Running a Tech21 VTDI with a chorus pedal and straight to PA/IEM's

[cetera]

I'm likely to be playing some shows soon where I would like to use my Tech21 VTDI preamp pedal straight to PA and my IEM's (or to desk and back to IEMs) but I want to use my chorus pedal in the signal path.

 

Excuse my ignorance and it's probably really obvious but what's the best way to do this?

Is it:
Wireless receiver -> Chorus -> VTDI -> Desk/PA

 

Or is there any benefit/any way of putting the chorus after the VTDI but still getting the effect outfront/in my IEMs when required?

 

Cheers!

[Al Krow]

Your suggestion of:

 

Wireless receiver -> Chorus -> VTDI -> Desk/PA ... has the benefit of letting you use the DI out from VTDI. But if you have a separate DI pedal then this becomes a non-issue.

 

I guess it then depends on how you are using your VTDI e.g. to deliver an Ampegy clean tone or to add some grit to your sound? And then it's going to boil down to do you personally prefer the sound with the chorus before or after the VTDI? If there's very little in it, then maybe easiest to go with your suggested set up to make use of the DI?

 

It's a great little preamp! 

Edited July 19, 2022 by Al Krow

[NancyJohnson]

It's an odd one...there's this belief that as a chorus pedal modulates, it should modulate after the signal has gone through any kind of distortion or dirtbox.  What is odd (well to me at least, 'cos I'm so old school it hurts) is that most guys who plug into an amp would not utilise an effects loop and just go guitar/bass > chorus > amp.

[ezbass]

1 hour ago, cetera said:

I'm likely to be playing some shows soon where I would like to use my Tech21 VTDI preamp pedal straight to PA and my IEM's (or to desk and back to IEMs) but I want to use my chorus pedal in the signal path.

 

Excuse my ignorance and it's probably really obvious but what's the best way to do this?

Is it:
Wireless receiver -> Chorus -> VTDI -> Desk/PA

 

Or is there any benefit/any way of putting the chorus after the VTDI but still getting the effect outfront/in my IEMs when required?

 

Cheers!

That's the way I'd go. My pedalboard is set up: Sadowsky Preamp - EBS Octabass - EBS Unichorus - MXR Compressor - VTDI. This gives me all my FX, plus amp sim DIing to the desk, or my amp (or both if I'm using my rig for monitoring).

[Tech21NYC]

Running the chorus ahead of the VT Bass DI is the easiest route to go. To run it after you would need to add another DI unless you can use a 1/4" input at the mixer. Experiment with the chorus in front or behind the VT Bass at home. If you think it's a big improvement running after then do so. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, Tech21NYC said:

Running the chorus ahead of the VT Bass DI is the easiest route to go. To run it after you would need to add another DI unless you can use a 1/4" input at the mixer. Experiment with the chorus in front or behind the VT Bass at home. If you think it's a big improvement running after then do so. 

One follow-up question from me if I may:  is there any issue with running two outputs from the VTDI i.e. one from the DI and a separate one from the 1/4", both at the same time?

[ezbass]

19 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

One follow-up question from me if I may:  is there any issue with running two outputs from the VTDI i.e. one from the DI and a separate one from the 1/4", both at the same time?

No, not that I could tell, when I’ve done it.

Edited July 19, 2022 by ezbass

[Tech21NYC]

19 hours ago, Al Krow said:

One follow-up question from me if I may:  is there any issue with running two outputs from the VTDI i.e. one from the DI and a separate one from the 1/4", both at the same time?

That was part of the design intent of the pedal. You can either run the parallel or 1/4" out to your amp and send the XLR output to the mixer. 

[Downunderwonder]

On 20/07/2022 at 03:29, NancyJohnson said:

It's an odd one...there's this belief that as a chorus pedal modulates, it should modulate after the signal has gone through any kind of distortion or dirtbox.  What is odd (well to me at least, 'cos I'm so old school it hurts) is that most guys who plug into an amp would not utilise an effects loop and just go guitar/bass > chorus > amp.

I think that's the whole reason guitar amps come with fx loops.

 

Certainly when I was running a bunch of fx the modulation stuff sounded best at the end of the chain. There was no bass amp, no vocal, keys bass and kick going to PA behind the band.

[Al Krow]

On 20/07/2022 at 15:43, Tech21NYC said:

That was part of the design intent of the pedal. You can either run the parallel or 1/4" out to your amp and send the XLR output to the mixer. 

Taking that one step further, does the unit effectively therefore have 3 outputs that can all be used simultaneously? i.e. 1/4" out , 1/4" parallel out and DI out? Albeit that the 1/4" parallel out is purely clean by-pass.

Edited July 27, 2022 by Al Krow

[Tech21NYC]

You can use all three simultaneously. The parallel out is hardwired to the input and has no buffering like most direct boxes.

 

The idea behind the parallel output was to use it to connect to your bass amp and that would be for your stage sound and monitoring. You would then use the XLR output for your direct box/ amp emulated tone vs trying to mic your cab or the anemic tone of your instruments pickups through a DI. 

 

[Al Krow]

45 minutes ago, Tech21NYC said:

You can use all three simultaneously. The parallel out is hardwired to the input and has no buffering like most direct boxes.

 

The idea behind the parallel output was to use it to connect to your bass amp and that would be for your stage sound and monitoring. You would then use the XLR output for your direct box/ amp emulated tone vs trying to mic your cab or the anemic tone of your instruments pickups through a DI. 

 

 

Thinking whether there's a secondary use whereby you take two bass outputs from the VTDI to the desk, one of the being the the parallel to give you a full clean bass tone to underpin a more driven 'effected' tone from the unit. Just wondering whether you have have come across folk doing this? I'm guessing the majority of us bass players simply rely on the blend knob in the unit itself.

[Tech21NYC]

22 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

Thinking whether there's a secondary use whereby you take two bass outputs from the VTDI to the desk, one of the being the the parallel to give you a full clean bass tone to underpin a more driven 'effected' tone from the unit. Just wondering whether you have have come across folk doing this? I'm guessing the majority of us bass players simply rely on the blend knob in the unit itself.

You can certainly use that approach if you want. Just make sure to plug the parallel output to the high impedance input of your interface. Going this route I would set the Blend to 100% on the VTDI and record the un-effected DI on another track. For live use it makes more sense to use the Blend control. Most live sound engineers will probably not want to deal with two channels for bass.