LR Baggs Session DI

[Yamaha Man]

Ya I have a TC Electronic multi effects unit I bought a few years ago...used it about three times and it just sat in a rack in my studio for a couple of years unused. I tried setting it up a couple of months ago, but it added so much line noise it was unusable. I'm not a big fan of TC Electronic's products anymore.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by sdelsolray

They're preset, which is just as bad. How could anyone know ahead of time the optimum settings for those parameters? They can't. Ready, shoot, aim. Hit and miss. One size fits all. I know what is best for you, in all situations.

Obviously you can't. I brought that up early in this discussion when I was trying (somewhat in vain) to correct the blossoming misconceptions about what exactly a multiband compressor is and does.

My mindset (a million posts ago) was two fold: first a user would have to be ok with accepting a pre-set EQ curve and secondarily: the understanding that the unit might in fact be great for someone who has no interest in on stage fiddling of any kind. Use it simply as a hands off (or relatively so) EQ curved direct box with some degree of tube emulation. The EQ points would probably be something like 80 to 250, 1500 to 2500 and 6k and above. Low end being 4:1, mid being 3:1 and high being 2:1. The so called "knob" control, as I said earlier, would be threshold. Or at least some predefined scheme of similar nature.

In that spirit a slight EQ curve provided by a multiband (direct to board) probably would serve many who otherwise wouldn't understand exactly what they're doing and of course by the relatively biblical expressions of misunderstandings that have permiented this thread I'd say they (Baggs) might have a winner.

Provided of course the expectations stay relatively within the boundaries of what the unit was designed for.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

That means you have a 1 in a 1,000 chance of hitting the ultimate sweet spot

No. Not if you take the time to understand and master the concepts at hand. Sometimes understanding those concepts takes some investment of time, energy and patience. That's been my point for a hundred posts or so. Good audio, of any kind, has never been purchased. It's just never been that easy. A fundamental understanding however of the issues at hand will provide the user with the tools he or she needs to shape audio in a manner that best suits their needs, or conversely even shape a consumers mind set about a product purchase without missing the point of the product itself.

On the other hand a reliance on "pre-sets" as your knowledge base, like your Adobe example, without first having that fundamental understanding of why and how it works leaves you at the mercy of......well....some one else's presets.

[Yamaha Man]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

No. Not if you take the time to understand and master the concepts at hand. Sometimes understanding those concepts takes some investment of time, energy and patience. That's been my point for a hundred posts or so. Good audio, of any kind, has never been purchased. It's just never been that easy. A fundamental understanding however of the issues at hand will provide the user with the tools he or she needs to shape audio in a manner that best suits their needs, or conversely even shape a consumers mind set about a product purchase without missing the point of the product itself.

On the other hand a reliance on "pre-sets" as your knowledge base, like your Adobe example, without first having that fundamental understanding of why and how it works leaves you at the mercy of......well....some one else's presets.

I understand how the multi-band compressor in Audition works. I was taught to find a good sounding preset and tweak from there. Reality was the preset was good enough for my needs and it didn't need any tweaking. So yes I was using someone else's preset, so what's so wrong about that ?? If the Baggs Session unit is already tweaked to a great sounding preset, then what's so wrong about using that ?? Lloyd has used and heard the Session unit first hand, he has pro's that are using it in live settings, including Ricky Skaggs. Their reports are all positive, so why shouldn't I expect a great sounding product, if the initial users like it, so should I.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

I understand how the multi-band compressor in Audition works. I was taught to find a good sounding preset and tweak from there. Reality was the preset was good enough for my needs and it didn't need any tweaking. So yes I was using someone else's preset, so what's so wrong about that ?? If the Baggs Session unit is already tweaked to a great sounding preset, then what's so wrong about using that ?? Lloyd has used and heard the Session unit first hand, he has pro's that are using it in live settings, including Ricky Skaggs. Their reports are all positive, so why shouldn't I expect a great sounding product, if the initial users like it, so should I.

Each amplified acoustic guitar, each performer, each musical style, each venue, each signal chain, etc. are usually different and the composite is more so. A "preset" that works for one situation doesn't necessarily work for another. Indeed, a preset may be worse than nothing at all.

Buy into the marketing hype all you want. For some folks, that's a comfortable place to be.

[Yamaha Man]

That's interesting but what I have found is that I always go back to the same preset no matter what I'm recording and it sounds great. I'm willing to take a chance on the Session unit based on what I've heard so far, and based on my experiences with muli-band compressors. You do what ever you want...I don't care. I don't get any commission whether you buy it or not.

