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DI for bass guitar

#21
Anton Lawrence said:
Thank you for all your tips and suggestions. I don't really know anything about DI, preamps and so on. My son-in-law and I were watching a really amateur group outdooors last Saturday and I was struck by the high energy of the bass even though the girl playing the instrument was no better player than I. But she obtained that lovely visceral sound when you hear a bass being played through an amp.
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Do you have the same kind of bass and amp as her? Or a different kind of bass, and no amp? Do you have a teacher? How many lessons have you had so far? Are you imitating/copying bass lines by famous players?

I agree with the "you do not need a DI" crowd. Your Scarlett interface is designed for recording instruments like guitars and basses. Purchasing another DI would be like buying a second knife to chop your vegetables into pieces, before you chop the veggies some more with the knife you already own. ;)
 
#22
"tried turning up the treble, ..."' As I say I am a rank amateur. I asked someone who has the same bass as me and he said he always puts the bass and treble at midnight. Any more suggestions on this score?


"Don't think it's focusrite problem there, check your guitar detailed." Sorry, I am not quite sure what you mean!
 
#23
If your not happy with the sound of your bass when recorded in your daw then you need to use one of the tools in your daw to make the bass sound better. That's all there is to it.

If you think it sounds dull, add an EQ and play around with it until it sounds like you want it to. If the volume changes too much from one note to the next, add a compressor and adjust it to suit your needs. If you want some distortion or overdrive try an amp simulator.

Your daw is a library of tools that can make your bass sound like anything and everything you could ever want it to sound like, all you have to do is use them.
 
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#24
Anton Lawrence said:
"tried turning up the treble, ..."' As I say I am a rank amateur. I asked someone who has the same bass as me and he said he always puts the bass and treble at midnight. Any more suggestions on this score?
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Here is a challenging and fun exercise: Go on YouTube and search for "isolated bass tracks" by your favorite bass players, or from hit records that you know and love. Record yourself playing along with the isolated bass track. Try to make your bass sound as close as possible to the isolated bass track from the famous recording. This is a really excellent exercise to train your ears and your production skills. Good luck! :)
 
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#28
I've not recorder with an ABG, but used to own an MXR M81. Can anyone who's owned both comment for OP's benefit on it as a suggestion. It has sweepable mids, an input as well as an output adjustment dial, and also bass/treble cut. Unless I'm missing something, it seems like you could dial up a nicely enhanced non-blah tone with it.
 
#29
I'd add a Fisherman Platnium Stage PreAmp with XLR out.

Check out:

PlatinumStage-large.jpg.auto.webp
 
#30
You might also put on some new strings. I have had the bass for one month


The Countryman Type 85 has a much higher input impedance than the Radial, which in this particular case might be preferable.

Radial or if you wanna spend some money the REDDI. edit: saw you said something about piezos in which case make sure the input impedance is at least 1MegOhm

I've not recorder with an ABG, but used to own an MXR M81. Can anyone who's owned both comment for OP's benefit on it as a suggestion. It has sweepable mids, an input as well as an output adjustment dial, and also bass/treble cut. Unless I'm missing something, it seems like you could dial up a nicely enhanced non-blah tone with it.

Thank you so much for all your comments but, and I am at fault, the above comments are above my head. I don't think I am on the forum on false pretences. I am not a bass guitarist but I can play a bass like anyone who can play a guitar. And I will investigate all these suggestions. Thank you everybody for all your generosity.
 
#31
I don't understand why so many people are advising against a DI. A good DI box is the first step to create a good bass sound. Have you guys ever been in a recording studio and said to the engineer: no, I don't need a DI for the bass, the instrument input will do just fine. Yeah, check out his reaction.
Anyway if you want to buy a DI just make sure to not cheap out, a good purchase will last you for life and it will probably outlast your audio interface as well. My reccomendations are these two if your budget is not huge:Invalid Link Removed and Invalid Link Removed.
You can also check some review on youtube: . This one is really well made and it's definitely worth watching.
 
