User Manual

Tech 21, the Company

Tech 21 was formed by a guitarist possessing the unusual combination of a trained ear

and electronics expertise. In 1989, B. Andrew Barta incorporated Tech 21 and made his

unique invention commercially available to players and studios around the world. His

highly-acclaimed SansAmp™ pioneered Tube Amplifier Emulation in professional

applications for recording direct and performing live, and created an entirely new cate-

gory of signal processing. While there have since been many entries into this niche,

SansAmp continues to maintain its reputation as the industry standard.

With a full line of SansAmp models, Tech 21 also offers effect pedals and MIDI prod-

ucts, as well as “traditional” style amplifiers for guitar and bass. Each product is

thoughtfully and respectfully designed by Andrew himself with the player in mind.

Our goal is to provide you with flexible, versatile tools to cultivate, control, refine and

redefine your own individual sound. Tech 21 takes great pride in delivering consistent

professional quality sound, studio to studio, club to club, arena to arena.

SansAmp RBI, an Overview

Simply put, SansAmp RBI is a rackmount version of our exceptionally popular pedal,

SansAmp Bass Driver DI. This format, too, offers you an entire sound spectrum of the

most coveted traditional and modern bass amp systems, including mega overdriven

tones that usually require a complex mass of gear --most of which weren’t designed for

bass in the first place.

Tech 21’s proprietary, 100% analog circuitry delivers styles ranging from Fender

to SVT

, and from King Crimson to King’s X. The interactive controls give you access

to specific tone shaping characteristics to create your own custom sounds as well. For

studio and live applications, our SansAmp Tube Amplifier Emulation technology gives

you the sound and responsiveness of a miked-up stage rig --direct into the mixer of a

recorder or P.A. system. You can also simultaneously plug straight into a power amp,

powered monitor, or conventional bass amp.

Beyond the obvious difference in housing, SansAmp RBI’s additional features include a

MID control; an individual Level control for the XLR out to optimize your amp’s output

relative to the P.A. system; an Effects Loop with a Mix 50/50 switch to configure the

loop in series or parallel; 1/4” rear input and XLR output with selectable levels; buffered

uneffected XLR output to run a dry signal to a separate channel; Footswitch input to

engage the unit; and Footswitch output to chain and toggle between another SansAmp

RBI or our SansAmp RPM --a multi-instrument pre-amp tone shaper with sweepable,

semi-parametric EQ and variable gain.