Sansamp BDDI and VTBASS DI on your board?

[NancyJohnson]

At my disposal I have a Sansamp BDDI and the newish (similar sized) VTBASS DI units and in the main (when I use either of these in isolation) my signal chain is generally bass>tuner>Sansamp>amp. A while back I purchased a Pedaltrain board and have whiled away many happy hours playing stompbox Tetris trying to fit these units (along with a PSU and maybe a Boss dirtbox) onto said board. I've included pics of both units below so you know what the unit options are.

Anyhow, my issue is such that irrespective of where the Sansamps are in the bigger signal chain they always seem to have a detrimental effect on each other. I can set up my BDDI so I sound lovely, power it off, set the VTBASS up (so I sound similarly lovely), but when I go back to the BDDI, it sounds sh*t. This ultimately seems down to the fact that neither of these pedals offer true bypass and the +10db and bite buttons on the VTBASSDI still seem to operate even when the unit is off.

So anyhow, my dilemma. How do I use these together on the same board? Could I take an unaffected parallel output and a Sansamp affected output from the BDDI and feed the parallel output into the input of the VTBASS DI, then run both affected outputs into some kind of box that will combine both outputs and give me one output? (And is there such a box?)

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
P

Edited April 25, 2015 by NancyJohnson

[dannybuoy]

Because the sound these pedals produce had a distinct voice, having both on can be a bad thing unless you have one set rather subtly so it acts as more of a booster. An overdrive with a healthy midrange boost works really well before these pedals I find.

But if the bite switch has an effect on the bypass sound, you either have a defective unit or Tech21 seriously screwed the pooch on that one!

[NancyJohnson]

I think that I need to get something called an AB Box/AB Switcher (heh, who knew?). That way I should be able to leave both pedals on and use the switch to control what goes to the amp. Investigating.

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_Mv72Zzfdo"]http://www.youtube....h?v=7_Mv72Zzfdo[/url]

Edited April 25, 2015 by NancyJohnson

[elephantgrey]

you could also use a loop/blender pedal, where as an AB pedal takes two inputs and switches between them, a loop pedal takes your signal, splits it in two, and then merges those two into one again, letting you switch between them. These can also come with a blend option, which mix both of the two signals together.

[NancyJohnson]

[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1429968429' post='2756794']
Because the sound these pedals produce had a distinct voice, having both on can be a bad thing unless you have one set rather subtly so it acts as more of a booster. An overdrive with a healthy midrange boost works really well before these pedals I find.

But if the bite switch has an effect on the bypass sound, you either have a defective unit or Tech21 seriously screwed the pooch on that one!
[/quote]

My mishtake. The bite switch goes off, so it's definitely the +10db button.

I think I've pretty much got this under control. Tuner at the start of the chain then into either of the boxes. Parallel out works...take a clean signal from one and then into the input of the other unit. I'm then left with two live outputs, which in theory I can plug into an AB box and use in reverse by outputting one signal into said amp. I guess a Boss AB-2 or a Vein Tap 'Little Splitter' will do the job.
P

[dannybuoy]

I take it you are driving a power amp directly then if using the +10dB button? The volume boost would overdrive the front end of another pedal that's expecting an instrument level signal. If chaining these pedals together just make sure that only the last one has the boost switch engaged.

[NancyJohnson]

I've only tried with the BDDI first, I'll give it another punt tomorrow and report back.

[tonyxtiger]

Running the two in parallel should be pretty good. You can set each one up running clean/dirty or bottom end/top end.
It works really well for dirty sounds but it's ultimately very flexible, the same sort of effect you get with a Pearce BC1 but with more varied dirt tones.
I run two VTRM preamps as my main amp either split to two cabs or parallel into one cab.
Give it a try.

[NancyJohnson]

I tried the following:
Bass>Boss Tuner>VTBASS DI>BDDI>AMP - the BDDI is the one with the boost on the output.

It's much better this way round...set the BDDI to my desired tone/output level and then (once the BDDI is switched off) dial in what I want from the VT Bass unit. The only glaring thing is that the output on the VT Bass seems a bit lower than the BDDI, but this may be down to the EQ and presence issues.

I am interested in investigating what Tony said and will get an AB or ABY box to see what I can do with two separate feeds (cleanish/dirtier) and then comine into a single feed. The BDDI is a bit more whumpy than the VT Bass, so it'll probably be a case of finding an ideal crossover point. Interesting times ahead.

[Jamiexsilver]

I've got a standard vt bass and bddi on my board running through a boss LS2. In loop a of the ls2 I have the vt bass and in loop b of the ls2 a simple ab box loop a of the ab box has the bddi in it and loop b of the ab box has a modded boss od3b in it. That way for my 'clean' sound I have the vt and bddi running blended together then step on the ab box which blends the vt bass and odb3 for my drive sound. I don't know if this is what you want to do but it works for me. There's a picture of my board here. http://basschat.co.uk/topic/289-post-your-pedal-board-basschat-style/page__st__5460

[dannybuoy]

Not sure if it will be an issue, but assuming you need the +10dB (on the VT) or line level output (BDDI) switches in order to provide enough output to feed a power amp, I'm not sure if the LS-2 will play nicely with the hotter signals, it could potentially distort.

[CamdenRob]

I find the input on my BDDI very sensitive... I always run a clean sound with no hint of drive or distortion and I have to roll my bass volume down quite a bit to not overload the input.