mic cable or instrument cable

[backplains]

Active bass going into a Radial Passive DI, and out using a mic cable to the mixer. Is this ok?..
I'm boosting my high/mid/bass to the max on the bass and make adjustments at the mixer...is this ok?

thanks guys...newbie

[kalle74]

Yes on the mic cable.

Depends on cranking the controls. Why? Can´t get the same sound on the board?

[GinBassPlayer]

keep your bass fairly flat and then adjust your amp for stage sound and mixer for FOH sound... you can tweak your controls on your guitar to fine tune that way... sometimes maxing out controls on guitar on an active bass can cause your signal to the board to be too hot..

I'm sure there are other opinions on this topic, but this is always a good starting (and safe) approach...

[GinBassPlayer]

and ya, always use an XLR (mic) cable to take your signal to the mixer whenever possible..

[walterw]

Originally Posted by backplains

Active bass going into a Radial Passive DI, and out using a mic cable to the mixer. Is this ok?..

yep.

Originally Posted by backplains

I'm boosting my high/mid/bass to the max on the bass and make adjustments at the mixer...is this ok?

nope.

flatten them out, flatten the board channel out, then adjust the onboard EQ a little either way to taste.

[bongomania]

Agreed. The only time it would be OK to max the EQ knobs on the bass is if you want an extreme (and extremely weird) tone.

[JimmyM]

Ya, too much EQ from the bass sounds peaky and kind of fakey sounding. Probably because most of them aren't so good.

[DubnBass]

Is there much of a sound difference between using an XLR-XLR (mic cable) or a XLR-1/4" from a DI to a mixer?

[tim316]

The DI converts an unbalanced signal (from the bass pickups) to a balanced signal ( to the mixer). All DI that I have seen have XLR and 1/4" outputs. Use XLR output to the mixer.

[DubnBass]

Yes my DI has both XLR (balanced) and 1/4" (unbalanced) outputs, but I'm talking about cables... Am I better to use an XLR-XLR (from XLR output on DI to XLR input on mixer) cable or an XLR-1/4" (from XLR output on DI to 1/4" input on mixer) cable?
Thanks!

[bongomania]

Just go XLR-XLR. Converting the signal back to unbalanced totally defeats the purpose of using a DI box. I guess if the 1/4" you meant was a TRS (three connector, balanced) plug and not a TS (two connector, unbalanced instrument cable) plug, then there might conceivably be some circumstances where that would solve a problem of not having enough XLR mixer inputs or something like that.. but that would be a weird exception. Use a regular XLR-XLR mic cable.

[DubnBass]

Ok XLR-XLR, got it! Thanks.