Active Bass tone change

I'm going to blame it on something else, maybe the speaker, have you tried another bass, or another speaker cabinet?

 

How long before was the first recording? Could you have changed the type, or brand of strings in that time?

 

I suppose it could be your preamp. Or even a pickup. Maybe you just got a bad battery new out of the package? That’s a cheap thing to check. I’ve had that happen before.

 

There are a lot of those for sale used, where people have gotten rid of the active electronics. Maybe that is the reason. I have a passive Schecter Ultra with original EMGhz pickups, that has the same kind of problem, intermittently.

 

Pickups don't change over time, there is nothing short of disassembling them that could change the way they work. What you're describing sounds like an electronic issue. Could it be your AI? Are you sure the settings are the same? Same gain?

 

Based on the steps taken thus far, it sounds like something in the cavity is going bad.

I had a 1994 Honda Prelude whose environment control box was occasionally known to have a very specific electrical issue: cold solder joints at a couple of power connector posts (I guess an issue with the programming of the machine that did that soldering work), so the joints got weak after years of driving over bumps and eventually detached.

Not saying that's exactly the issue or anything, but just an example of how random and odd and unlikely some electrical problems can be, esp in a physically variable world. (another problematic culprit is moisture, which the human body generates as do so many regional environments, and which can cause short circuits. Some wires' plastic sleeves are really thin, too...)


But were I to speculate, getting distortion when picking aggressively if that wasn't happening before... that sounds like power might not be getting where it needs to go, due to either a bad connection somewhere (cold solder joint??) or a failing component... though most blown components would just make the preamp not function at all.

Still, while tugging wires gives a good if rough idea of connections, if you get a basic electrical multi tool, you can check the resistance on either side of a wire connection. And in theory, with some gator clip cables and careful placement, you could jumper the pickups straight to the output jack if you wanted to try bypassing everything completely.

 

I would guess the electronics of the onboard pre-amp is defective now somehow. The pickups are just wires wrapped around magnets. You could try changing those, but I am betting the pre-amp is the issue.

 

Yeah, its just "wonky" now right? Its most likely the settings on your interface. What kind of computer do you have? I'm thinking that your computer might not be keeping up with your interface at the moment. My laptop is about 14 years old. Still works fine, but now and then I get wierd defects when recording. A good restart, or tweak of the lag settings on my box, and things work out.

Another option is your input jack. Try messing with the cable as your playing. Pushing it in further, moving and half bending the plug around (not drastically, Its just a test).

You could also try playing througj an amp. If that's fine, you X out the bass part of the problem. You then could try running from the DI out on the amp instead to record.

 

Is the volume on your bass the same both times? And the gain/input level on the device you are connecting to? Sometimes when recording an active bass you need the volume real low. Is there a "input pad" toggle to account for active bass?
Is this happening outside of this recording environment, like with a regular amp?

 

You haven't discussed your recording setup other than telling us you go direct. You could have made any of a million changes in your recording setup.

 

What @JeezyMcNuggles said.
Think about it wholistically. A bass would not want to let you down. It goes against their order. Could be your Computer, could be something as simple as a reboot. Scripts are funny that way. The bass wants to please you.

 

battery gone flat?
-That's when active basses start to sound good.