Sans Amp worth it?

[MaVN]

For bass, I have been 1/4 inch straight into my mbox then using the sansamp plugin, and getting pretty good bass sounds.. But...how much better is this? I am going to start recording local bands more, not just mine...

Tech 21 SansAmp RPM Rackmount Preamp - find the largest selection of the hottest music gear at Musician's Friend

 

[moresound]

It will help in shaping the sound on the way in if you need that.
For live the sans amp DI pedal is a great unit for bass.

 

[ranjam]

I have both, and the rack mount unit is identical except it has a loop. If I was to only have one, it would be the RBI. I record it all the time, and with a compressor in the loop it is pretty much the best bass sound I get. It's a versatile preamp, so you can get some grit to your tone if you want it. Even when I use my M-Audio Fast Track Pro (that also has a loop), I'll sometimes plug the RBI into the FTP if I want growl. If not, I'll loop the FTP, but I still always have a compressor going. This saves using plug ins, and that seems to save CPU and RAM. If you have a killer PC, it's no big deal, but I don't, so I have to save what resources I can.