I primarily use my AF3 for bass these days and definitely use the crossover technique all the time, it's awesome. I actually like the sound of the Royal DI lately. I've attached two screenshots of my signal path with two different approaches. The drive blocks are both instances of the Royal DI in method 1, method 2 is two different amplifier models each on their own path after the split.
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For distortion, this is my setup (SV bass, Herbie).
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I can attach presets once I'm near my AF3 if that's helpful.
Following up here, thanks for your patience as I've been away from my studio:
Attached are two presets that show different implementation possibilities for parallel paths.
These will probably not sound great out of the box with your bass unless you make some modifications. These are hopefully a useful reference to get you started.
* The EQ on the amps will need to be modified to taste for your bass. I am using a Warwick Streamer and it's not going to sound the same as your bass will (unless you have one too!) so you'll need to invest some time into modifying the EQ of the amp! This is also true of the Royal DI instances, you'll need to adjust bass/treble for your specific bass.
* The crossover frequency has a big impact on the treble side (which is on top path in the preset) of things, in preset one it's lower, but this is a good place to adjust the mix of lows/highs, as this determines which frequencies are hitting the treble amp directly. This is a bi-amp design, meaning the lows and highs are being routed into different paths. This is really common for bass presets, but if you're approaching this for the first time, that's what is happening in the presets. This also allows you to put other effects on the treble side without destroying the low end of your bass.
* The first drive block on the treble side in the main preset is an example of how you can add whatever source of dirt you're after. In scene two, it's a big muff driving the DI, but you can experiment with whatever dirt pedal you like here. It's only active in scene 2.
* The cabs needed for the treble side in the dirt preset are not something I can distribute, but you can get Leon Todd's LT TV Mix 7 cabinet from him for free (I did not want to distribute it without his permission, but it's free from his site). The second cabinet is from a YA Mesa 412 pack (not free), but it's honestly not necessary and/or you can find another cabinet of your choosing here. I like to use a 4x12 cabinet, but you'll want to experiment
* The Gate block isn't really necessary depending on your bass guitar, but it helps tame things a bit depending on your bass so I left it in.
* The gain is fairly low because I was aiming for preset 2 in the ADAM pedal, but you can adjust the distortion on the top end by using the gain control in the first Amp block, feel free to experiment with drives too. A drive before the amp will tighten things up more, but the gain structures will be all different, so be aware.
* The multiband comp has a big impact on the way the highs and lows feel to play. You will probably want to mess around with this too because all basses sound different.
) but... I can't wait for news on this beta (or whatever comes next) given the new plugins and the added features found in them!