[sdelsolray]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

That's interesting but what I have found is that I always go back to the same preset no matter what I'm recording and it sounds great. I'm willing to take a chance on the Session unit based on what I've heard so far, and based on my experiences with muli-band compressors. You do what ever you want...I don't care. I don't get any commission whether you buy it or not.

You're a preset kind of guy. Go for it.

[Yamaha Man]

And you're a control freak, go ahead and buy one of those $5,000 dollar compressors and spend your life twiddling knobs all day.....


In sound engineering class I took, I was taught, whatever works, do it.

[janmulder]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

That's interesting but what I have found is that I always go back to the same preset no matter what I'm recording and it sounds great. I'm willing to take a chance on the Session unit based on what I've heard so far, and based on my experiences with muli-band compressors. You do what ever you want...I don't care. I don't get any commission whether you buy it or not.

I must admit, this is what I don't understand ... either we've been listening to totally different clips or we have totally different expectations, but I have not heard anything I'd consider quality amplified acoustic guitar sound in the demos so far.

I think any love for this pedal so far is mostly due to the LR Baggs brand name ... which is not a bad thing as he produces some quality equipment, and his "we looked at our videos" hype.

But as to what this pedal actually does for the sound of our guitar I think we'll just have to patiently wait till it hits the shops.

[guitaniac]

The Baggs folks certainly do have a flair for promoting their products, but my own interest in this pedal is supported by many years of positive experience with Baggs products and Baggs customer service. I currently have Baggs pickups in three of my guitars, and its not for a lack of experience with other options.

Sooner or later we'll be hearing the dry/wet recordings which will give us a better sense of what the Session DI does. In the meantime, I'll try not to be too terribly surprised that these quick demo recordings don't actually rival the work of an experienced recording engineer with a Nashville studio at his disposal.

[Yamaha Man]

Originally Posted by Dakedi

I must admit, this is what I don't understand ... either we've been listening to totally different clips or we have totally different expectations, but I have not heard anything I'd consider quality amplified acoustic guitar sound in the demos so far.

I think any love for this pedal so far is mostly due to the LR Baggs brand name ... which is not a bad thing as he produces some quality equipment, and his "we looked at our videos" hype.

But as to what this pedal actually does for the sound of our guitar I think we'll just have to patiently wait till it hits the shops.

Well yes of course we'll have to wait until it becomes available to try it for ourselves. As far recordings go I think they sound pretty good compared to some of the really lousy recordings I have gotten at home. Anything that helps home recordings, I'm all for it, and I think the Session will help in that department. I do know this, using a multi-band compressor to polish up my recordings works well for me. Having this effect in my effects chain as a floor pedal sounds great to me.

[janmulder]

Originally Posted by Martin Maniac

Well yes of course we'll have to wait until it becomes available to try it for ourselves. As far recordings go I think they sound pretty good compared to some of the really lousy recordings I have gotten at home. Anything that helps home recordings, I'm all for it, and I think the Session will help in that department. I do know this, using a multi-band compressor to polish up my recordings works well for me. Having this effect in my effects chain as a floor pedal sounds great to me.

I was really thinking of this type of equipment more for live use. Surely, if it's good acoustic guitar recordings you're after then a microphone recording is always going to sound better. Even the most basic of microphone setups will sound much better (more 'acoustic', 'natural' or like your guitar) than taking the signal from the pickup ... unless you're specifically looking for that pickup sound.

[Yamaha Man]

Originally Posted by Dakedi

I was really thinking of this type of equipment more for live use. Surely, if it's good acoustic guitar recordings you're after then a microphone recording is always going to sound better. Even the most basic of microphone setups will sound much better (more 'acoustic', 'natural' or like your guitar) than taking the signal from the pickup ... unless you're specifically looking for that pickup sound.

Well in my soundchecks, I compared the Lyric pickup with a Marshal MXL V-69 ME tube mic. With the multi-band compressor, the Lyric sounded better. The recordings were both made simultaneously, into Sonar X3. The Lyric track went into Audition to have the multi-band compressor applied. End result was the Lyric sounded better. This is why I'm excited about the Session Pedal, it'll put multi-band compression into my effects chain without having to go into Audition. Yay !!

[Yamaha Man]

No new info on the Session DI ??

[ricdoug]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9NF-tvMxZ4