Bass VT DI or...?

[uncle psychosis]

Hi guys

 

Before I go and buy a Sansamp Bass VT DI, wanted to see if anyone had any better ideas. 

 

I play at home through a powered speaker (Yamaha HS7) so a combined preamp/di box makes the perfect home practice setup. I've got a Boss ME-90B which sounds great but its a bit big for my small office space and frankly I want an excuse for new gear. 

 

I've had sansamp gear before so I know roughly what I'm getting but aware there are other bits of gear out there now that do similar things, ie the Origin Effects stuff which certainly looks good. 

 

Desirable features for me:

 

1. Vintage/Classic sounds, in the motown/reggae/edge of breakup indie rock spectrum. If i was a rich man who had a bigger house I'd probably buy a "real" B15 and an SVT and switch between them depending on mood.

2. High gain absolutely need not apply

3. Battery power ideal but not essential. 

4. If needs a power supply, dedicated power switch very desirable (i don't like faffing about disconnecting and connecting power to turn stuff on/off) 

5. Balanced DI out desirable

6. Volume control that affects the DI out extremely desirable 

7. Cab sim on the DI out extremely desirable. Even better if it's switchable/defeatable. 

 

The Bass VT DI ticks almost all of those boxes I believe but interested to see if anyone thinks I'm selling myself short... 

[SimonK]

I was looking at the Sansamp but ended up with a Genzler Magellan Preamp/DI Pedal specifically because:

• It has a built in HPF
• It has a built in mute switch
• It has two channels, one "modern" and the other "vintage" meaning two different EQ settings
• Seemed to do everything else the Sansamp did as well

I've also historically liked the sound of Genz Benz/Genzler gear.

 

[PaulThePlug]

Behringer BDI... Bargain

[Pow_22]

more expensive but I've had great results with the Origin Effects bass Rig pedals.  Even tho I'm an SVT man at heart I actually prefer the sound of the Black Face 64 one.  Awesome pedal

[mcnach]

On 20/07/2025 at 14:01, uncle psychosis said:

Hi guys

 

Before I go and buy a Sansamp Bass VT DI, wanted to see if anyone had any better ideas. 

 

I play at home through a powered speaker (Yamaha HS7) so a combined preamp/di box makes the perfect home practice setup. I've got a Boss ME-90B which sounds great but its a bit big for my small office space and frankly I want an excuse for new gear. 

 

I've had sansamp gear before so I know roughly what I'm getting but aware there are other bits of gear out there now that do similar things, ie the Origin Effects stuff which certainly looks good. 

 

Desirable features for me:

 

1. Vintage/Classic sounds, in the motown/reggae/edge of breakup indie rock spectrum. If i was a rich man who had a bigger house I'd probably buy a "real" B15 and an SVT and switch between them depending on mood.

2. High gain absolutely need not apply

3. Battery power ideal but not essential. 

4. If needs a power supply, dedicated power switch very desirable (i don't like faffing about disconnecting and connecting power to turn stuff on/off) 

5. Balanced DI out desirable

6. Volume control that affects the DI out extremely desirable 

7. Cab sim on the DI out extremely desirable. Even better if it's switchable/defeatable. 

 

The Bass VT DI ticks almost all of those boxes I believe but interested to see if anyone thinks I'm selling myself short... 

 

 

Not exactly top shelf, but I've got one of these things and I'm impressed: M-VAVE Tank-B

 

It's got a rechargeable battery, USB-C connection.

It has a power switch.

It has an XLR out, as well as a 6.35mm TS socket and headphones output.

 

Basically it's a small FX unit, with a number of cab and amplifier emulations, basic modulation effects, compressor and noise gate, and you can store and recall presets. The tuner is not the most user friendly or accurate, but it's certainly sufficient for home use.

 

It can also act as a sound card to record even on a mobile phone. You can play along to music via bluetooth, too... and it's tiny.

 

Prices vary, they tend to be around £60-70, but you can find them on AliExpress for around £50, frequently. I'm not recommending it because it's cheap, but because I like how it sounds and everything it can do.

 

https://www.scribd.com/document/711832600/M-Vave-Tank-B-Manual

 

https://www.cuvave.com/productinfo/1106118.html

 

 

 

[uncle psychosis]

Nice, but afraid that just looks like a worse ME-90B to me 🤪

 

Bass VT DI or Origin Effects definitely still top of the tree. The OE stuff is not cheap though, eh... 

[mcnach]

19 hours ago, uncle psychosis said:

Nice, but afraid that just looks like a worse ME-90B to me 🤪

 

 

 

😄 Yes, but it's tiny and it does... aaaall those things, you could carry it in your back pocket (you'll have to take the Buckfast bottle out first, 'though) 😉

 

 

[uncle psychosis]

C@Pow_22

 

Can you tell me if, on the origin effects pedals, the DI (XLR) out is affected by the volume control on the pedal or if it's a fixed output level? The manual is a little bit ambiguous. Cheers

[fretmeister]

My home speaker is the HS7 as well.

 

I use an HX Stomp. It’s great. I’ve got a bunch of patches for different genres and it’s great for guitar too.

[uncle psychosis]

Yeah I've got Hx Native and used to have a Stomp. 

 

Helix is good, but it's just not fun for me. 

[fretmeister]

Then I suppose it comes down to whether you want the baked in T21 version of an Ampeg sound.

