Do I need a direct box for better-sounding bass tracks?

Ricklh

Ricklh

New member
I've been plugging my bass into my Behringer XENYX802 mixer and routed from their to my Fostex digital recorder. Should I be using a direct box or is it not necessary since I'm using the mixer?
 
That depends a lot on the bass. Active pickups may be fine plugged into a mixer. Passive pickups may sound better into an active DI.
 
JG96 said:
Do you have a bass amp? I know both of mine have DI's built in.
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No bass amp currently. I think my main question is: does a mixer eliminate the need for a DI - does it do the same thing? Would there be any benefit by using a DI plugged into a mixer?
 
What you're essentially dealing with here is an impedance mismatch. Your bass is a high-impedance device and since your mixer accepts only low-impedance signals at the line-in, there will be a tonal forfeit. Generally you'll notice a difference in the top and low ends of the signal in a case such as this. The XENYX 802 will indeed put out a balanced line level signal at the mixer outputs (which should not be plugged into a mic preamp, but a LINE IN), and in that way it becomes a pseudo-DI, but remember that a DI is a device that accepts a HIGH-IMPEDANCE signal, which it then converts to a LOW-IMPEDANCE signal to be accepted by a mic preamp. All of these aspects affect tone.

Cheers :)
 
Mo Facta said:
What you're essentially dealing with here is an impedance mismatch. Your bass is a high-impedance device and since your mixer accepts only low-impedance signals at the line-in, there will be a tonal forfeit. Generally you'll notice a difference in the top and low ends of the signal in a case such as this. The XENYX 802 will indeed put out a balanced line level signal at the mixer outputs (which should not be plugged into a mic preamp, but a LINE IN), and in that way it becomes a pseudo-DI, but remember that a DI is a device that accepts a HIGH-IMPEDANCE signal, which it then converts to a LOW-IMPEDANCE signal to be accepted by a mic preamp. All of these aspects affect tone.

Cheers :)
Click to expand...

So, I think what you're saying is although the mixer is useable as a faux-DI, it's audibly beneficial to use a DI box - this way, I can go from it directly into my Fostex recorder & bypass the mixer altogether and better/truer bass tones?
 
Ricklh said:
So, I think what you're saying is although the mixer is useable as a faux-DI, it's audibly beneficial to use a DI box - this way, I can go from it directly into my Fostex recorder & bypass the mixer altogether and better/truer bass tones?
Click to expand...

I would always use a DI, or an Instrument input (if your mixer or Preamp has one) never a line input as it effects the tone. With taking a DI direct to the Fostex, I don't know what model Fostex it is, but a DI cannot be plugged into a line input only a XLR mic input as a DI converts an instrument input to a balanced XLR with ohms to suit a mic.

Alan
 
Thanks for the info! My Fostex is an MR-8MKII and it has both line level & XLR inputs. I'm going to try the Behringer G DI and see what sort of results I get with it.


witzendoz said:
I would always use a DI, or an Instrument input (if your mixer or Preamp has one) never a line input as it effects the tone. With taking a DI direct to the Fostex, I don't know what model Fostex it is, but a DI cannot be plugged into a line input only a XLR mic input as a DI converts an instrument input to a balanced XLR with ohms to suit a mic.

Alan
Click to expand...
 
A mixer's line input will have an impedance around 10k ohms when you need something on the order of 10M ohms. An active direct box will have that kind of impedance.
 
I plug my bass into my Crap-enger mixer via a DI box. I remember that I could hardly hear it without. Best to record a bass amp - you'll have to run the bass through bass amp simulators, which can be hard to get the sound you want.

My 2 cents.
 
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