NPD: Laney Digbeth DB-PRE (featuring: graphs! 📈📉)

[MartinB]

Hi folks! I've had my eye on the Laney Digbeth pre-amp pedal for a while, and having recently joined a new band I had a good excuse to try one out.
 

I've seen a decent amount of positive reactions to this pedal here and there, so I'm just going to cover some of the info that I wasn't able to find out about before buying. If you want to check out photos and the basic specs, head on over to https://www.laney.co.uk/amps/bass/digbeth/db-pre

Before I start on the graphs, I'm aware that firing white noise into a pedal isn't the most accurate form of measurement, and obviously we don't listen with our eyes, but I'm happy that it provides some value by demystifying what some of the controls actually do.

First off, here's as "flat" as my audio interface will record - no pedal involved at all:
Frequency along the bottom; relative dB up the side


There's a little roll-off below ~50 Hz and above ~8 kHz, so bear that in mind when looking at the rest of the graphs.

Time to plug the pedal in. Before we touch any of the dials, does this pedal have a baked-in tone? Well, the manual says that the EQ controls (bass, lo-mid, hi-mid, treble, tilt) don't have any effect at their detented centre settings, so let's see what happens when you toggle the "bypass" footswitch.

Green: FET (clean) channel, all controls at 5-out-of-10 / 12 o'clock / centre position
Red: Pedal in "bypass" mode


Pretty flat! Bypassed it pretty much looks the same as having no pedal at all. I've read elsewhere that this pedal is buffered rather than true bypass.
Switching on the FET channel with everything at noon, it's slightly above unity gain (i.e. a little louder). There looks to be a very mild bump in the mids, and a little roll-off in the low lows.

A good starting point to start turning things and seeing what happens...

 

First, the Bass control:

Red: minimum
Green: maximum

Is that a shelf, or just a peak at a low enough frequency that it runs into the limits of what the interface will capture? Either way, you can get around 10 dB boost or cut at about 50 Hz.

 

On to the Lo-mid. This one's got three possible settings, and the manual lists them in the wrong order. With the switch in the upper position, you get this:

 

 

The manual says:

Quote

A narrow lower mid cut which is great for giving more definition to your bass when playing with a drummer. Pull it back to give space to the kick & snare, bring it up to push your bass in front of the drums

 

The graph says: 12 dB boost or 8 dB cut at 180 Hz.

With the switch in the middle position:

From the manual:

Quote

A wider mid-range control is great for bringing out the growl of you bass, very useful to give more bite to your distorted tones, or for cutting back and increasing mid-range clarity

 

Yep, that's definitely wider than the previous setting! About 15 dB boost or 14 dB cut at 480 Hz.

Finally, the switch in the lower position:

 

Quote

An upper mid setting, great to honing in on the pop of a bass or to cut back on fret noise.

 

A narrower 15 dB boost or 14 dB cut again, this time at 700 Hz.


Now the Hi-mid:

 

Looks like 15 dB boost or cut at 1.5 kHz. I'd say this is closer to the "pop / fret noise" zone than the 700 Hz lo-mid setting 🤷‍♂️


And the Treble:

 

 

Interesting 🤔
The curve's a little different when boosting vs. cutting. Overall it looks like it peaks around 8 kHz, but with a shallow slope right down to the mids.


Last but not least, the Tilt control:
Red: minimum (most bassy)
Green: maximum (most trebly)


As most reviews have pointed out, a little goes a long way with this control! 😂
The pivot point is around 830 Hz. I think the idea is to use this to make slight adjustments to the overall sound for live usage, e.g. giving it a nudge to the treble side if you're on a hollow, boomy stage. But it interacts in interesting ways with the rest of the controls, especially with Bass and Treble adjusted in the "opposite" directions to the tilt. For example, you can approximate a 60s cab where there's a bump in the low-mids, but output rolls off a lot below that.

Overall, this pedal has a very versatile set of controls. The EQ points are all in sensible places, and the mid controls are focused enough that you can hear what they're adding or removing, rather than just a big old blob of MIDS. I've used it for a few rehearsals with random studio amps, but not live yet. Currently my starting settings are: Lo-mids 7 (with the switch upwards), Hi-mids 7, and Treble 6 - everything else flat. That's giving me some punch in the lows, and some presence and pick attack further up.

