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Active or Passive DI
- Thread starter Taxt
- Start date
bongomania
Commercial User
An active DI, just like an active bass, is one that runs on some kind of power source like a battery or phantom power. A passive DI, just like a passive bass, does not run on any power.
There are good and bad ones of both kinds, one isn't better than the other in general. The two considerations that are important though, are whether you use a passive bass, and whether it has low output. A passive DI will drop your signal level overall to the PA, so if your bass is low-output to begin with, the passive DI output may be too quiet to get clean-enough volume in the PA mixer. Also running a passive bass through a long instrument cord into a passive DI can result in losing some of the high frequencies.
For those reasons it's a decent rule of thumb to use an active DI with a passive bass (though there will always be exceptional cases). With an active bass, it doesn't matter whether you use an active or passive DI.
There are good and bad ones of both kinds, one isn't better than the other in general. The two considerations that are important though, are whether you use a passive bass, and whether it has low output. A passive DI will drop your signal level overall to the PA, so if your bass is low-output to begin with, the passive DI output may be too quiet to get clean-enough volume in the PA mixer. Also running a passive bass through a long instrument cord into a passive DI can result in losing some of the high frequencies.
For those reasons it's a decent rule of thumb to use an active DI with a passive bass (though there will always be exceptional cases). With an active bass, it doesn't matter whether you use an active or passive DI.
As a general rule, active DIs have a higher input impedance than passive DIs. If your instrument pickups are passive (no preamp in the instrument), an active DI will usually be a better choice, as there will be less load on the pickups. If the instrument is active, a passive DI will be less likely to be overdriven by a hot signal, and will give better isolation from ground loops between the bass rig and the PA.
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Active all the way
you have control and can change the cross over point, some you can change the slope or how aggressive you want the sound to drop off.
you have control and can change the cross over point, some you can change the slope or how aggressive you want the sound to drop off.
Crossover Basics:
A crossover is a filter. Passive crossovers use capacitors and/or inductors in between the amplifier and the speaker to block/pass different ranges of frequencies (e.g. block the bass from the mids, block the bass and mids from the tweeters, block mids and highs from the woofers...). Passive crossovers allow different types of speakers (woofers, mids, tweeters) to be driven from a single full range amplifier and will only allow the proper frequencies to go to each individual speaker. Electronic crossovers use op-amps to divide up the frequencies. Electronic crossovers go in the preamp line before the amplifier.
CROSSOVER ROLLOFF
Crossover rolloff (or slope) describes the rate which the audio level increases/decreases per octave as the frequency increases/decreases. It is usually given as a number (6, 12, 18, 24...) of dB per octave. Electronic crossovers commonly have a 12dB/octave slope. This means that every time the frequency of the audio signal is changed by a factor of 2 (one octave), the level of the audio signal will change by 12dB.
A crossover is a filter. Passive crossovers use capacitors and/or inductors in between the amplifier and the speaker to block/pass different ranges of frequencies (e.g. block the bass from the mids, block the bass and mids from the tweeters, block mids and highs from the woofers...). Passive crossovers allow different types of speakers (woofers, mids, tweeters) to be driven from a single full range amplifier and will only allow the proper frequencies to go to each individual speaker. Electronic crossovers use op-amps to divide up the frequencies. Electronic crossovers go in the preamp line before the amplifier.
CROSSOVER ROLLOFF
Crossover rolloff (or slope) describes the rate which the audio level increases/decreases per octave as the frequency increases/decreases. It is usually given as a number (6, 12, 18, 24...) of dB per octave. Electronic crossovers commonly have a 12dB/octave slope. This means that every time the frequency of the audio signal is changed by a factor of 2 (one octave), the level of the audio signal will change by 12dB.
bongomania
Commercial User
