Sansamp BDDI settings.

[Cliff Edge]

What are your favourite settings on the BDDI 

Curious to know what sounds players get out of it and are any other effects/pedals used to enhance the results. 

[Lozz196]

A trick I got from our old producer was get a good sound from amp/pedal etc then just engage the BDDI with everything at midday, adjust blend to suit. It just then seems to shape and tighten the sound that you already like, making it just fit in the mix that little bit better.

[rmorris]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

A trick I got from our old producer was get a good sound from amp/pedal etc then just engage the BDDI with everything at midday, adjust blend to suit. It just then seems to shape and tighten the sound that you already like, making it just fit in the mix that little bit better.

Fair Enough.  Lots of people seem to advocate making much use of the BLEND control but tbh I hardly ever back it off from 100% ! I will say that I only really like it with moderate amount of DRIVE before it gets obviously grossly distorted. But even online Sansamp demos seem to go for the 'Speaker Break Up' thing. And it can get too noisy for comfort if you crank the TREBLE and - especially - PRESENCE.

Not wanting to sound negative - I'm still happy to turn up with a bass and BDDI and confident of getting a decent tone to desk / monitors. I find it the (gasp!) Behringer BD121 to sound just as good and less capable of giving me too much distortion but ability to run BDDI on phantom is a bonus.

[Downunderwonder]

A BDDI can never be EQ'd flat, always a cut in the upper mids even with both Bass and Treble cut. So when using one I always have another EQ in line.

[Tech21NYC]

If you want "flat" put the pedal in bypass.

Using the Bass Driver DI as with any other pedal it all depends on what you are playing through. Our sample settings in the manual are all done straight into a mixer with various bass guitars. When you plug into an amplifier, the amplifier's preamp and speaker system will have a big influence on the overall sound. We recommend setting your amp for a flat or neutral response or running into your amp's effects loop return to bypass your preamp to get the best results.

The Bass Driver DI is not a typical distortion pedal though many use it that way. It depends what you are trying to accomplish. The original design goal was for you to plug your bass into the Bass Driver DI and send the parallel output to our bass amp and use your amp for your stage sound and monitor. The XLR of the Bass Driver would be sent to the mixer for the optimal DI tone. With most bass amps you can do a pre-eq DI which is the sound of your bass guitar's pickups (boring and lackluster) or do a post EQ. It's limited. There are numerous ways to use the pedal.

 

[Lozz196]

That’s exactly what I did with my Para Driver @Tech21NYC, enabled me to always have my sound irrespective of what amp I was using, made gigging so much easier combined with always being able to be certain of having a great sound. Great pedal btw, am surprised more bassists haven’t found out about them.

[Downunderwonder]

6 hours ago, Tech21NYC said:

If you want "flat" put the pedal in bypass

That would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

[Judo Chop]

I've got a V2 waiting for me at home but I'm not back until monday, can't wait to try it

[dave_bass5]

On 09/07/2021 at 06:54, Downunderwonder said:

A BDDI can never be EQ'd flat, always a cut in the upper mids even with both Bass and Treble cut. So when using one I always have another EQ in line.

What about with the Mid knob? 

With the amp sim off its just an active EQ. With bass and treble at noon its petty much (not exactly) flat. No cut in the mids at all, but obviously with the older version once you start adjusting low and thigh the Mods gets swamped.. The V2 has a Mid knob to help rectify this. 

Edited July 11, 2021 by dave_bass5

[Downunderwonder]

14 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

What about with the Mid knob? 

With the amp sim off its just an active EQ. With bass and treble at noon its petty much (not exactly) flat. No cut in the mids at all, but obviously with the older version once you start adjusting low and thigh the Mods gets swamped.. The V2 has a Mid knob to help rectify this. 

Never seen a V2.

I disagree that noon is anywhere near flat.

[dave_bass5]

5 minutes ago, Downunderwonder said:

Never seen a V2.

I disagree that noon is anywhere near flat.

Ok to both points. 

[Tech21NYC]

On 09/07/2021 at 16:02, Downunderwonder said:

That would be throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Only on internet forums is there this preoccupation with flat response. Flat response means there is no change in sound. So put the pedal in bypass and you can use it as a regular DI. If you turn off the Blend control and set the tone controls at their midpoint the unit is also flat and becomes an active DI with EQ. The SansAmp section is only the Drive and Presence controls. The Bass Driver DI is an amp emulator /DI. It's supposed to sound like a vintage tube amp and includes tube amp and speaker emulation which are not supposed to be flat. You can't have distortion and flat response.

