Do I need a DI?

[father of fires]

Originally Posted by echoSE7EN

The short answer would be: it depends. The output of my bass passive vs. active is nearly identical. If I want a "louder" output I have to crank the knobs, and that's not the tone I'm looking for.

There are more things in this soup than simply flicking a switch. Impedance. Recording levels. Etc, etc, etc.

Finally, as noted in the above postings, the DI would be used for much more than just my bass; I'm recording acoustics, electrics, and keys.

I think what he meant was that the active electronics will have similar functionality to the pres and DI's you're looking at. There active bass output will be low impedance which is the most basic function of a DI.

[bongomania]

The most basic function of a DI is to balance the signal wiring, for noise rejection over long cables. An active DI will lower the output impedance, but with a passive DI it's not so simple--its impedance depends on the signal you feed into it.

[echoSE7EN]

Originally Posted by bongomania

Which setting have you been using?

Line level.

[electricity17]

Aguilar Tone Hammer pedal is a really versatile DI/preamp that I've been using for recording. It has a good EQ section, great sounding gain available with the AGC circuit (or clean without it), and the built in preamp puts out enough signal to go into my interface at line level. Also it's the front half of bass amp for gigs when paired with an external power amp. It sounds good!