Tech 21 QStrip - Bass Preamp

Product Information

This little box - busy looking on most sides - is very competent at what it says to deliver : a vintage inspired but accurate true parametric equalization which some creature comforts.

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.

Rating

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. In reality all audio going into an ADC is going to be squeezed down to a 5V range or less. But attenuating directly before the ADC gives best SNR.

Much depends on what goes on 'under the hood' of the receiving channel in terms of gain/attenuation - but in general it's not a good idea to attenuate then amplify. It's all about 'Gain Staging' really. 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. Using these controls sparingly as I did in the video rewarded me with just the sound I was looking for. Watch how I zoned in on the frequencies I wanted to hear to accentuate the tone of my bass in the studio. Enjoy! (And this will be worse than the PDDI for 'forever twiddling' 'cos it's more versatile from what I've seen :) ) The cost of this product is mainly because of the fact this is a analog pedal, which requires quite another level of engineering. The size for value proposition is pretty good in that regard.

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. But now that mixing desks / interfaces etc often have proper Line Level inputs there's often no advantage and some disadvantage in deliberately attenuating a signal when you don't need to. Thanks for the reply. It does clarify things a fair bit wrt the transistors. I agree the specs' aren't the important thing but the advertising references the technology and 'inspiration' so the question arises.Good point about the limited power available via phantom.

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!Construction wise, the box is your standard aluminum box, but the knurled metal buttons give a premium felling when making changes to your configuration. Based around MOSFET circuitry, the Q\Strip offers four bands of desk-style equalisation, comprising high- and low-shelf filters plus two sweepable mids (40 to 700 Hz, and 300Hz to 6kHz). The separately switchable high-pass and low-pass filters allow you to constrain the frequency spectrum by trimming the highs and lows — and the low-pass filter can be used in conjunction with the main EQ to approximate a speaker emulation filter.

Manchmal nehme ich es auch zu Auftritten mit, bei denen ich es selbst garnicht brauche. Hin und wieder kann man seinen Mitmusikern damit dann aber unter die Arme greifen, wenn mal ein anderes Gerät den Geist aufgibt. 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. Dafür kann man aber mit dem QStrip sehr viele verschiedene Instrumente bewältigen. Ein Gerät zu haben, das eben genau in dieser Vielfalt stets ein gutes Ergebnis liefern kann, ist auch etwas wert. Beispielsweise bekomme ich Akustikgitarren an meinen Mesa Rosette DI-Preamps immer besser eingestellt als am QStrip.

Customer Added Media

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 :) FEATURESHPF cuts unmusical rumble associated with many instruments when going direct.LPF rolls off undesirable frequencies. Can also be used as a speaker simulator. When used in conjunction with the studio-grade EQ section, you can recreate different speaker cabinet curves so you can go direct with your favorite distortion and effects pedals.Very high impedance accommodates piezos and handles low impedance sources equally well.XLR is capable to drive power amps and has a -20dB pad to accommodate mic level inputs on mixers and pre-amps.1/4-inch output has switchable +10dB boost on tap, which is useful to drive power amps or push tube amps into overdrive.Three modes of operation: Both are pedals that combine different functions, and different players will have different needs for the different functions.