TC Electronics Spectradrive.

[dave_bass5]

46 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

I didn’t say buy!

 

trade counts!

Ah right, but if its secondhand its not a New amp :-)

[Cuzzie]

New to you!!!!

but yes - an honourable draw

[dave_bass5]

8 hours ago, Cuzzie said:

New to you!!!!

but yes - an honourable draw

Agreed. 

I got a much nicer OD last night. Although i have no idea whats going on under then bonnet of the tone print, i found the Gain control makes a huge difference to how the OD knob works. Backing the gain off made for a smoother OD, and one i could see me going forward with as an always on tone. 

[krispn]

Is it similar to the drive on the BH amps on that the parameters are all done using the tone print? CAn those be edited like the Spectracomp et al in the editor?

 

[dave_bass5]

13 minutes ago, krispn said:

Is it similar to the drive on the BH amps on that the parameters are all done using the tone print? CAn those be edited like the Spectracomp et al in the editor?

 

Yes and no. You get one knob per tone print, and at the moment at least, you cant edit these using the app/software. 

Edited April 12, 2018 by dave_bass5

[Jimryan]

Apparently mines been delivered.  Being the loose cannon I am, I’m going to dive straight in and live test it at a wedding this evening.  

 

Ill let you know how it performs with an upright tomorrow.

[dave_bass5]

2 hours ago, Jimryan said:

Apparently mines been delivered.  Being the loose cannon I am, I’m going to dive straight in and live test it at a wedding this evening.  

 

Ill let you know how it performs with an upright tomorrow.

Nice one. I did the same, although it was just a rehearsal. Not much to go wrong really. Hope you enjoy it.

[Jimryan]

Set up and ready to roll.  

 

Love it so far and all we’ve done is sound check.

[CameronJ]

It is a handsome brute isn’t it 

[Jimryan]

Morning all,

 

So, what did I think of it?  Love it.

 

For a few years now I've been using the BH series amps so knew I'd be happy with the eq section.  Also on the BH's I've always got one toneprint set to a spectracomp and always on.  So again, knew I'd be happy with that too.

 

Yep, you're right.  He's got a BH and a spectracomp toneprint, he probably has the other toneprint set to an OD, so why bother buying a spectradrive?  The real selling point for me was the headphone jack.  A few years back OBBM made me up a joint Headphone and jack lead and never really got any use out of it at the time.  Along comes the spectradrive.  Perfect.  Ive now got myself a trendy little preamp/compressor/drive which doubles up as a monitor and has the added bonus of freeing up two toneprints on my amp.

 

So, back to last night.  Arrived at venue, set up as usual, with the addition of the spectradrive.  From the picture above I've got my upright going to the input.  Output goes to a Roland bass cube (little battery powered one).  Di goes to the PA.  Headphone out goes to my head.  That's when I had an idea.  We normally keep a phono/jack lead in the PA just in case.  Thought I'd have a go at running that from the PA's recording out straight to the aux in on the spectradrive.  Perfect.  I've now got my monitor set up and can hear everything.  

 

Take my monitors out and go to set my bass down whilst the guitarist finishes up.  That's when I noticed something that contradicts what has been said in this thread.  The guitar and vocals are now coming out of the Roland.  Moved the lead from output to thru and that resolves that.  No more aux in coming out of the output.

 

Did the entire gig with monitors in and had a great time.  Not had a chance to try it with my electric basses yet, but it works and sounds great with an upright.  Can't test it with my electrics for a few days as I'm off to London for the weekend and my guitarist was that impressed with it last night, that he wants to test it for himself.

 

All in all, for me it's perfect.  It was bought with monitoring in mind and it fulfilled its duty perfectly, it performed exactly as I wanted it to.  Looking forward to trying the toneprints on it.

[dave_bass5]

The Aux in does go to the output jack, not the XLR

Edited April 13, 2018 by dave_bass5

[dannybuoy]

15 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

The Aux in does go to the output jack, not the XLR

Doesn't matter, at least one person will still moan about it! Some wanted it to be routed through the main output so much that it seemed to be a deal breaker, others (as above) would have preferred the aux in to be headphones only.

