Behringer BDI21 V-Tone DI Box, et al

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Hello all! I’ve seen a number of people on this forum really like the BDI21. I’m always curious about ways to shape my tone, and I thought it’d be nice to have a DI separate from my amp (which is a Rumble 100). Besides, it’s only $30, so why not give it a try?

So I got one, and I tried it out. I thought I’d share my experience and observations in the hope someone can help me figure this out. It’s possible this pedal just isn’t for me. It’s possible I’m not using it right, or due to limitations just not getting it. It’s possible I have no idea what I’m talking about. :joy:

I live in a condo, and it was getting later in the evening, so I thought I’d try it out with headphones, and then try it through the amp speaker the next day. On headphones, I thought it sounded pretty good (although my bass always sounds better on headphones).

I played around with the recommended settings, played with the different knobs etc. I thought I could get some cool sounds out of it, but I guess I was expecting more. It didn’t seem like I could do more with my sound with this pedal than I already can do with the 3-band EQ on my bass and the 4-band EQ on my amp.

So I was on the fence about whether this was something I wanted or needed, and I don’t need a DI right now anyway, just something I’m sure I’ll eventually want.

Also when I turned some of the knobs on the pedal up all the way, it introduced some high frequency hiss into the signal that I wasn’t a fan of. I couldn’t hear it when playing, but when not playing I could hear it (normally there’s no sound when I’m not playing).

The next day I tried it out on my amp. Now something I should let you know is, as I said I live in a condo, and my neighbor below me has already complained about my bass once. I worked it out with him, and was able to reduce what he was hearing by turning down the bass on my EQ and getting the amp off the floor. Since then I haven’t had any complaints from him, but I don’t want to push him, as he’s quite a cranky guy who likes to stir the pot, if you know what I’m saying.

All that to say I wasn’t comfortable playing very loud. So maybe that’s the problem? As when I played over the amp, I couldn’t really notice much of a change to the sound at all, even with various knobs turned all the way up. I could change my sound a lot more with the EQ on my bass. I did hear the hiss, though, which I was hoping I wouldn’t hear on the amp.

So as of now, I’m not sure what to think. Maybe this pedal just isn’t for me. Or maybe I need to be playing at a higher volume to be able to really hear what it’s doing. Or maybe there’s something wrong with the pedal itself (I got it from Amazon, so there’s always the possibility it was a return).

I then saw people talking about the Wine Cellar from Caline. I saw some side-by-side reviews with the BDI21 where the reviewers like the Wine Cellar a little more. They thought it cut through the mix a little better. It also has a metal casing instead of plastic, and it’s only $35, so I thought, “What the hell?”

So I ordered that so I can A-B them myself. But in the meantime I’m wondering if I should be playing these really loud? Or maybe there’s something else I’m doing wrong? I’ve been thinking about waiting until that neighbor goes out, and then cranking things up to see what it sounds like.

Any ideas or insights are appreciated. :slight_smile:

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First thing that comes to mind is making sure that the pedal is enabled. There should be a red light on, if there’s not, press the bottom-most button until it comes on.
(Sorry if that’s overly self-evident, trying to cover all the bases.)

Next thing is making sure that the “blend” knob is turned sufficiently to the right. This blends your clean signal with the modified signal from the pedal. All the way to the right is 100% pedal, all the way to the left is 100% clean.

Lastly, crank the “Drive” knob all the way to the right. You should be able to discern a noticeable difference.

Play a note and let it ring out. As it is, press the center button again to cycle back and forth between the pedal working and being bypassed. Doing a quick A/B test like that you should be able to tell that it’s working or not.

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Also… buy headphones to avoid your neighbour! :slight_smile:

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Follow @fennario 's directions and it should sound significantly different.

I had a Caline and it has a distinctly different sound from my Rumble. More ampeg-like.

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I would think of the BDI-21 as more of an amp sim pedal than an EQ. It’s an exact clone of the SansAmp Bass Driver DI v1.

