Tech21NYC

Totally not accurate. Even with individual monitor mixes volumes will still vary and keyboard players are the worst. I've worked for years in musical theater in NYC and they pay programmers a lot of $$$ to setup the multiple keyboard patches to specific levels and even then it doesn't always work. The last show I played on Broadway was the Neil Diamond "It's A Beautiful Noise" musical and the band was onstage. Everyone was required to wear IEM's and we all had 16 channel monitor mixers. Players would still get volume notes and even with my custom 25dB Westones IEM's, when the stage would move forward during parts of the performance the ambient volume would overwhelm my IEM's and I wasn't about to ruin my hearing for some stupid gig. Even warming up the sax and trumpet would be so loud acoustically, turning them off at my mixer did nothing. Not every situation is guitar, bass, drums, keys and vocals. The loudest gigs I've played have been with brass players. Try turning down a saxophone.

In the end you either know how to play a low volume gig or you don't. It seems if volume is such a huge issue the "first" thing to ditch would be the acoustic kit. Use a Cajon player or electronic kit, that brings the volume way down. Maybe it's different on your side of the pond but in most live music venues I go to it's the PA system that is always too loud. DJ's as well. In a small venue there is no need to mic anything unless your drummer has a weak foot. When everything is direct you are totally at the mercy of the person running sound and on the average the skills of most sound "techs" is pretty subpar. Our sound tech works for a big sound company in NYC and he will tell you that most techs barely mix. They are level setters.

So, acoustic drums (which typically dictates how loud the band will play) which is typically the loudest instrument on the band stand and has no volume control (other than the players dynamics) and no shield in front of drum kit. Band is behind the speakers and sub which means unless the PA system is really quiet you will get a ton of low end backwash. Monitoring with IEM's I assume? Dedicated sound person? If you're drummer plays very quietly and the PA is not too loud it can work. If the drummer is loud and by default so will the PA in order to keep up with low end backwash and drums you will have to monitor at unsafe levels with your IEM's.

Class D is the operational class of an amplifier. SS power amps are by design meant to be flat response and shouldn't "sound" different when run in their linear operational range. The big advantage of Class D is the power efficiency and the resulting lower weight when compared with Class A, AB, G and H etc. When we were making amps our VT Bass 1969 and 1000 heads were offered in both 300 watt Class AB and D and 1000 watt Class D platforms. They sounded the same. Now our dUg Ultra Bass 1000 amplifier sounded drastically different from our VT Bass 1000 but that was due to the unique preamp section. The Class D power sections were identical.

When you run the Bass Driver into the front end of an amp you are stacking preamps and that changes everything which is why we recommend setting the amp on the neutral side if the Bass Driver will be used as an always on effect. It would probably make more sense to add a chorus with the Bass Driver.

Vintage tube Ampeg SVT, V4's, Traynors, Sunn, Marshalls had no "Blend" control which is why I mentioned the reason for the design. I think for a lot of players that have only played solid state amps and have never spent a considerable amount of time with tube amps, any type of OD can seem like an effect. When I cut bass tracks at home I usually just use my old Leeds pedal. No blend. I used to go into my Great River ME-1NV through my Emperical Labs Distressor but found even just running the Leeds fairly clean the bass sounds more there and melds with the track better. What are you plugging the Bass Driver into? An amp, mixer?

The Bass Driver "DI" was designed to facilitate the old school way of both mic'ing and direct inject that was done in the studios and stage for years. I can't recall that last time I've seen any live sound tech or studio engineer employ this technique. Typically they would close mic your bass amp and split the signal to a DI. The mic'd amp sound would provide the character and body to your tone and the DI of your instrument would add definition. The two sounds were mixed accordingly and your final sound was a composite. Fast forward to how things are presently done. Most studio applications are DI'd bass. For live situations most sound techs will either plug you into a DI box and you just use your bass amp as your stage monitor or they will take a DI out of your bass amp. Bass amps will typically have a pre/post setting on the DI. The pre setting is just the sound of your bass pickups and the post is the sound of your amp but most amps don't have compensated (speaker sim) outputs. The idea behind the Bass Driver is that you would plug into the BDDI and send the parallel output to your amp for your stage and room sound and the SansAmp output would go to the board giving the engineer a more consistent feed and a more complex tone. The Bass Fly Rig was not designed to work like the Bass Driver. I think a lot of players associate the SansAmp sound with distortion. They can do clean to overdrive to very distorted if desired. You don't have to use the Blend to obtain clean tones. They operate like old school tubes amps but have the advantage of producing distortion without the need for high volume levels like an old SVT, HiWatt etc.

