnameistaken]

So I turned up for a quick slot at an acoustic session in a big tent on Friday night, turned out the bass backline was an AI Coda. I've never even seen any AI kit in the flesh so I thought cool, this will sound amazing. Hmm.

We had very little time to set up and they're quite complicated little heads aren't they? I couldn't seem to get any sort of volume out of it at all no matter what I did, and it seemed to sound very middy - I was using my Ehrlund pickup so I expected to just get a totally natural sound out of this box without having to tweak anything (my usual experience plugging the Ehrlund into anything) but it didn't sound very nice at all. :/ Although I couldn't hear it particularly well, because it was so quiet. And that was with the only background noise being the audience of about 100 people talking!

Then the sound guy comes over and asks if there's a pad on the DI out because the signal's way too hot. I am a bit flummoxed because there's loads of buttons on this thing and none of them seem to affect the signal level out at the DI, so I try turning the master down and I get thumbs up from the desk! So at this point I've got no idea how I'm supposed to get a useful backline level out of this thing whilst sending a useful DI signal to the desk, so I just gave up, and asked for my bass in my wedge instead.

So you AI users, what was I doing wrong?

[Mr Bassman]

Turn the gain down for the di then the master is is yours

[thisnameistaken]

Where's the gain for the DI? I'm just looking at photos of the head now to see if I was being stupid but I can't see any knob that would pad the DI signal.

[Mr Bassman]

Sorry it's not gain, it's level

from the manual


[color=#000000][font=Noteworthy-Light][size=4]An XLR jack is provided for a Direct Out connection that allows the system’s output to be fed to mixing boards of house PA systems or recording studios. As a result, the instrument amplified by the unit can be recorded or further amplified by the house PA system. In the Coda R and Corus combos, the Direct Out signal is the combined output of the two channels. A switch is provided to allow you to select whether the output from the Direct Out jack is affected by the input level and tone controls (post EQ) or not (pre EQ).[/size][/font][/color]
[color=#000000][font=Noteworthy-Light][size=4]With the switch in the post EQ position, the input level control affects the level of the Direct Out signal, the master level does not. This allows independent adjustment of the “stage” volume (the volume coming from the combo amp) and the “house” volume (the volume in the house PA system) when the unit is used as a stage monitor. Once the level has been set for the house, if more volume is needed on stage, the master level can be increased. [b]This will increase the stage volume but not the volume in the house PA.[/b][/size][/font][/color]

Edited August 25, 2013 by Mr Bassman

[geoffbassist]

I love my Clarus....but I have always found it confusing having that control in the pre post switch. I guess once you know its cool, but surely they could have made it easier to work out. A lot of sound guys have mentioned the signal being hot and I need to make sure it's set right, but have often forget the right setting and have to push the switch until I get a thumbs up from the engineer! My other grip is that I think the phantom power switch is too accessible. On jam sessions I have have to warn other bassists as more than one has switched it on and the sound was not good! Oh and the white switches are rubbish as you can't tell from a glance if they are engaged or not.... Ultimately I got used to the poor control layout and love the amp, but it's not an instinctive, user focused design.

I heard from another bassist that the AI combo didn't mix well with the Ehurlund. I use a Euphonic Audio cab and it works really well, but am not a huge fan of the AI cabs. That said I have never actually owned one and have seen bassists get amazing results with them.

[thisnameistaken]

Ah. So the button labeled 'post EQ'next to the XLR socket doesn't do what a post-EQ switch dies on all the other amps I've used.

I suppose with it being a two-channel amp I can understand why they've provided that feature but they should either have two switches or label it differently. Neither me nor the sound guy figured it out.

[Hector]

Had a week of sharing the stage with an AI combo for bass players. Total nightmare. Spent most of my time looking for the mute switch - supposed to just plug in and play but there are 10^10 little buttons and things with tiny writing illegibile under stage lights. Least user-friendly piece of kit I've ever had the displeasure of playing through, you'd need a master's degree to operate it! I'm off to read the user manual to avoid ballache in the future when stage-sharing.

When I could get it going (blind luck) it sounded good and if I owned one I'm sure I'd be able to practise using it. Prefer a little more of a plug and play vibe with my kit though.

[TheRev]

I didn't get on particularly well with the AI combo that I had for about a year, much happier with the EA Doubler that replaced it.

[Mr Bassman]

I took my big bass to a wedding gig yesterday, (sax / piano / bass trio)

It's a carved Hungarian with violin corners, Spiro weichs & a full circle.

I took my A.I. Ten 2 combo, (same preamp as Coda afaik)

I suggested the pianist use one channel which he loved, it sounded great

I plugged in with eq flat and turned up to the level of the piano, instant feedback!

I reached down and pressed the phase switch, feedback disappeared and I enjoyed the best natural sound I've had in ages. My bass only louder.

Both channels were set flat, the only adjustments were the phase switch on my channel and the room coupling control set to 75%

They are not the easiest plug & play amps if you are unfamiliar & need to start twiddling, but once you become familiar with the features they can be very rewarding.

[Bilbo]

I have been using my AI Clarus/Ten 2 EX combo for about a year or so now and love it. I did a recent gig where, by chance, another musician was sat on the floor between my bass and the amp (whilst I was playing). He said 'Wow; your amp sounds [i]exactly[/i] like your bass'. I got rid of my Eden Metro and use the AI for electric and double bass gigs. It is easily loud enough for everything I do that doesn't require a full rig and the eq is versatile enough to cope with all my needs. I did struggle witht he knobs and whistles a little at first but it isn't [i]that[/i] complicated, just takes a little bit of thought. The Fishman Plat Pro helps but obviously that only applies to the double bass.

Great piece of kit that I see no reason to change any time soon.

[TheRev]

It's interesting thst you used the Fishman with your Ten2 - my uinderstanding was that the inputs of the Ten2 were matched to the impedance of yer typical BD peizo pickup and that a preamp was unnecessary.

Perhaps that's why I didn't get on with my Ten2. I did try it with the Fishman but didn't notice any significant diffeence in the sound so i just left it out.

I will admit that they sound fantastic at low to mid volumes, but didn't cope too well with being pushed.

[Clarky]

I have a Ten2 also. I find it sounds excellent at low/mid volumes (the most natural of any amp I've tried) but agree it struggles a little at higher volumes, especially when I'm pitted against drummer on a small stage. I would guess that it would be difficult to beat for jazz whereas in my '57 varieties' pop/blues/country/folk/flamenco outfit its arguably not pokey enough

[Mr Bassman]

Have you tried it wit an extension cab Clarky?

[Clarky]

Nope. I have shifted to using a MarkBass Mini CMD121P combo which, though not as clean at lower volumes, works well at stage volumes .... Err and my acoustic guitarist has "borrowed" my Ten2 for all our recent gigs as it sounds brilliant for acoustic guitar

[thisnameistaken]

I would have liked more time to play with the thing and I couldn't say it's a bad-sounding amp because I pretty much had to just plug in and go, but for whatever reason it wasn't in a state for just plugging in and going.

Incidentally last weekend I also played an outdoor gig with a drummer and guitarist and did it with just the Ehrlund. It didn't occur to me until I was plugging into the DI that maybe the Ehrlund wouldn't go loud enough without feeding back, but it was fine. Had a problem with feedback from my wedge but they'd put tons of my bass through my wedge (because I'd asked them to) but after they trimmed it a bit the feedback went and I still had a good monitor level. FoH it was plenty loud and we had no feedback problems.