And I think it’s one of the best bargains in gear.

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Thanks for the tips @fennario! The Wine Cellar came in today so I was able to try out both. It was interesting.

I think part of my problem before was having the volume too low, and also I think the effect is subtler than I expected. Both pedals work.

Comparing the Behringer to the Caline, they sound identical. I could not tell a difference at all. The Caline is maybe a tad louder, but it could also be that one of the nobs was slightly different than the other. I did hear some noise when I cranked the gain up all the way, but it was the exact same noise at the same volume on both pedals, so I assume they’re working as intended.

Now I’m torn which one to keep. :joy: I think I like the Caline a bit better, if only because it’s a lot easier to see where the knobs are, especially from far away. The cord they include to use a 9v battery is super janky, but I have power sources, so I’ll most likely never need to use it with a battery.

The Behringer is significantly heavier, though, even though the casing is plastic. Does that mean it’s built better? I have no idea. They’re both built in China. I’m not sure which has the better build quality, though. Does anyone have any insight on that?

The Behringer has a ground lift, which the Caline doesn’t have. I have a ground lift on my amp, though? Would I even benefit from another ground lift on a pedal?

So they basically sound the same. I think at this point the main deciding factor is build quality (unless I need that second ground lift). Unfortunately I don’t know enough about these things to know which is better.

Oh, if anyone gets the Wine Cellar be warned there is a small sheet of the little sticky rubber feet that go on the bottom in the box. I almost didn’t even see them in there. :slight_smile:

EDIT: One last thing, the Caline would probably fare better if you threw it down a flight of concrete stairs or something, but other than something like that, the Behringer feels really solid, even though the casing is plastic.

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Any opinions on which I should keep? :smiley:

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This is as good a reason as any.

Neither one is better than the other. Choose the one you think looks the coolest.

No, you can use the DI on the amp and you probably won’t ever have a need for the one on the pedal. Unless you want to put it last in the chain to send a signal to the board that won’t be affected by the amp controls. The cool thing about this is the DI will work even if the pedal is disengaged.

@howard even without a ground lift on the pedal, couldn’t you just use ground lift at the board?

I would wait for Howard to answer this. Otherwise, I recommend going with the one with ground lift.

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If the mixer has one (mine does not, for example).

I would get the BDI-21.

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Trust Howard.

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Just to ensure understanding here - the ground lift (and DI out) on the pedal has nothing to do with your amp. The ground lift on the amp is on its DI out, not on any input. Both are for breaking ground loops that occur between each respective DI out and the mixer (or whatever else) you are sending output to. You will always have a grounded connection between your bass and your amp; not doing so would be very bad.

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Thanks. That makes sense. I didn’t realize the ground lift on the amp was for the DI.

Seems I should get the BDI-21 then. :slight_smile:

Thanks for all the help guys. I appreciate it.

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Pretty sure this was the first bass-specific pedal I bought. I don’t think you can go wrong here. Superb value for money!

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But if the BDI-21 still doesn’t do enough for you, consider this simple and inexpensive alternative COLOUR BOX V2 – JHS Pedals :grin:

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:rofl::joy::rofl:

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Yeah no kidding :rofl:

I do love JHS and Josh cracks me up but that’s enough to buy one of the DI’s he’s shooting to emulate :slight_smile:

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The Colour box is emulating a Neve console (the Abbey Road one) so probably something like 1% the cost of the real one

{full disclosure: I own one :upside_down_face:}

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Ahh, interesting. I had thought he was shooting to emulate the tone color of the Neve DI or the REDDI based on the description, but it makes sense he would be going for emulating the Neve console preamps or something like a SSL4K.

Reading the whole description makes it clear though yeah :slight_smile:

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He started out trying to put the sound of neve console distortion in a pedal and it grew in scope a few times
the distortion sound he wanted is the one heard on the guitar tone of Revolution

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