Tech21NYC

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.

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.

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.

The toggle switch can be used to combine the channels. On the newer units there is a mix output on the Drive channel. If you only use that one output the channels are automatically combined.

We've had people send in their units for repair with the same complaint and they were working correctly. The newer version does have a different taper for the controls that makes it easier to adjust that section. The basic Bass Driver tone shape is there. There is no Blend control like the standalone pedal. The addition of the midrange control on the Bass Driver v2 in conjunction with the Bass and Treble works differently than the v1 version. Some settings will be identical some won't. The Bass Driver sound on the Bass Fly Rig v2 is more like the v2 Bass Driver. The headphone feature for the most part has been problematic to end users and us. We have had end users send in their units for repair only to find they had the headphone button engaged when using the unit with an amp or mixer.

Octave pedals work best when connected directly to the instrument. You don't want them in the effects loop or before a distortion or chorus. Like any multi-effects pedal, if you have a specific pedal that you can't do without, you may need to incorporate that with the Bass Fly Rig. The Octafilter section is better understood if you hear it in context with the effects it was patterned after. (see below) If you don't need those effects don't use them. It's still a great deal if you were to price out the pedal with individual effects. A compressor, VT Bass DI, Bass Driver, Chorus and Tuner.

There was never anything broken on the Octafilter section. Many players didn't understand it but it was never broken. We did change the taper of the controls to make it easier to use.

The VT Bass DI is based on Ampeg style tones. It is also a DI box. The YYZ is a stripped down stompbox version of our GED-2112.

Aside from wattage differences, the VT 1969 has two discrete channels and also has the ability to mix the two and also a switchable mute. The VT Bass 500 has the Bite, mid shift, blend and headphone functions.

We do still have bags for the VT Bass 500 that you can purchase. I would check with our distributor to see if they have some locally.

We do have some cabs left here but that doesn't help much...Maybe try our distributor: ROCKY ROAD DISTRIBUTION LTD Tel: + 44 (0) 1494 535333 Fax: + 44 (0) 8701 360067 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rocky-rd.com

The Bass Driver/RBI like many of our SansAmps can be set clean. Because they are emulating the sound of a vintage tube amp many demos focus on the more over driven sounds. The reason we have the Blend up all the way in many sample settings is simple, vintage tube amps have no Blend control. The Blend control was part of the original design conception and goes back to how bass guitar used to be recorded in a studio setting. The bass guitar would go to a DI and the direct signal went to the board and the through of the DI went to a mic'd bass amp and both signals were "blended" at the board. It was a composite sound. In most settings whether live or in the studio the bass is DI'd these days. Your clean sound with our SansAmps will depend upon how much headroom you are playing with. With less headroom you will tend to play harder and hit the circuit harder. If you want no amp emulation you can turn the Blend all the way off and now you have a DI with EQ.

At the moment we are no longer producing any Deluxe pedals. We have no plans to make another Leeds at the present. For product suggestions I recommend posting on our Facebook page. The Leeds is a really cool pedal. I still have mine and use it regularly for both bass and lead guitar. They do pop up used from time to time.

You should never assume that it is safe to power any pedal with an incorrect power supply. We get so many pedals in for repair that have been damaged by using the improper power supply. When in doubt check your owners manual or contact the manufacturer.

I don't know him personally but everyone tells me he's a great guy that really loves to play the bass. It comes across in the videos he does.

The pedal is an analog amp emulator. It is an actual circuit that mimics a real tube amp's behavior. This is not the same as a modeler that uses algorithms. Basically there is one very flexible circuit that has an all analog signal path and uses a microprocessor to store the presets. The presets are a good place to start but once you understand the pedal it's easy enough to tweak. Personally I always have it set in "Performance Mode" and dial in my sounds and save to those 3 slots.

If you have an interest in the technical side of things there is absolutely nothing wrong with learning about it. Our designer and owner as well as our chief engineer are both guitar and bass players. As someone that deals with the end user on a regular basis, my point is about the internet in general where people with little understanding of the science read some information (many times misinformation) and have no idea what it really means or how it applies. They go down this rabbit hole of research and analysis, taking measurements etc. only to get to a gig and struggle with the physics of the environment and wonder why the aforementioned seemed to fail them.

There was really nothing hidden from anyone. All EQ's work in the same manner. Before the age of the internet, players just bought gear turned some knobs and used it. There was no need to become an engineer to use a piece of gear. In the end it should still be that way. Let the engineers do the geeky stuff and let the musicians do what they do best which is play. Time is better spent playing than taking electronic measurements. How a waveform looks on an FFT or scope doesn't help the average player using a pedal or amp on a gig. I have no idea how the various systems in my car work. I get in, turn it on and drive... When I'm on a gig and my vocal wedge has too much low end I know to use the HPF. That works. What works better is more low tech. I place the wedge on a milk crate which decouples it from the floor and also gets it a bit higher so I don't need to run it as loud. I figured that out long before I knew what a HPF was.

We use a mid bandwidth Q on the pedal which is more musical. The narrow Q is great for "fixing" things and a wide Q can sometimes be too subtle. It really depends on your application.

I didn't really say it was linked but more that all the controls interact with one another which is true of most EQ. If you want to do more surgical EQ's like a notch filter, that is a very steep curve which is good for dealing with a node or problem frequency or feedback. Those types of EQ's aren't really musical they are for solving very specific problems. It's always a bit puzzling to me that over the years many players want "full range" preamps and speakers etc and then have to use HPF/LPF to get back to where the

Correct. You should need no additional equipment to use the Bass Driver DI with your interface. The amp emulation of the SansAmp will contribute a certain amount of compression depending upon the Drive settings just like a tube amp would. Don't be hesitant to turn the controls and experiment. Once you get a handle on how the pedal functions it will become quite easy.

The presence control is already boosting at 12 o'clock. The Mid, Treble and Bass boost and cut from 12 o'clock. Maybe try starting with the Blend off (counterclockwise) and gradually increasing. Have you tried the sample settings. Try Fat Tube with less Drive, Presence and Blend.

It's hard to find a single unit that will do everything you want. The Fly Rig series was designed for portability and ease of use. They were never intended to be a substitute for a full featured pedal board.

There is really no room to add an effects loop in there. It would require a redesign. It would be easier and more cost effective to run an inexpensive DI at the end of the chain. Are you using all the features of the BFR?

Mic, instrument and line level are really operational ranges to consider when interfacing with different gear. None of these levels are constant like a voltage measurement. It helps to understand all the devices you are using to get the optimum signal to noise ratio and levels. If the person at the mixer doesn't know how to adjust for varying levels, that's a problem. You basically want enough gain to match levels with the other inputs and enough headroom so there won't be any channel overload on the peaks. We measured the output level of one of our passive bass guitars. Playing lightly the signal level was around -12dbB which is instrument level. Playing an eighth note pattern a bit harder the level was around -8dB. Slapping aggressively on the low E the level peaked at around 0dB which is considered consumer line level. This is why the channel strip has to be gain staged properly. Most modern mixers can accommodate a wide range of signal levels from microphone to instrument level. My inexpensive Soundcraft mixer that I use for small gigs has a -15dB pad and 60dB of preamp gain. It easily works with anything I plug into it.