Where to have a DI / Sansamp in the pedal chain?

[jim_at]

Often in the past when I've done gigs, the engineer has plugged a DI before my pedals, so they just get a clean DI signal to play with.

Then it occurred to me that my effects, fuzz, distortion, overdrive etc wouldn't actually be coming out of the Front of House speakers / PA, they'd just be hearing mostly clean DI'd bass with a bit from the cab.

I have a programmable Sansamp DI now, so is it best to have this at the end of my chain, so the sound enginner gets my full effected bass signal.

My chain goes like this: Bass > TU-2 tuner > Big Muff fuzz > Sobbat Bass driver > Sansamp DI > amp

I look forward to hearing your ideas!

Jim

[alhbass]

[quote name='jim_at' post='812911' date='Apr 20 2010, 07:29 PM']Often in the past when I've done gigs, the engineer has plugged a DI before my pedals, so they just get a clean DI signal to play with.

Then it occurred to me that my effects, fuzz, distortion, overdrive etc wouldn't actually be coming out of the Front of House speakers / PA, they'd just be hearing mostly clean DI'd bass with a bit from the cab.

I have a programmable Sansamp DI now, so is it best to have this at the end of my chain, so the sound enginner gets my full effected bass signal.

My chain goes like this: Bass > TU-2 tuner > Big Muff fuzz > Sobbat Bass driver > Sansamp DI > amp

I look forward to hearing your ideas!

Jim[/quote]

I'm not familiar with the Sobbat Bass Driver, so can't be sure about what, if any, difference that would make (but I can have a good guess that it kinda just does what it says on the tin!) - but I'm a regular Sansamp BDDI user...

Sometimes I have other pedals in my chain, sometimes not, but the Sansamp is the one I [i]always[/i] use. It goes without saying that if you want [i]all[/i] your pedals to affect the FOH sound (and I can't really imagine why you wouldn't - otherwise what's the point of having them?) you have to DI from the latest possible point in the chain. Presumably your amp doesn't have a DI, otherwise this question wouldn't be arising..?

So, your chain as described above should be fine on that score. Are you asking because you would prefer to put the BDDI earlier in the chain? If so, just do it and tell the sound guy to put his DI at the end of the chain. Easier said than done sometimes, I realise - as lots of sound engineers will want to ignore your pedals, as it makes their job more difficult - but it's part of their job dammit! So stick to your guns!

[phil.i.stein]

agreed with the above..

some engineers see the sansamp bddi as the final solution and don't give a toss about how you want your bass to sound.

do not under any circumstances rely on their 'experience', as, often as not, they are more interested in pleasing the drummer, vocalist, guitarist than you.

if possible, split your signal for different options, and try to be present in mix-down, otherwise you may well end up disappointed.

the sansamp has 2 paths, so use them effectively (pun intended )

Edited April 20, 2010 by phil.i.stein

[jim_at]

All makes sense. Sansamp at the end of the chain it is...

Out of interest, if one of your channels on the Sansamp, or one of your pedals, ends up being massively louder when you click it than your normal sound, what happens in the front of house sound?

I find its quite hard to get everything to be within the same volume range, but I suppose it has to be done, and thats what sound checks are for!

Its nice to have a distortion a bit louder than your clean sound for that extra bit of balls, whats a safe louder volume to keep it at without drowning everything else out?

alh: the sobbat is just a nice boutique pedal I heard someone play through once for a lovely overdriven tone, and I had to find it!

Edited April 20, 2010 by jim_at