Bass DI (Why)???

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DariusK

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I have a 6 String Bass with Active Electronics. My recorder, a D1600 has built in Pre's. Would there be some benefit to using a Bass DI as opposed to just plugging directly in? What are those benefits if any?



Darius
 
I have a D16. The pre's on the KORG's are descent but not brilliant. It depends what your after and the quality of the recording.

Use your ears. If your happy with the direct to D1600 then that's all that matters. If you buy something that is speciafically for bass; well you work it out..................

What's your bank balance?
 
Many times you will experience phase problems when going direct into your board! A DI, amongst some of it's benefits will eliminate this problem. Aother good idea is to plug your bass into a mic'd amp and the out put of the DI plugged directly into your board, this will make for some sweet bass tones (experiment with
mic placement and roll off bass frequencies at around 60-75hz depending on how you like your sound)
 
Many if not most bass tracks are direct injection.Often,you can blend that with the sound of the cab to suit.

Tom
 
You can get excellent results running your Bass direct to the line input if you are using active pickups.
The advantage of NOT using a DI and a pre is - with active basses you eliminate another circuit - less noise and less distortion.
A lot of it depends on the basses output.
 
I run my 5 string through a tube compressor then the korg bass multifects then through the sansampgt2 (set at svt), then through a tube pre to the inputs of my d8.

My pickups are active as well. I get a variety of tones this way, and smooth sounding bass.:cool:
 
MISTERQCUE said:
Many times you will experience phase problems when going direct into your board!
Click to expand...

MISTERQCUE,

I don't understand why this would be? Level, impedence matching, or even DC offset problems I could see. But this is a mono source. What sort of phase problems?

Thanks!

***

I agree with Shailat that running direct should work well with an active bass as long as it has an approximately line-level output.

Passive guitars are another story. A big part of how they sound has to do with the ratio of their output impedence to the input impedence of the amp. This being the case, I'm not so sure even going strait into a DI and pre is necessarily such a good solution. DI boxes usually have pretty hi input impedences. If you like the sound of plugging your hi impedence guitar into a relatively low impedence amp, you might not be so thrilled with the sound of a DI. I haven't tried it, but it might be interesting to shunt the output of a passive guitar to ground with something like a 10k Ohm resistor, then go into the DI - sort of trick the guitar into thinking it's driving a soft old amp input.

barefoot
 
Barefoot, connect a bass direct into a board. Hit any string or note followed by amy chord on a git or keyboard. At beginning of sound wave thru board,note will sound out-of-tune (1st millisecond of wave) then revert to original key or note
selected. Now there are times when using a stringed instrument w/active pickups eliminates this phase prob, other times when bass hits root of chord,sonic appearances indicates tha bass is out of tune until that,for want of a better phrase,millisecond phasing passes of which bass note returns back to root of chord.
I've experienced this prob with Ibanez,Squires,Shecters but not with Precisions or Jazzes. A prime example is when this weekend during our East Coast fest, Hard2Hear inputted bass into DI,mic'd amp and phase probs were completely eliminated. Prior to hook up,I didn't even waste time trying to tune due to these factors as
"phasing" would rear it's ug-mo face!
BTW,when I refer to phasing probs,I'm not referring in the "STEREO" sense but in the pitch sense,like a fast,unwanted Phase-Shifter effect.
 
DariusK , You can buy a SansAmp Bass Driver DI for about $190. This is a direct box and it emulates a bass rig. I sounds great, I have one my self. The presence control is fab.

Line 6 has a bass DI emulator as well. It's the POD Bass for about $350. It has 16 effects (compressor as well), EQ, and different bass cabenet emulations.
 
Yeah the sans amp bass driver and the POD pro were the ones I was considerieng. It seems that the bass POD needs a lot of owrk on it; I'll wait for the upgrade (if and when it comes). I have on the other hand heard great stuff about the sans amp and that seems to be the one to go for for most.
 
Thanks

Thanks,
For all your inputs guys.

I think I will look into the Sans amp. Web site anyone?



Darius
 
I dig the sansamp because it does it like the cyber twin with circutry not dsp.
 
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