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Passive vs Active for Recording

#41
who cares if there is some noise? i play with a crapton of gain. noise is part of the game. gate it and let the rest of the track cover it. theres something organic about a recording with a little noise in it. no one will notice over the obnoxiously loud vocal, i promise.
 
#42
GianGian said:
Really? I could never understand active pick ups. So they are basically pick ups with built in pre amps that you can't tweak?
Click to expand...

No, you can tweak them, active EQ will have bass/treble boost (the active part) as well as cut. You might have a center position on the knob which is often the flat setting with no boost or cut, although the volume tends to get boosted overall with an active pre as well. Many active basses allow you to switch between active and passive modes.

Passive controls just cut.

I tend to prefer passive bass for recording although like others have mentioned if it's part of the sound like Marcus Miller or a Stingray then that's cool too. Generally it's a more finished sound as it's basically EQ'd already. That's one reason why many engineers prefer passive basses so they have more control over the EQ in the mix.

Active vs. passive DI is another issue, look at the Radial JDI vs the J48 for example.
 
#46
in a studio with nice equipment you can obviously use almost any type of bass you want, and the engineer should be able to get you a good sound. but when the equipment you're using is cheap and the conditions less than ideal, my experience is that active basses record better. i have an entry level m-audio interface that i use with my macbook, and i've had a very tough time getting my passive basses (fender, rickenbacker, etc.) to sound good with it. there are always issues with it being too loud, too soft, too boomy, not fitting with the mix, and whatever else. not saying it's impossible to make them sound good, but it's a hassle and i have to fuss with it a lot. but when i plug in my active warwick, it's very easy to get a great bass sound. i just plug, play, and move on. no fuss at all.
 
#48
fingers&thumbs said:
No, you can tweak them, active EQ will have bass/treble boost (the active part) as well as cut. You might have a center position on the knob which is often the flat setting with no boost or cut, although the volume tends to get boosted overall with an active pre as well. Many active basses allow you to switch between active and passive modes.

Passive controls just cut.

I tend to prefer passive bass for recording although like others have mentioned if it's part of the sound like Marcus Miller or a Stingray then that's cool too. Generally it's a more finished sound as it's basically EQ'd already. That's one reason why many engineers prefer passive basses so they have more control over the EQ in the mix.

Active vs. passive DI is another issue, look at the Radial JDI vs the J48 for example.
Click to expand...

Perfect, +1000.
 
#49
I record with a passive bass and it sounds very good.
It does depend on the studio too. Some have earthing isues and I have had sessions where we needed to turn off most of the lights to reduce/get rid of unwanted noise.
The most noise I have experienced recently was an active electric guitar with three humbuckers.
My bass is usually quiet.
 
#50
fingers&thumbs said:
No, you can tweak them, active EQ will have bass/treble boost (the active part) as well as cut. You might have a center position on the knob which is often the flat setting with no boost or cut, although the volume tends to get boosted overall with an active pre as well. Many active basses allow you to switch between active and passive modes.
Click to expand...

I get it, but what if I have only active pick ups and no pre amp?
Is that possible?
 
#55
I choose what Bass to record with according to the needs of the song.... some round-wound strings, some flat-wound strings, some a 5 string Bass etc.

The right hand technique is more important than what kind of Bass I'm using (finger style, pick or slapping).

The feel of the part I'm playing is WAY more important than the Bass it's performed on.

Let the engineer do his job and you do yours, it's a bad or lazy engineer that can't record a performance because of the instrument it's played on.

Some of my work: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
under my picture there are 4 URLs

Phil Diiorio is the newest Band (Tied To A Woman), Crossroads is the oldest Band (Lost Highway) & under my name you'll find some older stuff (My heart's In Dallas from 1992 & Lonesome Whistle)... I'm the engineer and Bass player on all of it
 
#56
GianGian said:
So if I understand it correctly, their unprocessed tone will have boosted bass or treble or whatever even without a pre amp, right?
Click to expand...
EMG actives have both a preamp built into the pickups as well as an optional additional onboard preamp. The one built into the pickups is going to be EQ'd a certain way to get the tone they advertise for those pickups. The additional preamp allows you to tweak that a bit.

If you want some of the benefits of active pickups without the EQ you can do a buffer circuit. Ask about it in the pickups and electronics forum.
 
#57
KingRazor said:
EMG actives have both a preamp built into the pickups as well as an optional additional onboard preamp. The one built into the pickups is going to be EQ'd a certain way to get the tone they advertise for those pickups. The additional preamp allows you to tweak that a bit.

If you want some of the benefits of active pickups without the EQ you can do a buffer circuit. Ask about it in the pickups and electronics forum.
Click to expand...

I am not really interested in going active, I just wanted to understand how these devices work.
Thank you!
 

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