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Active DI for Active Bass??

#41
svtb15 said:
Agedhorse is always correct... from my point of view. He is a genius
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I don't know about that, but again, his post does a good job of (IMO) explaining what many of us hear who care about how this stuff works. Long cable runs, impedance mismatches, pickup loading of passive instruments, etc. are real (IME), and can really lead to a mess in some cases.

For those who don't have the ability or luxury to either try a lot of this stuff or be surrounded by expert sound professionals, and are saving their pennies for the 'right' DI, a few 'general rules' IMO will result in a higher probability of finding something that works:)

Of course, as we all know, there are always exceptions to the rule, and some really strange combinations can sound totally wonderful.
 
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#43
svtb15 said:
I agree with you.. And from my vast experience, I know you are right.
One needs to experiment and see what is best for them. and their situation
EDIT : I am blessed to work with some incredibly competent grammy winning engineers and major tour FOH guys almost daily. I am so humbled and thankful for that...
But I showed one of them this and another thread today, and we are in agreement that there are some people spreading such mis information on TB that we just need to sit back with a tub of pop corn and watch it ...:D:D:rollno:

It is mostly entertainment for me..
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lol! well i can't say there's not a grain of truth to it. and as you said, andy is a genius. but sometimes i think people just need to forget everything and play, you know? except with cabs...it's ok to be anal about cabs ;)
 
#45
Hi, TBers

Thanks very much for all your infos and comments..

I actually did a church service this morning with my active bass through Behringer Ultra Di..
And I am very happy with the outcome...

So I think I can offload my Microbass now
and get a practice amp at home.. :)

Cheers!!

Sucho
 
#47
I want to add something that's pretty important if you arev using a DI between an amp and a speaker. Many of the new class D power amps use a bridged output stage (the same warning goes to anybody bridging a class AB/G/H amp as well) so if there is ANY connection between pin 1 and any ground, plugging a bridged amp into this will short 1/2 of the bridge and burn open either something in the DI, the snake or even worse the console grounding path. This is an expensive lesson to learn, I recommend against doing so, If a sound guy says no to a Di in the speaker lead, it's not because they are being a jerk... it's because he doesn't want an expensive problem.

I have seen some (really) expensive equipment damaged because somebody didn't understand the details. It's not the good old days where all amps were ground referenced.
 
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#48
When y'all talk about long cable runs being problematic, are you talking about the cable between the bass and the DI or the cable between the DI and FOH? I'm assuming it's just the cable between the bass and DI, otherwise why would a long cable run between the DI and FOH be a problem with a passive bass and not an active bass?
 
#50
zombywoof5050 said:
When y'all talk about long cable runs being problematic, are you talking about the cable between the bass and the DI or the cable between the DI and FOH? I'm assuming it's just the cable between the bass and DI, otherwise why would a long cable run between the DI and FOH be a problem with a passive bass and not an active bass?
Click to expand...
They mainly mean between the bass and whatever is the next item in line. One of the specific purposes of a DI is to reduce the problems associated with long cable runs.
 
#51
I ran out the DI on my amp until I started using effects and found it killed everything. I noticed that It really effected my tone. This was on the Mesa and the GK heads. I started using a Sansamp bass driver deluxe now and run into the low gain channel and set the level on the Sansamp just below the line level so I don't overload the preamp. I have two active basses and there is a big difference between the two volume wise. With the Sansamp I am able to switch basses and select the preset channel so I don't have to tweak the amp or turn up or down the volume. If the Sansamp is ran out the return of the amp I get the same as DI'n out the back. I also D3 the cab and our sound guys blends the DI and the mic and it sounds good. Pretty easy setup I think. Just make sure to label everything, I didn't do that at first and was like where's this cable go. I can setup in less than five mins now.
 

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