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==Live --- Active bass directly to the board with 1/4 input==

+1 for Vail. Try it. Worst that happens is you don't like the sound. But I've plugged my bass directly into a mixer before and have been satisfied with it. Well, at least as satisfied as when I used a DI.

Looking to learn (and eliminate boxes/cables)..

Is it signal loss they're talking about loosing over 20"?

The pro sound vendors accross the board noted that a DI would be required for this many links and lengths.


Thank you for the reply.
 
Links and lengths? I thought you were talking about plugging directly into the mixer. If there are links and lengths, I would certainly use a DI.

BTW, what kind of dolt gets upset about the color of a DI? Who can even see it?
 
At the risk of sounding like a lawyer; it depends.

There are a number of factors at play; the output impedance of the instrument, the input impedance of the console, cable length and the cable makeup between the instrument and the console.

Passive pickups are sensitive to load impedance, but not all act the same way. For the most part, passive instruments are relatively high in output impedance, and changes in load impedance will affect both level and frequency response. How much is best left determined via trial and error. Active setups are usually fairly low impedance outputs, on the order of 100 Ohms, and are relatively unaffected.

Consoles unbalanced input impedances are are usually on the order of 100 K Ohm, most DI boxes are around 1 Meg Ohm. That's enough of a load impedance difference to possibly impact a passive instrument, but won't usually matter to an active bass. Trial and error again, it may or may not matter!

In my opinion, you're in DI land if your signal has to hit a snake to get to the console, as then it is balanced cable for the bulk of the run, and one can get away (after trial and error) with a unbalanced straight into a console, sometimes. I always use a DI and save myself the trial and error.
 
If it's a short run there probably won't be any issue. Any active bass with the master volume wide open will have a source impedance <100 Ohms (probably a lot less) and I've never seen a line input on a console with less than 10k Ohms input impedance. There won't be any loss over 20 feet (or even 100 feet) of cable with that impedance ratio. If you're in an electrically noisy environment or if there are long cable runs involved you'd want to convert to balanced because of the enhanced noise immunity it offers.