The unit has the Blend control which enables you to mix in your unprocessed signal along with the Tube amp emulation. This goes back to the old studio technique of mic'ing a bass amp in the studio while also running a direct signal to the console. The two signal are mixed together to give you a composite sound. Because most live sound techs like to DI the bass amp (vs mic'ing) the bass Driver DI was developed to give you a better DI tone than can be easily achieved with a standard DI box or your amp's DI out.

[dave_bass5]

Good post. Personally I find ‘flat’ and even ‘FRFR’ to be over used by some people who think they need them. 
What’s the point of having a flat response? So you can colour it 😂. 

[paul_5]

This^
I had an ‘uncoloured’ rig for a while and was missing some ‘oomf’ from my sound; turns out that a (very much coloured) Ampeg cab was the missing ingredient.

on paper an FRFR rig sounds great, but won’t be appropriate for every situation.

[dave_bass5]

22 minutes ago, paul_5 said:

This^
I had an ‘uncoloured’ rig for a while and was missing some ‘oomf’ from my sound; turns out that a (very much coloured) Ampeg cab was the missing ingredient.

on paper an FRFR rig sounds great, but won’t be appropriate for every situation.

Yep. I had a BB2, which was a nice cab but lacked ‘oomf’. Same goes for the Frealess F112 i had. I just preferd a coloured cab. Strangely both BB2 and F112 performed quite differently, but both lacked ‘something’ that more than dial cab had. 

Ive been using a BDDI in front of almost anything ive used for the past 20+ years. Never too much Blend, and not for drive as such, but when my current amps sounded bland the BDDI always came in to its own. The secret is the Blend knob and keeping it low. 

[Lozz196]

1 hour ago, paul_5 said:

This^
I had an ‘uncoloured’ rig for a while and was missing some ‘oomf’ from my sound; turns out that a (very much coloured) Ampeg cab was the missing ingredient.

on paper an FRFR rig sounds great, but won’t be appropriate for every situation.

Similar for me, I found that Ashdown cabs gave me the coloured sound I was after, in conjunction with my trusty Tech21 Para Driver.

[Downunderwonder]

4 hours ago, Tech21NYC said:

Only on internet forums is there this preoccupation with flat response. Flat response means there is no change in sound. So put the pedal in bypass and you can use it as a regular DI. If you turn off the Blend control and set the tone controls at their midpoint the unit is also flat and becomes an active DI with EQ. The SansAmp section is only the Drive and Presence controls. The Bass Driver DI is an amp emulator /DI. It's supposed to sound like a vintage tube amp and includes tube amp and speaker emulation which are not supposed to be flat. You can't have distortion and flat response.

The unit has the Blend control which enables you to mix in your unprocessed signal along with the Tube amp emulation. This goes back to the old studio technique of mic'ing a bass amp in the studio while also running a direct signal to the console. The two signal are mixed together to give you a composite sound. Because most live sound techs like to DI the bass amp (vs mic'ing) the bass Driver DI was developed to give you a better DI tone than can be easily achieved with a standard DI box or your amp's DI out.

Yeah I own both BDDI and Deluxe, I recommend them often. Great stuff at reasonable prices. Live customer service on the internet. Great for avoiding soundguy conniptions.

Still my BDDI needs help on account of less mids coming out than went in. That's not an obsession with flat.

The OP asked.

On 09/07/2021 at 09:00, Cliff Edge said:

What are your favourite settings on the BDDI 

Curious to know what sounds players get out of it and are any other effects/pedals used to enhance the results. 

So it's not appropriate to put me down and suggest turning it off.

[dave_bass5]

On 11/07/2021 at 02:17, Judo Chop said:

I've got a V2 waiting for me at home but I'm not back until monday, can't wait to try it

I loved the early  version for years, but the V2 was just noticeably better to my ears.

Slightly less harsh when using the Presence. I belive they made some under the hoods tweaks to the signs routing as well. 

The larger BDDI’s would have been perfect for me (ive had them), but after hearing the V2 i stopped using the others as i felt they weren’t as nice. 

I mostly use my BDDI with Blend around 9 o’clock, so not a lot of amp sim, but a healthily amount of active EQ if i need it. This seems to be the trick to getting the best out of them. For the first couple of times i had my first i had the blend right up and hated it with a rig. Now id never play without one if i was still playing Bass. 

