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MountAnDewMe « Swiss army knife for musicians »
Published on 01/15/13 at 10:42 The Sans Amp Para Driver DI by Tech 21 is probably one of the most overlooked but intuitively usefull tools every musician should own. Built primararly to be a Direct Interface, which it does well, it goes well beyond the scope of any normal DI box. This is an analog DI that can be powered by a nine volt battery, an AC adapter, or by phantom power. It offers one quarter inch input, a quarter inch parallel uneffected output, one quarter inch effected output, and one effected XLR output. There is one true bypass footswitch on the pedal. There are six large knobs that control level, treble, mid, mid shift, bass, drive, and 1 mini knob to controll the blend of the Sans Amp simulator. In addition to this there are three switches, two that controll the output level between line and instrument level on the two effected outputs and a third to select phantom power and a ground connect switch.
UTILIZATION
Unlike many pedal manuals Tech 21 sends a very informative guide to the operation of the pedal and its many components. Along with that there are many examples of setups provided for use with guitar, both acoustic and electric, bass, keyboard, and more. This pedal truely is useful across the range of amplified instruments. The use of this pedal is very straight forward but does require some experimentation to gett the feel of it. The controls are extremely interactive which allow for drastic changes with minimal adjustments. It can be made to not sound the way you want if you treat it as a general tone shaping device as the knobs require a high level of familiarity, similar to the way you would dial in a Mesa Boogie Recto. It is not a deficiency of the unit but a testament of how powerful the shaping qualities can be.
SOUND QUALITY
This unit is a transparent or as colored as you needit to be. The reason it is so adept to working across various instruments is it versitility. If you simply need a colorless DI to the board it has it covered. If your a bass player and want to take just your instrument to a house of worship to play it can send a convincing Ampeg sound to the board. It works wonders to eliminatethe unwanted parts of piezo pickups and really anything you need it to do. It also is indespensible for use in a home studio. If you are using an amp for feel and are recording it the parallel though is indispensible for preserving a quality DI track for future reamping if needed.
OVERALL OPINION
This unit is a perfect solution to many problems any musician can face in any situation. There are no flaws I can see in this design. I believe this piece is worth every penny and I only wish I had owned it since the day it was built. It operated phenominaly in any situation as long as the user takes some time to know what they actualy own in this piece. I have seen and used a few other DI boxes in the past but none can compare to the toolbox nature of this unit. I would buy it again if anything happened to it but it is built very well. I do not forsee me breaking it anytime in the future. The only regret I have is the fact I never thought much of it before I actually went and tried one. I wish it had been with me since day one.
UTILIZATION
Unlike many pedal manuals Tech 21 sends a very informative guide to the operation of the pedal and its many components. Along with that there are many examples of setups provided for use with guitar, both acoustic and electric, bass, keyboard, and more. This pedal truely is useful across the range of amplified instruments. The use of this pedal is very straight forward but does require some experimentation to gett the feel of it. The controls are extremely interactive which allow for drastic changes with minimal adjustments. It can be made to not sound the way you want if you treat it as a general tone shaping device as the knobs require a high level of familiarity, similar to the way you would dial in a Mesa Boogie Recto. It is not a deficiency of the unit but a testament of how powerful the shaping qualities can be.
SOUND QUALITY
This unit is a transparent or as colored as you needit to be. The reason it is so adept to working across various instruments is it versitility. If you simply need a colorless DI to the board it has it covered. If your a bass player and want to take just your instrument to a house of worship to play it can send a convincing Ampeg sound to the board. It works wonders to eliminatethe unwanted parts of piezo pickups and really anything you need it to do. It also is indespensible for use in a home studio. If you are using an amp for feel and are recording it the parallel though is indispensible for preserving a quality DI track for future reamping if needed.
OVERALL OPINION
This unit is a perfect solution to many problems any musician can face in any situation. There are no flaws I can see in this design. I believe this piece is worth every penny and I only wish I had owned it since the day it was built. It operated phenominaly in any situation as long as the user takes some time to know what they actualy own in this piece. I have seen and used a few other DI boxes in the past but none can compare to the toolbox nature of this unit. I would buy it again if anything happened to it but it is built very well. I do not forsee me breaking it anytime in the future. The only regret I have is the fact I never thought much of it before I actually went and tried one. I wish it had been with me since day one.