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[Geoff Doane]

I get palpitations when I see a Baggs unit come out.  They're fine IF the player has taken the time to really set them up, but the majority of them I see are "screw up your sound" devices.  Not to mention that it gives the player the option of screwing with the settings once the performance starts.

 

Maybe I'm just lucky Dick.

I agree that they have the capability to screw things up even worse, but for some reason, the notoriously cheap thrifty Cape Breton fiddling crowd have discovered these things, and know how to use them.  I think they just leave the knobs alone from one firehall or legion square dance to another.  Maybe somebody knowledgable set them up once, and they have the smarts to not mess with it.  Almost always, I just set the EQ flat (with a HPF) on the console, and it sounds pretty good right out of the gate.

GTD

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Maybe I'm just lucky Dick.

I agree that they have the capability to screw things up even worse, but for some reason, the notoriously cheap thrifty Cape Breton fiddling crowd have discovered these things, and know how to use them.  I think they just leave the knobs alone from one firehall or legion square dance to another.  Maybe somebody knowledgable set them up once, and they have the smarts to not mess with it.  Almost always, I just set the EQ flat (with a HPF) on the console, and it sounds pretty good right out of the gate.

GTD

Aah.......Cape Breton fiddling.  Arguably some of the best in the world.  And with such an unbroken, living tradition the players really know what it should sound like.  The odds are in your favor in such an enviable situation.

I can't tell you how many hours I've spent with my Scotty Fitzgerald records, Scotty in one side of the headphones, my own fiddle in the other, happily playing away all night long trying to get the two sides to match up......... 

Think maybe it warped my brain a bit?

[Tim McCulloch]

I can't tell you how many hours I've spent with my Scotty Fitzgerald records, Scotty in one side of the headphones, my own fiddle in the other, happily playing away all night long trying to get the two sides to match up......... 

Think maybe it warped my brain a bit?

Dunno about the warp, Dick, but it was out of plumb a long time ago.

Are you still doing the PA and live show recording for radio?  One of these times I want to come up and watch/learn/help.

[g'bye, Dick Rees]

Dunno about the warp, Dick, but it was out of plumb a long time ago.

Are you still doing the PA and live show recording for radio?  One of these times I want to come up and watch/learn/help.

I'm pretty much done with the radio stuff.  The community station which contracts my services is suffering the effects of the economic down-turn and budgets have evaporated.

I'm doing a bit of recording and some camera feeds for a videographer with the occasional warm-weather festival of the ethnic group/church/non-profit variety.  I'm turning down any alcohol-centric stuff now that I qualify for Social Security.

I'll let you know if I've got anything going on the air.  I may be putting some of the fall festival stuff up on Shoutcast if I have time to set up a connection.  If so, I'll send you the URL and login.  I usually just use the Shoutcast for streaming the live remotes when the budget won't pay for ISDN or it's short notice and can't get the ISDN set up.

[James A. Griffin]

Active or passive DI's are fine to have, but having active DI's with tone control, volume, etc. makes life much easier.

.... until the muso who's never used that box before decides he wants to start messing with the knobs...

just my experience...

[Mark Gensman]

.... until the muso who's never used that box before decides he wants to start messing with the knobs...

just my experience...

Yeah, some of the comments here are interesting. I have been doing pretty much exclusively bluegrass festivals for the last sixteen years or so and I've seen dozens of LR Baggs units. The only problem I have ever encountered is when the level has been turned up too high. I simply ask them to turn it down and everything works well. Never a problem with bad sound.

They almost always sound better than any passive DI I own, especially on acoustic guitars and upright bass.

[TJ (Tom) Cornish]

Yeah, some of the comments here are interesting. I have been doing pretty much exclusively bluegrass festivals for the last sixteen years or so and I've seen dozens of LR Baggs units. The only problem I have ever encountered is when the level has been turned up too high. I simply ask them to turn it down and everything works well. Never a problem with bad sound.

They almost always sound better than any passive DI I own, especially on acoustic guitars and upright bass.

I've had to fix several of these where the solder joints on the XLRs work harden with use, leading to intermittent issues.  As a phantom-powered device, that can be really fun. 

That being said, any time a musician can send a signal that sucks less is a good thing, and to those people who take the time to twiddle the knobs to make the box have a positive effect on the sound - more power to them.

[Scott Wagner]

Yeah, some of the comments here are interesting. I have been doing pretty much exclusively bluegrass festivals for the last sixteen years or so and I've seen dozens of LR Baggs units. The only problem I have ever encountered is when the level has been turned up too high. I simply ask them to turn it down and everything works well. Never a problem with bad sound.

They almost always sound better than any passive DI I own, especially on acoustic guitars and upright bass.

I've had great results with the Baggs DI, as long as there is some talent driving it.  For upright, I really like something along the lines of a Summit Audio TD-100 or an Avalon U5 - not exactly budget solutions, but they have the ability to match the extremely high input impedances of piezo pickups.  Result: great sound with little to no EQ required.  For lower priced alternatives, the Countryman Type 85 and Radial J48 have served people well for years.

[Walter W Wright]

For upright, I really like something along the lines of a Summit Audio TD-100 or an Avalon U5 - not exactly budget solutions, but they have the ability to match the extremely high input impedances of piezo pickups.

that's the detail that seems to get lost in translation between acoustic musos and soundguys; the box that takes the signal directly from a passive piezo pickup needs to have crazy-high input impedance, on the order of 6 to 10 MΩ, or it will roll off significant low end and volume from the instrument.

the LR baggs dedicated preamp boxes do that, where straight-up active DI boxes (even pricy ones) often don't.

[ProSoundWeb Community]