Edited July 12, 2021 by dave_bass5

[Tech21NYC]

19 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Yeah I own both BDDI and Deluxe, I recommend them often. Great stuff at reasonable prices. Live customer service on the internet. Great for avoiding soundguy conniptions.

Still my BDDI needs help on account of less mids coming out than went in. That's not an obsession with flat.

The OP asked.

So it's not appropriate to put me down and suggest turning it off.

 

I was not trying to put you down. The flat response thing doesn't make sense with a pedal that is designed as an amp emulator. As I said it can be set flat if you want to bypass the SansAmp portion of the circuit. 

What are you running the pedal into? The pedal was designed as a DI. 

Usually the issue with the midrange content is when players use the pedal into an amp. If you are using it as a stompbox in front of the amp it helps to take a different approach. Most bass amps have an inherent mid-scoop which will be exacerbated by the Bass Driver DI's tone. The workaround is to either set the host amp for flat response (if possible) or plug the pedal into your amp's effects return so you can bypass your amp's preamp section. We also make the Para Driver DI, VT Bass DI and some other pedals that have more midrange control if the Bass Driver DI is not the tone you're looking for. The fact that you are running the Blend so low indicates that maybe tube emulation is not something you're a big fan of which is cool. You might be better off with our Q\Strip if you just want EQ control.

[Downunderwonder]

7 hours ago, Tech21NYC said:

What are you running the pedal into? The pedal was designed as a DI. 

It's used all over the place depending on what I am doing.

Every which way the midscoop gets dialed out.

7 hours ago, Tech21NYC said:

The fact that you are running the Blend so low indicates that maybe tube emulation is not something you're a big fan of

Dunno where you got this idea.

[Judo Chop]

Well my two day old V2 keeps losing power when I connect the parallel out or 1/4 out to my amp or interface, LED starts to dim and sound slowly cuts out as soon as either of these are plugged in. Seems to work fine when just using the XLR output by itself.

That's when using phantom power from my interface or a seperate power supply, it won't work at all with a battery.

[dave_bass5]

8 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

Dunno where you got this idea.

Might have been from my post, where i did say I use it at a low setting. This suits me. I do have a bit of drive to thicken things up but without the noticeable tone change you get when verything is running higher. 

Edited July 14, 2021 by dave_bass5

[Tech21NYC]

13 hours ago, Downunderwonder said:

It's used all over the place depending on what I am doing.

Every which way the midscoop gets dialed out.

Dunno where you got this idea.

Read the wrong post, sorry. On the older v1 Bass Driver the Bass and Treble controls affect the midrange. Turning both controls up decreases the midrange and turning both down increases the midrange. Both versions can be set flat with the Blend off. In the end it depends what you are plugging into and also the type of bass being used etc. As I said, we do have other products with more midrange control that may be more suitable for your application.  You never mentioned what you were using the pedal with. Into an amp, mixer etc?

 

[Tech21NYC]

12 hours ago, Judo Chop said:

Well my two day old V2 keeps losing power when I connect the parallel out or 1/4 out to my amp or interface, LED starts to dim and sound slowly cuts out as soon as either of these are plugged in. Seems to work fine when just using the XLR output by itself.

That's when using phantom power from my interface or a seperate power supply, it won't work at all with a battery.

 

That sounds odd. When trying the pedal with a battery was it disconnected from DC and phantom power? If it's new and won't work off a battery you should exchange it for a different one. All our pedals are tested before they leave the factory and the battery test is one of the tests that gets performed. 

When running off phantom power did you try a different channel and or XLR cable? 

[Judo Chop]

5 minutes ago, Tech21NYC said:

That sounds odd. When trying the pedal with a battery was it disconnected from DC and phantom power? If it's new and won't work off a battery you should exchange it for a different one. All our pedals are tested before they leave the factory and the battery test is one of the tests that gets performed. 

When running off phantom power did you try a different channel and or XLR cable? 

I tried the battery with XLR phantom power disengaged and power supply removed, also tried a couple of different XLR cables and 1/4 cables to rule that out.

I've tried again just now with phantom power, power supply and battery and everything is working just fine using multiple outputs, no idea what the problem was yesterday but I'll send it back for replacement if it happens again.

I'm really happy with it apart from that hiccup, it's miles better than the Ampeg I was using