Behringer DI BDI21 V-Tone Bass

This is a pretty serious piece of equipment, especially for a Behringer pedal. It looks more reliable than the usual plastic boxes. I dont mind using it for stage situations, especially since I dont have to use the footswitch since I leave it always on.

There are several ways to use it, but basically I use it as the new core to my sound, especially for live situations. Like I said I use it always on. In fact its pretty much my preamp. The idea is that it goes straight into the PA and its not necessary anymore to have the speakers miced up. Sound engineers dont like to mic up the bass, in most cases they prefer to use a DI box. But these generic DI boxes have no soul, no mojo. Plus, almost all of them dont have a speaker simulation and thus when you use a fuzz on your bass it will sound like a swarm of bees (of course some people enjoy this sound, like the Canadian band Nadja). So this is basically a very good alternative to the sound engineers box (although there are other uses for it). You can tell the sound guy that you already have your own DI box and you can send it straight to his mixing table, and that will save a lot of hassle.
Previously I was using a (Behringer) red box for pretty much the same use (except I was using it in the effects loop, that is after my preamp), which worked fine but when comparing the two, the BDI made it redundant. The speaker sim on the red box made it sound thin, compared to the BDI. And the sound was dull -- the BDI sounds more lively. There still is some swarm-of-bees going on (more than with the speaker sim on the red box), but maybe just the right amount to add some hair and liveliness.

You will have to find the right place for it in your chain -- for instance, it seems to me it doesnt like to be in the effects loop (I think it overdrives -- in a bad way -- probably because the pre-amplified signal is too strong for it). So I had to put it after my fuzz pedal and before my amps preamp (and the signal going to the PA doesnt go through my amps preamp).

You will also have to tweak the knobs a bit to find your sound, so it takes some time at first (especially with the blend knob which interacts with everything -- if you blend it totally, it will cut your mids a lot). I almost decided to ditch it, but put some more effort into tweaking the knobs and found my sound. Now I have a killer sound which I am proud of.

Oh, and this pedal is analog. This pedal is a copy of the classic Tech21 SansAmp. Some people compared it to the original Tech21 pedal (which is much more expensive), and apparently its hard to tell the difference (see on YouTube).

Its few weaknesses in my opinion are:
- it cant be fed by phantom power
- there is no on/off switch for the cab sim (I would love some control over it also, but that is pretty uncommon)
- it would be great to have -20 dB pads, like the red box has
- some potentiometers are very logarithmic (nothing happens until the last quarter), such as the presence knob and the drive knob

Please note: there are other uses to this pedal than the one I am using it in. For example, an interesting feature is that the speaker sim is on even if you bypass the pedal. Thus, you can use it as an effects pedal: turn it on or off depending on the circumstances. The drive isnt fantastic, though, to my tastes.

Il ne faut pas s'attendre à des résultats spectaculaires mais la boite fait le job. Les supposées simulations d'ampli ne sont pas faciles à retrouver, mais elle fonctionne parfaitement en boite de direct. Le drive est sympa, augmente bien le niveau, avec un effet sympathique, amplififié si on utilise le blend, et le commutateur présence permet de régler le niveau des médiums, en plus des deux potards graves- aigus. La notice ( succinte) jointe dans la boite ne correspond pas exactement au modèle car y figurent trois commutateurs qui ne sont pas en réalité sur le préampli. Donc il faut expérimenter plusieurs réglages pour arriver à une config qui convient.
Globalement satisfait du rapport qualité- prix

Qualité du son !!! dommage qu'il manque un réglage de medium, ... mais pour le prix, c'est donné

Pas mal pour une entrée de gamme.

Cette pédale produit ce qu'elle annonce, vient parfaitement combler les manques de mon ampli "bas de gamme", rapport qualité prix imbatable