Passive vs. Active Bass Recording
- Thread starter jndietz
- Start date
RecordingMaster
A Sarcastic Statement
Edit: Oops, I guess I shou;d have looked at how OLD this thread is... Ah well. 
Hijacking again, but it's relevant...
My bassist has a custom made Active Bass. UI while back, we ran it through the "Instrument input" and it sounded terrible. It was as if the signal was way too sensitive. As in every time he slid down the fret board or plucked a string, it was a very clicky, buzzy sound. So I'm thinking maybe we try it next time through the line level input? Not sure what else to do.
I could go through my tube pre (which I plan on trying next time we track), but the only quarter inch inputs are on the front are labelled "High Z" and do not have a switchable impedance setting. We'll see how it sounds I guess.
Hijacking again, but it's relevant...
My bassist has a custom made Active Bass. UI while back, we ran it through the "Instrument input" and it sounded terrible. It was as if the signal was way too sensitive. As in every time he slid down the fret board or plucked a string, it was a very clicky, buzzy sound. So I'm thinking maybe we try it next time through the line level input? Not sure what else to do.
I could go through my tube pre (which I plan on trying next time we track), but the only quarter inch inputs are on the front are labelled "High Z" and do not have a switchable impedance setting. We'll see how it sounds I guess.
allegro1650
New member
"High Z" = high impedance (passive instrument) input.
Any active (battery powered pickups, or on-board preamp) instrument should be input through line-level for a signal free of clipping (a type of distortion that cuts off the tops of the signal waves)... unless you actually want a buzzy, clipped sound.
Any active (battery powered pickups, or on-board preamp) instrument should be input through line-level for a signal free of clipping (a type of distortion that cuts off the tops of the signal waves)... unless you actually want a buzzy, clipped sound.
RecordingMaster
A Sarcastic Statement
Thanks guys. So that sucks about the hi-z jack on the front of my tube pre rack unit. That's one of the reasons I bought it was to easily track bass through it, but the only bass he swears by is that one...oh well I can use it for MY own passive bass purposes other times. So if he wanted to DI his bass though my tube pre, would you suggest going into a passive DI, then out of the DI's XLR jack and into the XLR input on the back of my tube pre? That way, I can control how much impedance via the impedance dial on the front.