di bass

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aaronmcoleman

aaronmcoleman

The truth is out there!
Ok, I feel dumb asking this question, but what do I need to do to DI bass? I plugged it into my interface and it was super noisy, even when I turned on the instrument input. I also tried running it through my podxt to see if that would boost the signal and that was pretty noisy too.

I would like to run it through my GAP Pre-73, but do I need a direct box, or is there something else I've done wrong. I think the bass has active pickups, so I should just be able to plug in and have enough volume.

I've never done di, always had someone record the amp. I feel dumb for not knowing this at this point!

Thanks.
 
My ex-bass was pretty noisy going in direct. Not a problem with levels, but just noise. I put a noisegate in front of the interface and it worked. You will have to add a compressor on the track.
 
See if you can find somewhere in the specs for your bass what the output impedance of the pickups is. Passive pickups are, of course, very high impedance. Active pickups could be low impedance, or high impedance, depending on how they were designed. I don't know enough about bass pickups to know what the usual is, but I could certainly see that a designer who expects the pickup to be connected to a bass amp might think it best to keep the pickup output high-impedance.

If the impedance of your pickups is high (like if it has a "k" in it), you'll need a DI of some sort to get a good sound. You can use a DI box, or a preamp/interface with an input that's properly designed to function as a DI for a guitar or bass pickups.
 
Should have checked first. Battery is dead so that could be the low signal problem!
 
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