Since you’re here… you could steer the bass player toward a Dwarf. The next few items I’m going to model are an Eden WTDI and an Eden WT-500 
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I’ll show the rest of the band the GUI and the DuoX next time we rehearse (we’re in a 1 month break) but I doubt he’ll be interested.
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In case you’re using the DuoX for your guitar anyhow, you could prepare a bass sound in parallel (input2, output2) and offer the guy to try that.
Maybe you can lure him into using a sound you like better, this way. 
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Glad to hear! 
We already tried with a pedal that we all agreed it made it better and more versatile. He just stopped using it. He likes his amp.
So, he is using a good amp head that has a D.I. out. You now need to find out if he’s using that D.I. to connect to the mixer.
If he is using the 1/4 jack, he is sending a speaker signal to the line in on the mixer (this is bad). This could be the reason it sounds crap. His gain must be very low also since speaker out and line levels are completely different voltage and impedence.
He should be using an XLR cable (same as microphone cable) between the amp’s D.I. and the mixer.
Extract from the Trace Elliot web site:
- Post EQ balanced XLR DI output with ground lift for sending classic Trace Elliot tone to a mixing console or recording device
This means that even if he is using the D.I. out, it may still sound bad if he has a weard EQ on the front of the amp.
Nope.
1/4 jack might be anything. Not necessarily speaker level. It could be a “preamp-out” for example. Or a loop send. Or an un-balanced direct out. etc.
All of those would be fine, and not implicitly mean “bad quality signal”
Since the bass player himself likes the sound, it’s probably just a matter of taste
@Simon I’m afraid, you’re mistaken.
Look at the original post:
His amp head is a big and old Peavey
The T-E Elf was brought in as a proposal to replace that Peavey
You’re right, my bad.
So, since we’re not sure what amp he’s using, there is not much we can do to help.
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In the 90’s and 00’s I used to own a Peavey Century, which looked like this, but the cladding was not so nice:
It was a 70’s solid state amp, and I think it was even a guitar amp, but I used it for bass with a Peavey 4x12 speaker. It had a pre-amp out that followed at least the pre-gain in terms of level, I think. It probably also applied the equalization.
I personally think that bass amps are only for making yourself heard on a stage. In recordings and in headphone rehearsals, amps or amp models have no place for me. I’d rather use a proper preamp (tube or tube emulation), perhaps a compressor, and some bass exciter for extra deepness. James Jamerson’s sound on early Motown recordings was omnipresent and magic, and he went almost directly into the desk. But I think I am a bit lonely in that opinion.
“During Motown’s heyday, a major technical component of “The Detroit Sound’ was the direct input box (DI). Designed by a young Motown audio engineer in the early 1960s, the musicians plugged straight in and achieved a distinct, colorful distortion that would become recognizable all over the world. The DI box was adopted by such Motown greats as James Jamerson Sr., Dennis Coffey and Bob Babbitt, who defined the sound of a generation with their soulful playing and crisply captured notes.”
I can recommend the Behringer BDI21, which is a cheap clone of the Tech21 Sansamp, and with which I can shape my tone quickly and properly. You can connect it to a mixer via XLR (balanced, with optional ground lift) and jack. I normally use the Dwarf, though. I am planning to share one of my pedalboards soon, which includes the chain I mentioned above.
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Thanks! I agree with everything you said. His amp is a big head. Old, and it had some orange color over all black. I don’t think knowing the exact amp is too important anyway…
I agree with this but I understand everyone is different and it can work this way too.
I would never plug into the mixer through my amp head without any cab simulation but I understand bass is different from guitar and it can work like that (if you’re not using the speaker output of the amp 
). I even have seen bassists go into instrument input of the mixer directly from their bass (and it sounded good).
I am assuming it’s a matter of taste, loudness levels and EQ.
And wow that’s cheap!
It sounds like your bassist doesn’t like bass in his bass sound. Speaking as a bassist myself, I would say that if you don’t like his sound, his playing style, his level of competence, and his attitude, you need another bassist. Unless you can work out a way of routing his bass direct to the mixer for you all (except him) to listen to, and everything but the bass into a second mixer to mix with the output from his amp for him to listen to, either you or he is going to be disappointed.
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I agree. And as I said everyone is different and has different taste.
I don’t think that kind of setup is possible with our gear but thanks for suggesting!
I would never plug into the mixer through my amp head without any cab simulation but I understand bass is different from guitar and it can work like that (if you’re not using the speaker output of the amp
I agree that for guitar, the speaker cabinet is a very important part of the sound. I think it basically acts as an interestingly shaped bandpass filter that limits the bandwidth of the signal coming out of the amp, where it may accentuate some frequency areas. I think if you plot the frequency responses from the impulse responses used in the convolution-based speaker plugins you will see interesting transfer functions. This is what our ears expect and how the guitar fits in a mix more nicely (by reducing its frequency area). You could probably do the same with an extensive parametric EQ, although it will not contain the nonlinearities that a speaker may run into (although you will also not get that from a convolution-type speaker plugin, as it is linear typically, hence the AI-stuff nowadays).
For a bass it will not be much different. I just don’t like what most bass speakers do to the signal, it always deteriorates the beautiful signal that comes out of the jack. I think designing the frequency response with an EQ results in more control over the sound I’m aiming for, as well as making it fit in the mix with the other instruments.
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I think similar about this.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong the whole time, but I also always liked the sound directly from the DI more than through some cab plugin.
It’s probably different when you create a mix where you need to align each instrument perfectly and carve some frequency space for each musician.
Only thing I can say is that there was never an audio dude in any Live situation, who wasn’t happy to take the bass signal directly through the DI.
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The question is not “guitar or bass” but rather “distorted or clean” in my experience.
I like my bass quite heavily distorted, so I have to use either a cab sim or a strong filter.
I’d not accept it, if a live sound engineer would want a clean DI signal from me, because I want to use my sound which I’ve carefully designed.
By the way, I think we’re off-topic 
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I’m actually learning a lot about bass! 
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