I like the Paradriver more than the BDDI or the VTDI but as far as I know there aren't any clones of the paradriver.

 

Most BDDI clones seem to be all of the V1 so no mid control. That would be a deal breaker for me. But the new Joyo Tidal Wave appears to be a clone of the V2

and the youtube demos sound good.

 

https://www.joyoaudio.co.uk/bass-effects/joyo-r-30-tidal-wave-bass-guitar-preamp-overdrive-pedal-with-eq-and-noise-reduction-di

 

Needless to say, it's a lot cheaper than a T21.

 

 

[dannybuoy]

14 hours ago, uncle psychosis said:

C@Pow_22

 

Can you tell me if, on the origin effects pedals, the DI (XLR) out is affected by the volume control on the pedal or if it's a fixed output level? The manual is a little bit ambiguous. Cheers

 

It is affected by the master volume, yes.

[dannybuoy]

8 hours ago, fretmeister said:

Then I suppose it comes down to whether you want the baked in T21 version of an Ampeg sound.

I like the Paradriver more than the BDDI or the VTDI but as far as I know there aren't any clones of the paradriver.

 

Most BDDI clones seem to be all of the V1 so no mid control. That would be a deal breaker for me. But the new Joyo Tidal Wave appears to be a clone of the V2

and the youtube demos sound good.

 

https://www.joyoaudio.co.uk/bass-effects/joyo-r-30-tidal-wave-bass-guitar-preamp-overdrive-pedal-with-eq-and-noise-reduction-di

 

Needless to say, it's a lot cheaper than a T21.

 

 

The BDDI v2 sim on the Zoom MS-60B+ is bang-on also. Very hard to tell them apart. Plus there’s a ‘Clear Driver’, Zoom’s own take on the Sansamp, and the SVT sim is pretty decent too (just a shame there’s no blend on it).

[Jeffskowski]

Laney Digbeth? 
Versatile thing and great value at the price. No idea on durability though. That’s the one thing Sansamp has. A proven history of being bullet proof. 
 

[Bigwan]

18 hours ago, fretmeister said:

I like the Paradriver more than the BDDI or the VTDI but as far as I know there aren't any clones of the paradriver.

 

The Begringer ADI21 is a Paradriver clone

[paul_5]

10 minutes ago, Bigwan said:

The Begringer ADI21 is a Paradriver clone

And very good it is too - the fizz that the blend control isn’t really to my liking but the sweepable mods more than make up for it.

I removed the two red clipping LEDs from that part of the circuit and it was much more useable!

[Woodinblack]

On 22/07/2025 at 15:16, uncle psychosis said:

Nice, but afraid that just looks like a worse ME-90B to me 🤪

 

It is smaller, which was your complaint!

Although having used some of the MVave stuff, I doubt it would sound as good as the ME-90B

 

[uncle psychosis]

14 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

 

It is affected by the master volume, yes.

Thanks! 

[SimonK]

15 hours ago, dannybuoy said:

 

It is affected by the master volume, yes.

 

At risk of getting distracted on a related topic - why on earth would anyone design a preamp pedal where the output/master volume affects the DI signal level? Of course for the input/gain, but from a sound engineers perspective the last thing you want is someone fiddling with their overall level? On the Magellan I have the output (volume) only affects the preamp out and headphone out so you can adjust your own stage level without intefering with the FoH signal.

[dannybuoy]

3 hours ago, SimonK said:

 

At risk of getting distracted on a related topic - why on earth would anyone design a preamp pedal where the output/master volume affects the DI signal level? Of course for the input/gain, but from a sound engineers perspective the last thing you want is someone fiddling with their overall level? On the Magellan I have the output (volume) only affects the preamp out and headphone out so you can adjust your own stage level without intefering with the FoH signal.

Can you name any preamp pedals that don’t behave in the same way though? Everything I’ve owned has worked this way, from Darkglass, Aguilar, Tech21, etc.

The only time I expect a volume control to not affect my DI is on my amp, in case I want to change my stage volume without upsetting the levels going to the desk.  But with a preamp pedal, the master volume is really there to balance the gain control so you can adjust the pedal to unity gain when it’s on or off; whereas an amp is always on so you can have the DI pre-master volume.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by dannybuoy

[SimonK]

1 hour ago, dannybuoy said:

Can you name any preamp pedals that don’t behave in the same way though? Everything I’ve owned has worked this way, from Darkglass, Aguilar, Tech21, etc.

The only time I expect a volume control to not affect my DI is on my amp, in case I want to change my stage volume without upsetting the levels going to the desk.  But with a preamp pedal, the master volume is really there to balance the gain control so you can adjust the pedal to unity gain when it’s on or off; whereas an amp is always on so you can have the DI pre-master volume.

 

 

As mentioned the Magellan preamp's volume doesn't affect the DI signal see: https://genzleramplification.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Magellan-PRE-Owners-Manual-1-1-2025-_web_version_.pdf

 

Having since looked at a few others it does, however, seem that for a lot of them the "pre" isn't affected but the "post" is which may well be as expected.

[StingRayBoy42]

Happy VTDI user here - I've used it for motown, reggae, jazz, edge of breakup indie rock, heavy rock, disco... it sounds fantastic for all of them. It's well made, it's compact, it's easy to dial in your sound(s), it's an absolutely cracking piece of kit all round.

I've never used the other pedals recommended (I'm sure they're lovely too!) but I reckon if you do go for a VTDI, you'll be a happy bunny.