Tech 21 QStrip - Bass Preamp

Product Information

Underneath the equaliser are some ‘fast access’ switches. A high pass filter (HPF) that will help to cut down on rumble for microphone users and maybe sub ‘boom’ from excessive EQ elsewhere in the chain. The roll off is gentle and actually, as a bassist, I would have preferred to have seen a 24db per octave roll off at say 25hz which is a great way to alleviate speaker flapping and really tightening up the sound of any bass, even extended range instruments. Applications for the Q\Strip include using it to ‘push’ a guitar amp, teaming it with a power amp to act as a bass rig, and pre-processing a guitar, bass or keyboard signal prior to recording directly into a DAW. You could also feed it from a mic preamp for vocal or instrument recording. The high-cut filter may be useful for recording or for feeding a PA where you don’t have a dedicated speaker emulator, and conventional drive pedals or other effects can be placed before the Q\Strip in the signal path. Build quality is decent, but not perfect: XLR output is a bit misaligned, soldering quality is average, internal board is thin and a bit bent. And I think it's a shame for such price!

It does blur at the edges though as the Q-strip also includes HPF and LPF, albeit not sweepable, whereas it provides a variable/sweepable dual-band mid EQ which the RE/Q doesn't. I was just using the Q Strip as one example of preamp/EQ with DI, obviously there are loads of others similarly featured with a DI e.g. MXR M81 or the excellent value Laney DB-Pre. And then you have something like the Boss EQ 200 which is a 'pure' EQ and doesn't. Die Sample Settings im Handbuch sind übrigens vor allem bei den Bässen garnicht mal so schlecht, um einen Ausgangspunkt zu finden. Und selbst dann interessant mal anzuhören, wenn man es vom Arbeiten am Mischpult gewohnt ist den passenden Sound ganz selbstständig einzustellen. As it happens this has recently been the topic of a discussion on a pro audio orientated forum where I dabble. One member was most adamant that only mic level was 'legitimate' but couldn't really articulate why.Enjoy! (And this will be worse than the PDDI for 'forever twiddling' 'cos it's more versatile from what I've seen :) ) The Q\Strip was inspired by those old vintage console EQ's but it is a unique design. The intention was that it would be a "musical" vs "surgical" type of product. While having different Q parameters might come in handy for a mastering engineer we chose a medium Q that makes the most sense for musical instrument applications.

A DI is to take line or instrument level and bring it down to mic level, lowering the impedance and balancing the signal to match, usually, a mic preamp on a sound board. I'm not in any gigging bands at the moment but it's a great tool for recording everything, guitars, bass, vocals. The use of Mosfets was intentional for the sonic benefits, low noise and also so the unit could be phantom powered. Bipolar transistors would be too power hungry. Also worth noting that signals that are impedance balanced or 'Ground Cancelling' are likely to be at -2dBu nominal level. Since the -ve leg of the signal isn't driven. Found an excellent review by Ed Friedland, which I've tweaked / put some headings in for my own ease of reference. He says it all much better than I ever could - attached in case it's of interest to anyone else.Q/Strip isn’t just an EQ pedal. It’s a DI, a volume boost pedal, a speaker emulator, a classic equaliser strip, a ‘second amplifier channel’, a recording pre-amplifier and probably a whole host more of options I’m yet to think of. Dan Veall Zum Aufnehmen würde ich den QStrip selbst nicht einsetzen, da ich hier mehr auf spezifischere Lösungen setze, doch wenn jemand mit dem QStrip genau seinen Sound findet, dann spricht da grundsätzlich auch nichts dagegen. Tech 21 is arguably best known for the SansAmp ‘Amp In A Box’ simulator—However, their quality product range has been rapidly expanding over the years, including effects and utility pedals. Today we have something else a little different; A recording console channel strip in a box! Dan Veall takes a look at the Q/Strip. I have a stereo bass rig centered around a couple of stereo amp combinations: a '90s SWR SM400S head or an Alembic F1-X preamp/SWR Stereo 800 power amp. One side is clean/wet and the other side is dirty/dry. The dirty side utilizes the Tech 21 VT Bass DI along with the Q/Strip. Construction wise, the box is your standard aluminum box, but the knurled metal buttons give a premium felling when making changes to your configuration.

I did think at the time "why don't I get the vtbass DI instead? Or the two notes lebass" but this has a great eq and small footprint and isn't just for one instrument.ground pin connected with shield of the plug (I think most of them does), you can't use ground lift and this is also normal behavior according to the manufacturer support :)