Bass with active pickups clipping with 2i2 in amplitube 4

cammilo96

New member
Hey guys, first post...

I recently got a Scarlett 2i2. I live in an apartment so i figured the best way to practice bass at home was to get an interface and amplitube 4
The main issue is that i am stupid and i didn't research enough about this piece of equipment, apparently many people have the same clipping issue because of the high gain floor of the 2i2...

So... What are the best ways to reduce this clipping? i've tried lowering the pu's volume, or lowering the gain at amplitube, but these 2 options often compromise the lower frequencies and leave me with a flat overall sound. Maybe try with Bias Fx or guitar Rig?

Pls help, even advice on how to educate myself in these subjects is appreciated. I play bass a long time ago but i've never used amplitube or any other gear than a bass amp before.
 
Is the level too low if you set the switch to LINE? If so, I'll suggest using a DI with a PAD switch and go in with an XLR.
 
I assume you turned the Gain knob on the 2i2 down! I have heard of other devices having an issue with active pickups, usually a stompbox pedal that does not have true bypass will attenuate the signal enough to use.
 
Turning down the volume on the bass with active pickups or preamps shouldn't change the tone of the guitar. That's kind of one of the reasons for having active pickups. But yeah, if you need to, go through a compresoor pedal before going into the 2i2.
 
WOW I have a Peavey Cirrus bass, Bubinga/Walnut 5 string,[ not the inexpensive ones, the real deal ] It has active pups , 2 9v batteries. When I've used it in pro studios the engineers have told me it is one of the best sounding basses and easiest to record they have come across. The few times I recorded it with my Tascam 2488 I ran it through an Alesis nano-compressor. However I don't recall me having a level issues I just wanted to even the levels out a bit. I am jumping in here because I am also looking at the Scarlett interfaces. Should I expect the same issues with all Scarlett interfaces 500.00 and below.
 
...usually a stompbox pedal that does not have true bypass will attenuate the signal enough to use.
I think you've got that a bit mistaken. A buffered-bypass pedal shouldn't attenuate the signal at all. It certainly could clip if the active bass is putting out a HUGE level (like that monster with 2 x 9V batteries in it, you can't get 18V through a 9V pedal), but...

...I often suggest people try plugging a hot passive guitar through a pedal into a line input because the buffer in the pedal presents a High Impedance to the guitar and the Line input doesn't have the extra gain of the Instrument input, but that's a bit of a different deal.

An active guitar/bass is more like other active "line level" gear than it is any passive "instrument", and should usually be treated as such. 9V P2P (or even 7V coming from a typical opamp circuit running off 9V rails) is louder than +4dbu "nominal line level", and 18V is getting close to the limits of a lot of line level gear. Just plug the thing into your line input and go.
 
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