LR Baggs Session DI

[Joseph Hanna]

A multiband compressor "is" essentially an eq. So, when Lloyd says you can run a Session DI and a Venue together he's correct. That is to say he's correct in the same spirit one could (if so inclined) run an eq into an eq or a pre-amp into a pre-amp or a standard compressor into another standard compressor.

Because the Session DI's multiband is preset, it's role changes. It's an oversimplified to be sure but think of a multiband as an eq. Let's randomly use 250 Hz as an example. Let's assume (for purposes of discussion) Baggs has selected and preset 250 hz (with some narrow bell curve) as a frequency that is often problematic with a broad brush stroke of guitars. Now come a guitar player whom, for whatever reason, really loves 250 Hz and in turn boosts it 10 dB, at that point the entirety of the pre-set comp goes out the window. In doing so he (or she) has effectively eliminated what good was intended by Baggs. In the end and in this scenario it's akin to re-eq'ing your eq. Of course there is no eq police and there are no hard and fast rules so, by all means insert an eq in front of a multiband compressor and see what happens. It seems odd however that one would buy a Session DI which is mostly a preset unit (putting faith in Lloyds design and eq choices) and turn around and wretch with it using a Venue. For me somewhat of a dog chasing it's tail.

The Session DI is fundamentally different than the Venue. One is CLEARLY design for mostly set it and forget it scenarios. I'd guess it would work best as a separate feed to a sound man and not as much as a sculpting tool for on stage situations.The Venue is clearly the opposite and the ability to sculpt is radical.

Trying to mash the two together (at least for me) doesn't make much sense.

Again and as I said before multiband compressors make for wonderful eq's and I use them 10 hours a day 6 days a week on almost everything I do. I think however a better fundamental understanding of just what this tool is would help shed a little more light on how the two devices fundamentally are vastly different.

[Yamaha Man]

Well if you listen to what Mr Baggs is saying, he says that the Session DI brings what was lacking to the table. He's acknowledging that the video demo's of his pickups, went thru a polishing process that enhances the sound of the video's. He investigated the situation and found out what the sound engineer was using to enhance the sound. The Session DI is modeled after that sound. According to the sound engineer, multi-band compression and saturation were used. I believe this to be true as with my own test recordings, I also used multi-band compression from Adobe's Audition program and also got similar results. The multi-band compression feature was a very big deal with Adobe when it was first introduced....now I know why. It adds a lot to the finished sound. I can't wait to try it out !!

[hoyadoc]

Originally Posted by Joseph Hanna

Now come a guitar player whom, for whatever reason, really loves 250 Hz and in turn boosts it 10 dB, at that point the entirety of the pre-set comp goes out the window. In doing so he (or she) has effectively eliminated what good was intended by Baggs. I

I don't know if that's necessarily true. It might depend on the order the DI's are aligned for example. In other words, you could boost a frequency all you want, but if the Session takes it to a preset level, the effect would be the same. Now that sort of defeats the purpose of the EQ, but I'm just sayin. From a purely business perspective, I would be surprised if they didn't consider the mix n match issues before developing the product. After all, they want as many units as possible sold. Whether or not it makes a sonic difference, I guess we'll find out in about 2 months.

I'm not familiar with the science of how it works, but in theory it makes sense to me.

[guitaniac]

A good many, if not most, acoustic-electric guitars have onboard EQ. Of course the Baggs folks took this into account. It'll be interesting to see if players using the Session DI will continue to employ their (previously) typical onboard EQ settings, or if they discover that a different approach works better.

The suspense continues to build, LOL.

[akagilligan]

I'm not wrapping my head around this

It's a multiband comp and EQ. Like a comb focused on problem frequencies.

For fun

120-200 <- signal strength responsive compression

1k <- signal strength responsive compression

HF <- signal responsive compression

And a notch

Turned one way the lows/mids trouble spots are compressed giving more of an open air presence

The other rounded highs and warmer due to more compression on highs

Then it gets interesting when you add a notch and if acting like a multiband comp, compression responsive to signal in that range.

If I use the notch for feedback, saturation, low end roll off....this may be fun.

Maybe I'm not getting it.

[sdelsolray]

One size fits all, except when it doesn't.

[akagilligan]

Yep

On this one I'm afraid there is only one way to find out.

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by hoyadoc

I don't know if that's necessarily true. It might depend on the order the DI's are aligned for example. In other words, you could boost a frequency all you want, but if the Session takes it to a preset level, the effect would be the same. Now that sort of defeats the purpose of the EQ, but I'm just sayin.

Doesn't quite work that way If one aggressively boosts a signal past a compressors threshold, the sonic "price to be paid" become more and more obvious and the over all balance gets artificially skewed. As you said it not only defeats the purpose but also causes (usually) a fair degree of artifacts. This of course depends in large part as to how exactly the multiband compressor's parameters are set.

Again and in general a multiband compressor acts in large part as a "tonal" control since it's very design is frequency driven and specific. Unlike the compressor that most of us know, which is a broad band, non specific frequency compression of a signal as a whole.

Of course under the guise of Mr. Obvious it would be a sales no no for Baggs to come out and say the Venue and the Session DI aren't a good match and as I said earlier some folks unique combination of style, technique and playing may benefit from this combination. After all there are no rules here. Still a fundamental understanding of the forces at play here seem to be a better course of action than just guessing at how the two may (or may not) play nicely together.

[ntik]

the button comp-eq in session di makes this job?http://bigtonemusic.com/multibandcomp

[Joseph Hanna]

Originally Posted by ntik

the button comp-eq in session di makes this job?http://bigtonemusic.com/multibandcomp

Yes. For purposes of this discussion the single knob on the Session DI (which I'm guessing is simply a threshold control) is a combination of what you see on these stomp box's.

[Petty1818]

I feel like the folks over at Lr Baggs are following this thread and as a result are delaying any demo videos to increase more suspense and hype! I kid of course!

[ntik]

So the button eq-comp will depress the frequencies you want, and the others frequencies rest will be left untouched,i think so

[Yamaha Man]

I think they're too busy at Namm to worry about this thread !! Who knows !!??

[Yamaha Man]

Here's a new video from Namm featuring Lloyd Baggs talking about the Session DI. There's a nice sound sample at the end, I believe is a Gibson guitar thru a Session DI....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8faJoWp4-w

[guitaniac]

Thanks for the link, MM. Good stuff. The guitar appears to be a Gibson SJ200 Southern Jumbo. (They just came out with a Dylan signature model which looks very similar.)

After listening to Lloyd's colorful commentary, I suspect that the Baggs folks will be introducing the "Brass Knuckle Box" (for the gigs from hell) at NAMM 2016.