 

Other things:

• The face of the pedal is covered by a ~1mm thick glossy plastic plate with all the control labels on it. This feels like it might be prone to cracking, given that the point of a pedal is to be stepped on. But I could be totally wrong - it's backed by a flat metal surface after all! Time will tell
• The Digbeth logo is an additional moulded bit of plastic that sits on top of that. I think it looks cool; you may think it's tacky! As a Birmingham resident, I'll admit that the name did sway me a bit towards trying this pedal out 😁
• It's a bit taller than your average pedal (i.e. the distance from the floor to the top of the footswitches is greater) - could be awkward if mounted on a thick pedalboard
• It comes with rubber feet attached, but they peel off cleanly

 

What about the Tube channel? Well, it doesn't involve any actual tubes. But it does sound pretty good! There seems to be some additional low-pass filtering compared to the FET channel, and some mild EQ pre-shaping even with all controls flat:
Red: FET
Green: Tube (at minimum Drive)

I failed to set these to approximately equal volume, but you should be able to see the difference in the EQ. The filtering of extreme highs means that it doesn't get too fizzy when the gain is turned up - it almost acts like a cab simulation. This means the DI signal doesn't sound atrocious with dirt! 😅
I don't have a lot more to say about the Tube channel, as I've not used it much yet. I might record some clips in the future.

Well that's your lot. I hope some of it was helpful! 😁

tl;dr Pedal is good!

Edited July 14, 2022 by MartinB
Updated with more accurate graphs

[Owen]

Nice and thorough. I like it. Thanks. 

[mario_buoninfante]

nice one.
may I ask how you generated the white noise, what interface you using and what sample rate?
The high freq roll off seems a little bit too much for being the interface itself the limiting factor, considering it starts at ~5K.
also, is what you called "bypassed", white noise going through the pedal with this being OFF?

Edited July 13, 2022 by mario_buoninfante

[mario_buoninfante]

BTW mine should arrive tomorrow, after 2 days of the courier not finding me at home, and I literally wanted to check the EQ with a nice FFT.
thus, you saved me some time doing a really good job

[Mornats]

Thanks for posting these graphs, they're really interesting. I'm still planning on getting a Digbeth and its main use will be to DI into my audio interface so it's good to see where the controls lie on the EQ graph as I'm used to tweaking EQs that way.

[MartinB]

23 hours ago, mario_buoninfante said:

nice one.
may I ask how you generated the white noise, what interface you using and what sample rate?
The high freq roll off seems a little bit too much for being the interface itself the limiting factor, considering it starts at ~5K.
also, is what you called "bypassed", white noise going through the pedal with this being OFF?

Hmm... I'm glad you asked, because I think I may have made a mistake 🙈

So the white noise is a 30-second sample generated by Audacity on default settings. I'm using Voxengo SPAN inside Reaper for the frequency analysis.

Playing the raw white noise sample inside Reaper shows a nice flat line:

 

And playing back that sample, with an output from the interface looped back into one of the inputs, gives a very slight difference:

You can see a bit of roll-off below 50 Hz and above ~10 kHz. The interface is an old Mackie Onyx Blackjack, recording at 24-bit 48kHz.
 

However... this isn't the method I was using to send the white noise to the pre-amp pedal. Instead I was using an Akai MPX8 sample player connected to the Laney, so it seems like maybe it's been limited by the frequency range that can produce, rather than what the interface can record. The "Red: direct signal into audio interface" in the very first graph I posted is actually the MPX8 directly into the interface, which backs up this theory.

What I can do is repeat the tests using the loopback from output --> input instead, and then update the OP with new images. It's slightly fiddlier, which is why I used the Akai instead, but it shouldn't take long.

UPDATE: I've re-done it properly and updated all the graphs in the original post, so it's much more accurate now 😅

Edited July 14, 2022 by MartinB

[Franticsmurf]

As a Digbeth user still experimenting with settings (as I don't often get a chance to play at a decent volume and where I can experiment without causing distress to other band members), it's really useful to be able to see the effects of each control. I can now come up with a  some more starting points to work from. Thanks.

 

I have gigged the Digbeth a few times through FOH and the sound guy (a friend) likes the clean channel sound. I like the scooped lower mids using the switch in the upper position and a moderate cut (25% or so). I'm still looking for the best tube sound.  

[mario_buoninfante]

Yesterday I received mine, and had a chance to play with it a little bit.

First impression is: I like it. I quickly tried playing around with EQ and "tube" and, yes it sounds nice, really musical.
I did a comparison with my GK MBSIII line out (current setup for my recordings) and with the bass straight to the audio interface, a Focusrite Clarett 8 Pre.
Here's a little demo recorded with a Spector Legend 4 Classic with new strings (D'Addario EXL 165 Nickel Wound 45-65-85-105 - changed yesterday just before recording).
The 3 samples are recorded consecutively, 8 bars each and are:

1. Bass -> Clarett 8 Pre
2. Bass -> Digbeth (XLR) -> Clarett 8 Pre
3. Bass -> GK MBSIII (Line Out) -> Clarett 8 Pre

Both the Digbeth and the GK have their settings flat, set to their mid position (on the GK "contour" and "hi boost" are not engaged).