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#32
Deleted member 339551 said:
I don't understand why so many people are advising against a DI. A good DI box is the first step to create a good bass sound.
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Nobody is arguing against a DI. What we are arguing is that the OP already has one. :) The Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 is an industry standard, with built-in instrument preamps. It has flawless 5-star reviews on Sweetwater. Buying a BSS or Radial DI would be like buying another car, for the short drive from your front door to your garage, to drive the car you already own.

You know what I think would help the OP 1,000x more than buying more gear? Lessons. A good teacher doesn't just teach you which notes to play; a good teacher also teaches how to produce good-quality tone from the instrument. The OP literally doesn't know what the "treble" control does (and that is fine; none of us were born with this!) and I think the solution is more knowledge (not more equipment).
 
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#33
Mushroo said:
Nobody is arguing against a DI. What we are arguing is that the OP already has one. :) The Focusrite Scarlett 2i4 is an industry standard, with built-in instrument preamps. It has flawless 5-star reviews on Sweetwater. Buying a BSS or Radial DI would be like buying a car for the short drive from your front door to the other car that's already in your garage.

You know what I think would help the OP 1,000x more than buying more gear? Lessons. A good teacher doesn't just teach you which notes to play; a good teacher also teaches how to produce good-quality tone from the instrument. The OP literally doesn't know what the "treble" control does (and that is fine; none of us were born with this!) and I think the solution is more knowledge (not more equipment).
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Well, of course lessons would improve his sound dramatically compared to buying new pieces of equipment but if everyone took lessons and focused on improving rather than GASing over gear I think that this forum would be a very quiet place.
 
#34
flatwound62p said:
I use a Scarlet interface, but with an electric bass so I don’t have first hand experience of your setup. One thing that occurs to me is the input impedance on the Scarlet is only about 50k ohms. I stand to be corrected but I think a piezo pickup like you have wants to see a load closer to 1meg ohm. That could be a reason for your dull sound.
If you go looking for a DI you want something with a high input impedance.
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Seems I was wrong about the piezo impedance thing.

I record all the time using a Jazz Bass into a Scarlet and can confirm what other folks have stated, it IS a DI and a preamp. So for basic home recording there is no need to buy either. Not saying that you wouldn’t get nicer results with external DI and preamps but it’s not necessary to buy those for a basic decent sound.

I’m not familiar with Reaper but maybe look at using an amp simulator plug-in? Scarlett into amp-sim in GarageBand does me just fine.
 
#35
74DF2439-DBCA-4963-BF49-C74B3E11C2AA.jpeg
Anton Lawrence said:
I recently bought an Ibanez acoustic bass guitar.

I use it for recording purposes. However, a bass plugged into a DAW sounds very dull.

My son-in-law said I had to plug it into a DI and then into my Focusrite interface.


So I suppose what I need is a DI and a short XLR cable to plug into my Focusrite interface. Is that correct?
If so what (cheap)DI would you recommend for a complete amateur musician just making home recordings for his own amusement?

Anton
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Bass BDI 21 $30 new works and sounds great!
 
#37
At your current level I would say don't waste your money on a DI. Your interface already is effectively a DI anyway.

Record your bass and then while listening to it on your DAW play with the EQ...... preferably a parametric EQ. Make a very high boost or cut and drag it all around the place to see what makes things sound better and what makes them worse. You'll eventually find some boosts and cuts that makes the sound better. After that you may want to play around with amp sims or other effects but you should play with the EQ first.
 
#40
I agree with many here in that you are really looking for a preamp. There's not much change between my passive DI box (no preamp) and into my Scarlett 2i4 than if I went straight in from the bass. At least not enough to justify spending for a DI box in my view.

In the world of preamps, there are a lot of choices from ones package in a pedal format, to 1RU rack mount versions, and even regular bass amps that can be played without speakers (most class Ds that I am aware of and a few of Ampeg tube amps as well, iirc).
 
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