An IEM is not a musical instrument amplifier. The idea is that it takes the place of wedges for monitoring. FRFR speakers are designed for sound "reproduction" vs sound production. The electric guitar and bass were designed to be used with a musical instrument amplifier not an IEM. It works and if you like it or prefer it that's cool but know it for what it is. When I'm at home and play guitar or bass I don't look for my IEM's to play through.

The Clean channel is totally clean. There is no amp or speaker emulation. The Drive channel can also be set clean if desired. It's best to turn the Bite off and switch the Mid control to post. Here is a picture of the pedal set so the Clean and Drive channels are both clean and relative in volume with a P-Bass. One user suggestion regarding the Bi-amp mode. It's easier to hear and understand what the high and low pass filters are doing if you turn off the level control on the opposite channel. For instance, you can dump all the low end out of the Drive channel (if desired) and still have a lot of clean bottom end when you mix in the Clean channel etc.

If you're playing through IEM's which are basically glorified hearing aids and there is no stage amp, the amp and instrument no longer hear or respond together. This may not be as big of an issue with bass vs lead guitar where sustain is more important but it is a compromise. The problem with bass and IEM's is that unless your IEM's isolate you from the PA's low end, it will become hard to hear yourself which will cause you to turn up your IEM's which defeats the purpose from a hearing protection aspect. IEM's can just as easily damage your hearing as well as protect it. I've played in situations with IEM's or headphones with real amps in isolation as well as modelers and the difference is negligible. In a recording studio setting it's not much of an issue but in a live performance with players adjusting their volumes as well as the adjustments to the PA it can be a real challenge. Do they have decibel limits at live venues in the UK? Is that where much of this is coming from?

That's a signature pedal and the artist would have to request a change. Even at that, we would have to lose the tuner due to the current limitations of phantom power. Personally I'd just add an inexpensive DI box. If you want something similar, the VT Bass DI would be closest but it depends how you dial it in.

Which pedal are you referring to?

It sounds like you've been playing with amateurs. You either know how to play a gig or you don't. In my decades long playing career I've played over 5000 gigs. Whether I'm playing a multimillion $ Broadway Musical production, local pub gig or recording in a studio the same principles always apply. You play at the appropriate volume for the room and situation. As a rule of thumb in most situations the drummer tends to dictate the overall volume of the band which is why I find it puzzling that in many situations where everyone plays direct, they use an acoustic drum kit.

I'm not quite sure what your trying to say. Are you saying in 2025 there is no way to play a 100 watt guitar amp at a low volume vs playing a modeler through my 1000 watt FRFR wedge?

It's really sad to me that playing live has become this. While I do "get" that in certain instances for a "show/performance" like Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Lady Gaga etc this might make sense. For the most part much of it comes down to inexperienced sound techs and musicians that don't know how to differentiate between a live performance and a studio recording. It's also part economics. For smaller acts that can't afford to travel with their gear it provides an option. Think about this. You have a live drum kit that has no volume control. It's typically the loudest instrument on stage and yet the instruments with volume controls like guitar, bass and keys are all direct? I can turn down my 100 watt guitar amp to a quiet enough volume in my living room while watching TV, can the average drummer play that softly? While the plexi helps reduce the volume (I use an attenuator as well as plexi shields with my guitar rig) but even at that a loud drummer will still be loud no matter what. For myself their are only a handful of situations where I've agreed to not use an amp. Musical theater gigs and certain studio situations. I play better when using an amp. That's the point of the gear. To allow you to play and perform your best. It doesn't have to be loud to work.