Edited April 13, 2018 by dannybuoy

[CameronJ]

Thanks for the review, @Jimryan.

Now that I’ve settled down after my little tantrum, I think I can just about live with the Aux signal going to 1/4” main output but not the XLR output, although in some situations it may mean having a secondary DI box post 1/4” out but oh well...

[dannybuoy]

Just out of interest, why do you want the aux input going to the main outputs and XLR?

[dave_bass5]

46 minutes ago, dannybuoy said:

Doesn't matter, at least one person will still moan about it! Some wanted it to be routed through the main output so much that it seemed to be a deal breaker, others (as above) would have preferred the aux in to be headphones only.

I only want to at least have it on headphones. The other outs I don’t care about. Only the headphone out will give stereo anyway so I can’t personally see much use for a mono out unless it’s just for monitoring like above. 

[CameronJ]

If the Aux went to the DI output then I could route my vocal looping rig through the Spectradrive and go straight from the single DI output to either my own monitor or a PA without needing a separate mixer. One less thing to lug around and set up. Would be particularly useful on the kind of actor-musician jobs I’ve done in the past where stage space can be very tight. I realise my usage scenario is very specific!

[dave_bass5]

Ive now had 3 rehearsals with my Spectradrive, and used it a lot at home with headphones. Ive decided....to send it back lol.

Nothing wrong with it at all, it really does do all it says, but ive found my BDDI creeping back in, to the point where last night it was on all the time and the SD was only used as a comp. To me, having two preamps on my board just seems pointless, so in a complete U turn im going back to how things were before. Spectracomp and BDDI.

I really cant get away from loving the BDDI, and ive used one on and off for 15 years. Im just used to what it does. Now it has the Mid control its even more versatile. Over the past week's rehearsals ive been re evaluating the pre amps i have. Ive been using the VTBass DI, BDDI, Q/strip and SD in various combinations along with my AS and TCE Helix. The best tone, for me, was Spectracomp/BDDI/Aftershock. Compared to the other 3 the SD sounded the less coloured, but that seems to be something im not looking for. This is the same reason i dont use my Q/strip at the moment. The OD on the SD is ok, but it changes the overall tone too much, even when set low (there are new tone prints for this, but they are high gain). for me it worked ok as an on off effect, but not as an always on. The VTBass DI sounds great, but not quite as full and deep as the BDDI, and i just like the BDDI tone more.

For home use the above applies as well. Im happier using the BDDI in the B3n as its closer to my live tone. No point hooking the BDDI up to the SD, that again defeats the object.

So yeah, feel free to mock ( @Al Krow, im looking at you :-) but i had to give it a go. Nothing lost as ill get a full refund, and that means someone can get a well looked after B-stock SD from G4M.

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by dave_bass5

[Osiris]

@dave_bass5 how to you find the natural amount of compression with the SpectraDrive without the SpectraComp?

To clarify what I'm asking, I've always loved the sound of the Tech 21 stuff, but having owned both the BDDI and the VT bass much as I loved the fundamental tone of each I found them both way too compressed for my tastes and as a result have moved both on. I use the stand alone SpectraComp pedal and have nothing but praise for it. Obviously on the SD the compression is variable but I wondered if with the SpectraComp off, or at least on a low setting, whether there is any additional squash going on like there is with the Tech 21 stuff or if the sound is more natural, i.e. with no additional squashing going on. If that makes sense? 

[dave_bass5]

I should first add that i use the BDDI with the blend very low, no more than 9 o'clock, so i dont really notice any compression from it.

With the SD its hard to tell if there is a difference or not, as like you say, you cant turn the comp off, just all the way down. Saying that, i found the SD to be very clean and clear. Id say its safe to say with the comp all the way down its not going to be doing much in the way of compression.

Sorry, cant really ad much to that. I loved the clan, punchy tone the SD gave me, but never really played much with the comp side. Just loaded my usual tone print and set the knob just under half way.

[Al Krow]

28 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Ive now had 3 rehearsals with my Spectradrive, and used it a lot at home with headphones. Ive decided....to send it back lol.