The pedal seems to be quite neutral, in accord with the graphs shown by @MartinB. Interesting how the GK adds a significant amount of high freqs. I do like its sound quite a lot too, but the pedal is "truer" to the original sound, even if I do feel like it's adding a little bit of lo-mids, but I didn't check with FFTs or any other tool.

They have different use

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by mario_buoninfante

[supertzar]

Oh, how I love this kind of analysis AND GRAPHS. Would love to see same done with more pedals (maybe b7k). Great work!

[Mornats]

8 hours ago, supertzar said:

Oh, how I love this kind of analysis AND GRAPHS. Would love to see same done with more pedals (maybe b7k). Great work!

Yeah this is the level of geekery I was hoping for from Basschat. 

[MartinB]

Here's a quick comparison of the FET channel and the Tube channel with increasing levels of Drive.

There's a click each time the settings change:
First the FET channel
Then the Tube channel @ drive level 0 (min)
Tube channel @ drive level 1
... all the way up to ...
Tube channel @ drive level 10 (max)
 

 

EQ controls are centred.
Squier PJ bass (P 100%, J ~70%, tone 100%); GHS Pressurewound strings.

[mario_buoninfante]

recently I noticed an interesting thing. I had an MXR Phase 90 script connected to the Digbeth send/return, and I noticed that was sounding a little bit "feeble" compared to when I had it connected (straight) into my amp.
Thus, I decided to try having bass->MXR Phasee 90->Digbeth, and I got the "presence" back.
The pedal sounds more in line with what I had when using my GK amp.
I haven't done any more scientific test atm, but I wanted to share this here in the meantime.

[mario_buoninfante]

I'm also thinking this might be normal since the SEND comes after the PREAMP/EQ section on the pedal, so in my previous setup the signal from the MXR wasn't going through the preamp section at all.

[Mornats]

Well, yesterday was my birthday so I was allowed to visit PMT for the first time in years and I tried out the Digbeth. I compared it to an EHX Battalion and much preferred the Digbeth. Loads of usable sounds and nice tweaks and I love how the tube drive gives a nice range near the lower end of distortion which is just what I wanted.

 

Had a quick noodle at home with headphones plugged in and it sounds great, except I get a lot of what sounds like electrical interference when I touch the strings. Not sure how to target that. 

 

Not had a chance to plug it into my audio interface yet but will report back once I have.

 

Question: is it possible to plug the Digbeth directly into a powered monitor (Yamaha HS7)? XLR from the pedal to XLR on the monitor is what I'm thinking.

[Franticsmurf]

My current board has the Digbeth at the end of the signal chain and I use it with one of my bands, as everything goes through FOH. I was trying out a new compressor pedal the other day (first in the chain) and no matter how I adjusted the ratio, there was no discernible difference to my ears. Assuming there was an issue with the pedal, I ended up taking everything else out of the chain and connecting it directly to my bass amp. No problems, plenty of variation. So in the great tradition of fault finding, I started to try combinations of pedals and the compressor. It turns out the when connected to the Digbeth input (active or passive), adjusting the compression ration has no apparent effect on the output (although the volume can be adjusted as I would expect). I tried a second compressor pedal just in case it was something specific to the original, with the same result.  I assume there must be some additional compression at work in the Digbeth pedal but I can't find any further info.

 

Any ideas? Am I missing the obvious? (I have been known to in the past).  

[Mornats]

4 hours ago, Franticsmurf said:

My current board has the Digbeth at the end of the signal chain and I use it with one of my bands, as everything goes through FOH. I was trying out a new compressor pedal the other day (first in the chain) and no matter how I adjusted the ratio, there was no discernible difference to my ears. Assuming there was an issue with the pedal, I ended up taking everything else out of the chain and connecting it directly to my bass amp. No problems, plenty of variation. So in the great tradition of fault finding, I started to try combinations of pedals and the compressor. It turns out the when connected to the Digbeth input (active or passive), adjusting the compression ration has no apparent effect on the output (although the volume can be adjusted as I would expect). I tried a second compressor pedal just in case it was something specific to the original, with the same result.  I assume there must be some additional compression at work in the Digbeth pedal but I can't find any further info.

 

Any ideas? Am I missing the obvious? (I have been known to in the past).  

 

You know what, this reminds me. I have a Zander Sono bass distortion pedal. It's a got a fuzz setting and a preamp setting. The fuzz works fine into the Digbeth but the preamp does not increase the output volume. It's like the Digbeth is evening out the input signal. I didn't mention it in my post above as I thought a preamp into a preamp was not something you'd usually do. 

 

Another thing, I just tried plugging my passive bass into the active output whilst troubleshooting the interference (which I think is PSU related) and there was no perceivable difference in output volume. So this again makes me think it's evening out the input. Maybe shoot their support team an email. I did over the weekend and got a reply early today (Monday) so they're pretty responsive.

