Dunlop MXR Bass DI test

[Ermz]

A few folks asked for clips of this unit, so here they are.

I've basically taken the raw bass tones straight out of the session. These have absolutely no compression, EQ etc. etc. Just the Bass DI that the band provided, and my subsequent reamps through both my Sansamp PSA-1 and the MXR (running into Softube's Bass Amp Room to round off the gain).

So here are the clips:

Bass DI
Bass Sansamp PSA-1
Bass MXR into Softube Bass Amp Room
Bass PSA-1 and MXR together

Bear in mind once again that these are totally raw, so don't expect to be totally floored by the tones. Bass takes a huge deal of EQ, filtering and compression to sound like what you know and love on albums.

Enjoy!

 

[decoys]

nice, the mxr sounds really pleasing with its distortion.

 

[Melb_shredder]

Oh god. That mxr is filthy! The sexy kind. It pretty much blatantly shows the psa1 has no place for those kinds of tones, ala Come Clarity. Would love to hear them both processed too.

 

[morpheusmultimedia]

like the distortion characteristics of the MXR

 

[AllanD]

I'm actually preferring the Sansamp by quite a bit.

 

[~BURNY~]

I reamped your di into my Bass Driver for shits and giggles:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2973685/bddi1.mp3
More gain:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2973685/bddi2.mp3

 

[AllanD]

Sweet! Anyone else got bass pedals? I want clips of the Behringer Sansamp clone.

 

[Ermz]

If anyone else wants to throw their pedals into the mix, let me know, I'll upload the lossless .wav version of the Bass DI file.

 

[Melb_shredder]

Don't mind the bddi. But it's that filthy grit from the mxr that I like in most bass tone. The sansamp covers that spanky spun well enough imo

 

[LeSedna]

How can you compare the two since the second one goes through a bass amp simulator and that the psa1 is only a preamp ?

 

[Ermz]

Not trying to shoot them out against each other. The PSA-1 was just an added bonus I threw in because it was in the session already. If it helps, just ignore it

 

[Charles J]

the MXR sounds cool but I can hear what the software bass sim is doing to the bass sound, ALL of the vst type's seem to do this. LOTS of rounding and overall smearing....

Softube, StudioDevil, SVX, etc.

i like the mix if the two the best...

 

[KillDivision]

DI>SoloC>MesaStudioPreamp>LeCab>AsemRectoV30impulse

No compression or eq.
The Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp is very tweakable.

 

[Wolfeman]

the MXR sounds cool but I can hear what the software bass sim is doing to the bass sound, ALL of the vst type's seem to do this. LOTS of rounding and overall smearing....

Softube, StudioDevil, SVX, etc.

i like the mix if the two the best...

Have you tried the RPE Bass preamp? Free and sounds great.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

My favorites so far would be the Sansamp PSA-1 and the BDDI1.
Quite like t he Mesa Studio Preamp too.
The one I didn't like was the MXR to be honest.
Here's my fun attempt at it
http://www.towerstudio.net/sneap/Bass6505.mp3
You'll get the amp from the name but I have to acknowledge that a Maxon OD820 was in front of the amp. Sounds a bit phasy, don't know what the hell was going on but oh well, it's just a fun test.

 

[Ermz]

The problem with the PSA-1 is that it has these flat mids which can't really be dialed out. It more or less needs to be run into a cab. Doesn't help that the controls are completely unintuitive too.

The BDDI obviously sounds a lot closer to ready out of the box. The PSA needs more post-processing.

MXR has potential. Its strength seems to lie with the blending of the clean with distortion. The distortion is fuzzy crap, so it has to be run into a cab of some kind to focus it, hence why I ran it into Bass Amp Room. In the future I'll try some impulses too.

 

[AllanD]

Have you tried the RPE Bass preamp? Free and sounds great.

This is the one by Ronald Passion, yes? If so, I agree. It sounds awesome. The only thing I would wish for was more gain! When you drive the input hard, it doesn't sound good.




These clips are great guys. I'm looking for a live bass rig for my bass player, and I would love more bass distortion pedal/preamp shootouts!

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

I admit I'm not very good at judging how solo'd bass tones would sound in a mix, but the overabundance of 700 Hz in the Sansamp + MXR combo makes me feel the need to blow my nose, if you get my meaning So I guess I'd have to say I like the MXR + Amp Room one the most of your clips Ermz, though it's a bit rumbly for my tastes (and I agree with CJ about the smeariness)

FWIW though, while I'm sure you could make any of those tones sound great with your ridiculous processing skillz, I gotta say I much prefer the more mix-ready sound of Burny's BDDI1 clip (and KillDivision's is cool too, though perhaps a bit middy for bass, again, tough for me to judge on its own)

 

[Wolfeman]

Not hardware, but it works.

Ronald Passion Bass Preamp 1.2

 

[KillDivision]

(and KillDivision's is cool too, though perhaps a bit middy for bass, again, tough for me to judge on its own)

uke: Damn you!!

This time only the Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp (no TS or SoloC) with LeCab/ASEMRECTOV30 impulse.


MesaBoogie Studio Preamp+impulse

Put the 750 hrz slider way down.
With the pregain-eq knobs you can dail in any bas sound.