Nothing wrong with it at all, it really does do all it says, but ive found my BDDI creeping back in, to the point where last night it was on all the time and the SD was only used as a comp. To me, having two preamps on my board just seems pointless, so in a complete U turn im going back to how things were before. Spectracomp and BDDI.

I really cant get away from loving the BDDI, and ive used one on and off for 15 years. Im just used to what it does. Now it has the Mid control its even more versatile. Over the past week's rehearsals ive been re evaluating the pre amps i have. Ive been using the VTBass DI, BDDI, Q/strip and SD in various combinations along with my AS and TCE Helix. The best tone, for me, was Spectracomp/BDDI/Aftershock. Compared to the other 3 the SD sounded the less coloured, but that seems to be something im not looking for. This is the same reason i dont use my Q/strip at the moment. The OD on the SD is ok, but it changes the overall tone too much, even when set low (there are new tone prints for this, but they are high gain). for me it worked ok as an on off effect, but not as an always on. The VTBass DI sounds great, but not quite as full and deep as the BDDI, and i just like the BDDI tone more.

For home use the above applies as well. Im happier using the BDDI in the B3n as its closer to my live tone. No point hooking the BDDI up to the SD, that again defeats the object.

So yeah, feel free to mock ( @Al Krow, im looking at you :-) but i had to give it a go. Nothing lost as ill get a full refund, and that means someone can get a well looked after B-stock SD from G4M.

Buddy - no mocking from me whatsoever. It is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. And I always admire anyone who is prepared to be open and honest, 'cos we all benefit when that is the case.

My only concern throughout was that you didn't take a hit on yet another(!) piece of gear which, from my perspective as a by-stander looking on, seemed to be otiose (one of my favourite words, which I will try to include whenever I can, even if it is sometimes a bit otiose).

For the same reason, I try to get my gear second hand (and that is probably one of the single biggest benefits from being on BC, apart from the massive helpfulness of so many folk willing to happily share their knowledge and experience and expecting nothing in return), whenever I can 'cos that means if it's not for me I can move it on for next to no real 'cost' and if you're within the return period having bought new then clearly the same point applies. 

You've tried something new, different and gained experience and expertise and done so without financial loss. Respect.

[dave_bass5]

Cheers Bas. I know i was gushing over it a week ago, and i still would be had it not been for me still having my BDDI (which i put up for sale and couldn't get a good price so withdrew it). Everything i said about it still holds true, but at the same time i think about how many people really need a clean preamp on pedal board if they are using a bass amp. Its just taking up space doing the same job as the front end of an amp. if i had wanted just an EQ pedal i have the much better Q/strip still.

If the OD had been more usable, specifically with a blend knob like the BDDI then i may have kept it, but i find the basic tone changes too much when its engaged.

I prefer to buy new on line for exactly this reason. Although i dont intend to send stuff back, when you have £200+ at stake its a good safety net. In fact the Cali was the only piece of music gear ive brought in person from a shop in years, and look how that ended up lol.

For now im definitely settled as far as gear goes, its out of my system. Oh, and i used my GK MB800 last night for the first time in ages, that's a keeper now as well.

[LukeFRC]

3 hours ago, dave_bass5 said:

For now im definitely settled as far as gear goes, its out of my system.

... till next month? 

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, LukeFRC said:

... till next month? 

Well based on the clip on tuner thread ive just brought another Polytune clip so........:-)

To be honest I think my playing live days are very numbered, and that feeling is helping with the GAS, not that you would know it. 

Edited April 17, 2018 by dave_bass5

[The59Sound]

It's why I always demo stuff in person before thinking about buying it. Videos online should only be used as a rough guide. 

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, The59Sound said:

It's why I always demo stuff in person before thinking about buying it. Videos online should only be used as a rough guide. 

That works for some, but in my case i was really happy with it when i got it , so testing it out in a shop would have resulted in me still buying it. The crunch time for me with gear like amps/cabs and effects is when i use them in a live situation. Ive brought a lot of gear that i have loved to bits from the off, but once i use it with the band ive found it’s not quite right. 

Luckily we have the distance selling regulation to allow us to try these things in the relevant situation rather than just in a shop.