Beat Buddy Volume/Gain Staging

How do you guys run your beat buddy into your sound? My chain is:

Pedal → DI Box → Mic input of the 7/8 channel. I tend to try to set the volume on the board to Unity (around 1:00 on my PA), and then adjust the BB down in volume to get the mix where I want it. This gives me a lot of flexibility to raise or lower the drum volume on the pedal without needing to touch the board.

Before I got a DI I was running direct into channel 7, no DI. I found that I had to have the BB near 85-95% and the knob on the PA at 80%+ for it to be loud enough. Then I found that running it through the DI, and effectively putting it through both 7 and 8 by using the mic input, it’s plenty loud enough for me to back off the BB quite a bit.

But, is that the right thing? Do you lose anything/change the sound quality if you run the BB at 50-60%volume? How much should I put putting into the PA, vs letting PA drive? What ratio’s/setups do you guys use for your sound? Would it be better to run the BB hotter and then back off the PA to below unity?

Hey there, it may be that the Gain on your 7/8 channel only affects XLR connections not 1/4 in connections

The reason the DI is working better is you have the XLR in and have pre-amp gain control for that XLR connection, the same is not true when using the same channels with the 1/4in jack

That’s my best guess!