bass DI buzz/noise

[campersand]

I'm home-tracking an album right now and we just started tracking bass. We mic'ed the amp with a Beta52 and ran a balanced out from the head. The mic sounded great but the direct line had all kinds of buzz. So we tried a direct box instead (whirlwind imp2) but had the same problem. The buzz got slightly better/worse depending on where the bass player was standing, but never really went away. We also tried turning off lights, swapping cables, and changing mixer channels, but that didn't help.

So, I have a couple questions:

1) It seems like we've narrowed the problem down to the bass, since we tried a passive bass and there was no buzz. But there isn't any buzz coming out of the speaker with the active bass, so can anyone explain to me why there would be so much buzz from the DI?

2) We're having the album mixed at a studio and since I've heard it's good to alway have a DI on bass, I'm hesitant to forego it and just use the mic. I want to have some options in mixing. Is this silly, since we're getting a good sound from the mic or no?

3) Any suggestions for getting rid of the buzz? I've heard stuff like taping a wire from the bridge to somewhere on the bass player's body, but anything else?

Thanks in advance!

 

[tarnationsauce2]

The advise of a wire from bridge-to-body is a good piece of advise.
You could go a step further and run a wire to the 1/4" jack in case the guitar's internal wiring doesn't have the bridge grounded as it should.

You say the buzz changes with where he stands? Look out for CRT monitors, TVs, flourecent lighting, air ionizers, or nearby power supplys. Turn those things off, or move the bassist (and wiring/gear) as far away from those things as possible.

Also you could insure the bassist has a good ground to earth.

 

[Clive Hugh]

I have found the computer monitor causes problems and have on occasion tried several dummy runs to get everything right then turned off the monitor while recording. Also in one room in my house the TV in the next room causes buzz, it's a huge screen rear projector type.

 

[Keiffer]

if you have the amp powered by a different house circuit (breaker) and your recording equipment is on another circuit and these are connected via your DI, you probably have a ground loop. run everything from the same circuit.

have you tried the ground lift on the DI box?

buzzing happens just connecting it?

move away from monitors

avoid running power cords and audio cables parallel.

kp-

 

[campersand]

if you have the amp powered by a different house circuit (breaker) and your recording equipment is on another circuit and these are connected via your DI, you probably have a ground loop. run everything from the same circuit.

everything's on the same circuit so that shouldn't be it.

have you tried the ground lift on the DI box?

yep, didn't do anything.

buzzing happens just connecting it?

yup

move away from monitors

do you mean computer monitor or speaker monitor? either way that doesn't seem to make too much of a difference.

avoid running power cords and audio cables parallel.
kp-

not sure what that means, sorry.
[edit]oh, you mean just don't run them side by side, i get it[/edit]