Sansamp Bass Driver?

Moderator: interruptor

Post Reply
User avatar
Neil C
Posts: 364
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2004 1:38 pm
Location: Moonbase Alpha
Contact:

Sansamp Bass Driver?

Post by Neil C » Sun Mar 28, 2004 3:25 pm

I currently use a Line6 Bass Pod, which I then put through a Joe Meek MQ1 &#40;just to boost the slightly weak signal from the pod&#41; which then goes into my PC. <BR>I've never been totally satisfied with the performance of the Bass Pod. <BR>I've recently heard about the Sansamp bass driver, and have only seen excellent comments about it on the internet. <BR>Is the Sansamp suitable good for dub, and do you think it would improve my sound? &#40;you can hear my current bass sound at <A HREF="http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/vitalfeedmusic.htm" TARGET="_top">http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/vitalfeedmusic.htm</A> <BR>Yohombi is the dub track&#41; <BR> <BR>Thanks.

User avatar
Mike Zee
Posts: 766
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2001 5:58 am
Location: NY, USA
Contact:

Sansamp Bass Driver?

Post by Mike Zee » Tue Mar 30, 2004 5:00 am

Neil, well..I was thinking for a while how to sort of answer to your question... I ..heh heh .. I have to shortly say: "NO, replacing your recording set-up with SansAmp box will not improve your bass sound". <BR>now, having said this ...I gues I have to go to long long explanations etc... but. really, since your are an experienced bass player, you know it yourself, that recording bass is a very triky thing and includes many components and variables/options and personal preferences as well, including actual playing techniques. Same as with guitar recording. <BR>In general, as I know, professionally bass is being recorded directly through preamp/di into mixer/recorder track PLUS what ever extra tracks the producer may come out with, such as micing cab, plus wet track through effect/drive/distortion etc etc what ever effect may be there..... and then , later when mixing the complete band, the producer tweaks the combo out of these recorded tracks...to get the best to producer's ear result of bass sound against &#40;withing the mix&#41; the rest of the band. You see, great sounding bass line alone does not really mean much, because when you mix it with other instruments the bass must has its 'CORRECT' place... and there's absolutely no way to predict it how it is going to be, until you actually have everything recorded and seat down with fresh head to do mixdown. <BR>Now, so as you see, you've got pretty good quality '"direct" bass recording tool... maybe it's the best in its price-zone. Well, it's digi-toy in a sense. So what? Well... this depends..I guess. <BR>SansAmp DIbox is a sort of unique thing...it's analog specific driving/DI box which sounds pretty damn good as is.... but that's just what it is..nothing more than that. You'll get a nice tone with somewhat tweakability. You can work with it for a while and maybe find the great way to get what ever you desire &#40;subjectively&#41;. I think the main key for recording bass is to capture the 'best' possible basic tone and then apply wet/mic&#40;ed&#41;/effects/eq etc to get overall great mix with the rest of the band. So DI box of good quality gives you this basic step, but this is only a portion of the process. And BassPod also gives you this tool, well, plus you have much more options there, with only cons that they are digital &#40;and then it's depends on how much you hate digital modeling ..heh heh &#41; If digital nature does not bug your mind...then you are fine. If you producing your tracks with some computer-based recording environment, then you should not worry about it. <BR>...okey, blah blah.... <BR>If I actually had the pod or samsamp myself, I could go into specifics... but I never had them. <BR>Here's a long topic at fender b-board: <A HREF="http://www.fenderforum.com/forum.html?d ... 2612:31:09" TARGET="_blank">discussion on pod and other</A> <BR>Also browse through this forum, especially in bass/amp topics...there's allots of informative stuff there. This board is large and pretty fast moving...there's tone of conversations there, sometimes hard to find. <BR> <BR>/respects, <BR>/Mike Zee aka DrZEE

User avatar
Neil C
Posts: 364
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2004 1:38 pm
Location: Moonbase Alpha
Contact:

Sansamp Bass Driver?

Post by Neil C » Tue Mar 30, 2004 2:28 pm

Thanks for that Dr Zee, much appreciated.

overstand
Posts: 29
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2008 12:12 pm
Location: Ireland

my 2 cents on the sansamp bass driver

Post by overstand » Sat Jul 12, 2008 11:25 am

I recently bought a sansamp bass driver and they certainly are nice. It will boost the level of you bass a lot and allow you to eq it. It also ads its own particular sound. In live situations, you can dial in a tone that you like and then take that around with you wherever you go. It depends what you intend using it for really. A couple things worth noting... if you are using an active bass and sending it thru the sansamp and into an audio interface (e.g. for recording), you may well end up with a signal that is too hot! If you plug a budget bass into the sansamp, it can really enhance the sound. But if you are already getting a decent bass sound/level, this pedal may not bring you anything you cant already get with a little hardware/sofware eq. Lastly, it is nice to be able to split your signal with the DI. In a recording situation, one can go to miked amp and another directly in to interface.. etc. etc.

Handy bit of gear to have about the studio but dont assume it will give you that bass sound you've always been looking for! That usually comes in post production stage in my experience.

User avatar
Neil C
Posts: 364
Joined: Wed Feb 25, 2004 1:38 pm
Location: Moonbase Alpha
Contact:

Post by Neil C » Sat Jul 12, 2008 8:20 pm

:) - old thread back from the depths of time.

I did get a Sansamp DI back then. Very good little box, pleased I got it. It's a very nice design, beautifully compact - and the eq's on it are very good. I have found it most handy in a live situation - if there is decent fold back it means I can go straight into the PA, and no need worry about the battery if you can feed it phantom power. It gives a nice amp sim but it is right it won't necessarily give you the sound of your dreams.

The best processor I have ever put my bass through is the recent UAD DBX Vca compressor - that really does do magic on my bass.

User avatar
rasta
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Aug 27, 2008 5:55 pm
Contact:

Post by rasta » Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:03 am

Apparently Familyman Barret uses a Sans amp. I got a Sans Amp bass deluxe which gives me 3 channels which i set up for Reggae, Ska and Dub....works really well and great for recording too - although it is debatable about sound improvement, when i used a small solid state Ampeg head it improved the sound in my opinion but i recently got hold of a second hand Eden head....and well the head just sounds lovely on its own but the sans amp is useful for quick sound changes as mentioned....and easy to use too (most important that bit!) - my rig below, many years saved ands slaved for - Irie
Attachments
P020808_14.58[03].JPG
(118.6 KiB) Downloaded 11241 times

User avatar
Subsong
Posts: 40
Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 2:27 pm
Location: Venlo, The Netherlands
Contact:

Post by Subsong » Wed May 27, 2009 6:16 pm

I've got the Bass Driver DI and I'm very happy with it, very useful piece of kit to have. All the bass on my recordings has been through that. I use it for my dub influenced stuff with an Ampeg AEB-1 and get a great thumpy sound. I also use it in a punk/noise band I'm in and it's great for that too, and as somebody else said, it's priceless for live and recording situations where you want to split the signal and have a blend of DI and mic'd amp sounds. It's one tool I wouldn't part with.

Post Reply