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Question about DI-box

A

Are

May 9, 2009
18
0
Hamar
#1
Hi,

I've usually used "whatever's around" when it comes to DI boxes, and have never used effect / stomp boxes before. But lately, I've started to bring chorus and octave pedals on stage, so what is a good solution for DI when I use these effects? The bass is a standard passive Fender...

I'm a bit confused about wheter choose an active of a passive box. Because - the bass is a passive, but when effects are placed in front of the input on the DI, it's per definition an active setup, right?!

thx :)
 
#2
Personally, I like passive DI boxes, but they're kind of like ice cream...some guys like chocolate, others like strawberry.

Here are a few factors to think about when buying a DI/using a DI with effects:

An active DI box will often have some tone shaping controls (like EQ, overdrive and output level) These can be very useful, but I often find they get in the way, as I'm happy with my bass tone without using the controls on the DI.

A good passive DI box simply takes your bass signal and sends it down an XLR to the mixing desk by way of a transformer. No knobs, no batteries, no fuss.

Never buy a cheap-o passive DI, as it won't sound good.

You can use any bass with any DI; active or passive on both counts. As far as an 'active setup' goes, it's just a label and I wouldn't worry about it IMO.

Using effects with a DI: you need to put the DI at the end of your chain, after all your effects, so that the effected signal will be sent to the desk (obviously).

One thing to look out for with DI'ing is that there's no high frequency attenuation. With effects, (especially overdrive/dist/fuzz) they can add a lot of zingy treble to your sound. Once this has gone through a bass amp and a speaker, this treble is drastically reduced, so it's not really an issue. Using a DI means that all that treble gets sent straight to the mixing desk, and can often cause headaches for sound engineers.

The two main solutions for this are to either mic up your cab as well/instead of DI'ing, or to buy a speaker sim or EQ pedal to remove some of that zing.

Having said all that, a good PA guy won't be phased by this issue, and will know how to EQ/compress his way around it.

Hope all that helps!
 
#9
I can't stand DIs. I carry my own AKG D112 and stand. Most of the time the sound man mistakes my rig for a guitar stack and just runs a mic cable to it. If he hands me the DI with cable I just pull the cable hand him the DI box, say thanks, and plug in my mic.
 
#10
Unfortunately you'll hear a ton of "I like my" type replies. The reality is that they're almost mated to the bass.. sometimes my JDI works.. sometimes the countryman 85 is better.

Overall.. the 2 (out of my list of about 20) to start with are a Rolls DB25 ~$25 or used MXR M-80 (and avoid the silly distortion)

If just getting going, triple check your amp - it may already have a useable one on there.
 
#11
JimmyM said:
forget all this crap about active and passive. a good di is a good di. di's start to get good around the $150 new mark. all the ones mentioned so far are good.
Click to expand...

This really does seem to be true. I've had sound guys throw all sorts of DI's at me, and they all seem to work just fine.

When I was researching the subject before I bought one of my own, it seemed that the general rule was that if you play a passive bass, the high input impedance of an active DI wouldn't load you PUP's. So Passive bass = Active DI, and Active bass = no great advantage either way.

I bought a Countryman, and I love it, but whenever I play a gig with a pro-sound company running things, I use what they hand me. Seems to make little or no difference.
 
#12
Phalex said:
This really does seem to be true. I've had sound guys throw all sorts of DI's at me, and they all seem to work just fine.

When I was researching the subject before I bought one of my own, it seemed that the general rule was that if you play a passive bass, the high input impedance of an active DI wouldn't load you PUP's. So Passive bass = Active DI, and Active bass = no great advantage either way.
Click to expand...
yeah, that's conventional wisdom, but even though some say they can tell the difference, the way i play and like to sound, only dogs would be able to tell the difference.
 
#13
Depending on your preferences/uses... there are also some mutlieffects pedals that have one on board..

For an introductory, a simple passive will get you going.. The reason to pimp the Rolls DB25 is it's low cost.. and has a padding knob if your bass is sending too hot a signal. .. the small size (about 2 lipstick cases) makes it easy to transport.. it can be permanently mounted to flat surface.

Will not be the holy grail DI.. but will get the job done until you begin your exepensive and time consuming journey chasing DIs that your paying audeince can not distinguish between.

Tim
 
#14
Phalex said:
When I was researching the subject before I bought one of my own, it seemed that the general rule was that if you play a passive bass, the high input impedance of an active DI wouldn't load you PUP's. So Passive bass = Active DI, and Active bass = no great advantage either way.
Click to expand...
I had this problem before using a passive bass with a passive DI loading the pickups. The sound guys blame my equipment, Ampeg SVT/Fender American Jazz V, for the crappy sound coming out of FOH and the amp. I quickly disconected the DI and when direct showin them it was their crappy passive DI that was messing with the bass pickups. I ended up using my Radia J48 instead witn no problems.
 
#15
Savage_Dreams said:
i see this set up a lot. going to the DI before the amp, and i prefer to use the DI out of my amp. do that many people really not use their amp for tone shaping?
Click to expand...
it's not that they don't use amps for tone shaping, it's just that a lot of soundmen scream and cry if you retain even a tiny little bit of control over what goes into the pa. sometimes it's with good reason...inexperienced players can often be all over the map with tones and volumes during the course of a gig, which can blow pa speakers and/or cause major problems mixing. but with an experienced player who has a good sound to begin with and only makes small tweaks at the most, it doesn't matter so much.

me, i'm with godofthunder...don't care for kick mics, but i greatly prefer to mic. but since this wasn't about micing...if i'm forced to use a di (happens occasionally when they ignore my rider and get a crappy rental rig for me), i always retain some control over it.
 
#16
Jimmy has it.

A hack bassist forgets about spectrum slotting and overall production.

Commonly this hack will not fully understand their gear then vary the signal from their amp.

In reality, bass tone is not the primary concern of a sound engineer -- the faster we understand this (and accept it) the less stress and more fun you will have.

Tim
 
#17
I use the Radial Pro48, which is basically a J48 with fewer buttons to accidentally push and mess things up. I've encountered only one bass rig with which I could not get rid of a ground loop with this DI (a Behringer rig ;-) The ProDI is a great choice as well, though I prefer to use it only on active instruments.
 

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