[Franticsmurf]

14 minutes ago, Mornats said:

 

You know what, this reminds me. I have a Zander Sono bass distortion pedal. It's a got a fuzz setting and a preamp setting. The fuzz works fine into the Digbeth but the preamp does not increase the output volume. It's like the Digbeth is evening out the input signal. I didn't mention it in my post above as I thought a preamp into a preamp was not something you'd usually do. 

 

Another thing, I just tried plugging my passive bass into the active output whilst troubleshooting the interference (which I think is PSU related) and there was no perceivable difference in output volume. So this again makes me think it's evening out the input. Maybe shoot their support team an email. I did over the weekend and got a reply early today (Monday) so they're pretty responsive.

Cheers. TBH it's not a problem as I wasn't planning on using the compressor with the FOH setup, as the final signal is compressed at the mixer. It was just convenient to plug the pedal into the chain to try it out. Had I made an effort and used the non-FOH board, I wouldn't have discovered the issue. I'm really happy with the Digbeth as it stands. I hadn't noticed the difference between active and passive inputs either. Although I have both breeds of bass, the signal always goes into the passive input. 

 

FWIW I was using a Laney RB7 combo and I found the tilt option (called 'Enhance') really useful for tuning to a venue.

 

Good response from Laney.

[MartinB]

On 12/09/2022 at 11:31, Franticsmurf said:

My current board has the Digbeth at the end of the signal chain and I use it with one of my bands, as everything goes through FOH. I was trying out a new compressor pedal the other day (first in the chain) and no matter how I adjusted the ratio, there was no discernible difference to my ears. Assuming there was an issue with the pedal, I ended up taking everything else out of the chain and connecting it directly to my bass amp. No problems, plenty of variation. So in the great tradition of fault finding, I started to try combinations of pedals and the compressor. It turns out the when connected to the Digbeth input (active or passive), adjusting the compression ration has no apparent effect on the output (although the volume can be adjusted as I would expect). I tried a second compressor pedal just in case it was something specific to the original, with the same result.  I assume there must be some additional compression at work in the Digbeth pedal but I can't find any further info.

 

Any ideas? Am I missing the obvious? (I have been known to in the past).  

I couldn't reproduce this - increasing the volume going into the Laney increased the volume coming out. Are you feeding it a particularly hot signal? Is your compressor set to unity gain (i.e. roughly the same volume out when switched on or off)? I couldn't test active vs. passive input as it's all wired up on my board.

[Franticsmurf]

10 hours ago, MartinB said:

I couldn't reproduce this - increasing the volume going into the Laney increased the volume coming out. Are you feeding it a particularly hot signal? Is your compressor set to unity gain (i.e. roughly the same volume out when switched on or off)? I couldn't test active vs. passive input as it's all wired up on my board.

Thanks for trying. I tried an active and passive bass (the active is my Ray34HH which isn't particularly hot) through the passive input, compressor initially set at unity. Once I realised I wasn't getting any obvious differences, I started trying combinations as set out above.

 

The situation has changed slightly as following a re-evaluation (in other words, yet another change around), the Digbeth now resides on my minimalist board for use with the festival band (FOH sound only, with IEMs) and only shares it with a tuner. The main board with compression etc has a Behringer BDI21 at the end of the line. I don't have the same issues with the compressor in this combination.  

 

 

[MartinB]

Update: 9 months later, I'm still using the DB-PRE. I'm mostly using a core tone that's slightly dirty, with loads of low-mid punch:

 

 

Tube channel

Bass 7
Lo-mid 7 (switch in "up" position)
Hi-mid 6
Treble 5
Drive 7

A great piece of kit for the money!

[MartinB]

I've gotta say the tube channel does a pretty solid impression of the splatty sound that I associate with 60s soul. I'm not even using flatwounds here:

 

 

[Mornats]

30 minutes ago, MartinB said:

I've gotta say the tube channel does a pretty solid impression of the splatty sound that I associate with 60s soul. I'm not even using flatwounds here:

 

 

Is that just the tube channel with a bit of drive or do you have any of the EQ dialled in?

[MartinB]

That's the tube channel with:
Drive 7
Bass 7
Lo-mid 7 (switch in "up" position)
Everything else flat

[MartinB]

Still enjoying this pedal a lot! I've got it dialled in nicely now, and I'm using it weekly with IEMs for ampless rehearsals.
Here's me attempting to remember a bassline that I learned about 25 years ago:

 

 

PJ bass - P pickup only - tone rolled off a bit - plectrum
Little bit of 4:1 compression in front from a Keeley Bassist
DB-PRE settings: bass 7 - lo-mid 2 (switch down, so ~700Hz) - hi-mid 7 - tube channel - drive 6
 

And the bypassed signal, for comparison:

 

[Supernaut]

How does this compare with the Tech 21 VT Bass DI? 
 

Big fan of Laney. I really liked their RB series amps.