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Darkglass Vintage ultra - confused about DI


Berserker
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Hi,

Apologies if I ask silly questions. I'm still new to the world of bass (started as guitarist) and am getting myself ready to start gigging. From what I've read, a lot of venues prefer bass to be DI wherever possible so I'm trying to cover all bases with my pedalboard.

I bought a Darkglass Vintage Ultra v1 as I thought it would be perfect for this purpose. I was at band practice the other day and the studio's amp was playing up so I thought it would be the perfect time to test the DI on the pedal. I ran an XLR cable from the pedal to the PA and it sounded awful... for want of a better term, "farty". Completely unusable. 

Am I doing something wrong? I noticed the DGVU v2 has a cab simulation button... am I supposed to run mine in to a cab sim pedal before the PA?

Seriously thinking of ditching this pedal and getting a Sansamp or the Dug Pinnick pre amp but I don't know if I will have the same issues.

 

Thanks

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How good is the PA?

If it’s not meant to really handle bass and only vocals in a practice room/studio, it will sound utter crap no matter what Preamp you use.

I will give a big thumbs up to the other 2 you mentioned though 

Edited by Cuzzie
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5 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

How good is the PA?

If it’s not meant to really handle bass and only vocals in a practice room/studio, it will sound utter crap no matter what Preamp you use.

I will give a big thumbs up to the other 2 you mentioned though 

Okay, that makes sense. The studio has pretty cheap gear (Behringer I think) so I guess it's probably just meant for vocals. I thought PAs all handled similar frequencies. I guess venue PA systems are meant to handle a lot more bass and volume so hopefully it would be okay. If it sounded like it did at rehearsal I think I'd walk off stage!!

Thanks for the recommendation on the Tech 21 stuff too, I really like the sound of the Dug Pinnick model.

Cheers for your input!

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1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

Was the pedal going to mic or line level. If not paired properly it will be seriously overpowering the pa. 

Hmm, good question. I have no knowledge of PAs but I plugged it in to the same socket as the mics but on a different channel. Should I be looking for a line level socket? 

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Mic-level input is correct.
Apologies if this is covering ground you already know but is the PA mixer gain set ok?  There's more than one way to do it, but perhaps the easiest way to get to a good starting point is:

  1. Put pedal into bypass for now (this reduces the number of variables while you're just trying to get a correct signal to the mixer)
  2. Connect pedal to a mic-level input on the mixer (almost certainly an XLR input)
  3. Set that channel's gain to its minimum (normally a knob right next to the XLR input socket - turn it all the way anti-clockwise)
  4. Set channel volume (normally a large slider) to "0db", which isn't at the bottom of the slider, but near the top of the range. It will be marked.
  5. While playing the bass, increase the gain knob (from step 3) until the bass comes out at the correct volume.

If that sounds ok (ie the basic sound of your bass) but when you engage the pedal it sounds wrong (or considerably louder), then it means the PA is probably set correctly but maybe the pedal knob settings now need adjusting.

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Yes, Line Level is louder so if available on your PA choose one of those. On some pedals there is a minus 20db selector on the DI to accommodate going into a mic input. If your PA doesn’t have Line Level inputs and the Darkglass has this try engaging it, it should really make a difference. Also some PAs have a similar option on the channels so that could be worth a look as well.

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There's no cab sim on the V1, but it shouldn't sound bad unless you're really cranking the gain and getting an overly fizzy sound through the PA. If you're getting fizzy distortion even at low gain perhaps the volume is overloading the desk input.

Can't go wrong with the Tech21 stuff though, the VTDI, DP3X and YYZ are my favourite pedals!

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How do cheap radios, cheap laptops, cheap tvs and cheap headphones sound? All hissy and no bass. How do you think the cheap (and much-abused) pa system in the rehearsal room sounds? I suspect it probably didn't even have subwoofers? Rest assured that the problem wasn't the pedal.

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