Connecting gear: small mixer or DI box

[The Twickerman]

I play both bass guitar and Taurus bass pedals in my band. I usually put the pedals through the venue's PA - but in small venues this isn't always possible.

In those cases I need to put both though my bass amp. I am lucky in that my amp has both active and passive inputs, however, when I plug in the pedals (to the active input socket), the tone of the bass is affected. I guess the two are not isolated and the pedal output stage is loading the passive input circuit and sucking the tone.

I am looking for a small, neat and cheap solution!

A DI box maybe - to isolate the pedals - or perhaps I am using the wrong output from the bass pedals. I am using the LO-Z, as per the recommendation:-


[indent=1][i]HI-Z Output: output jack outputs the Taurus audio signal from the classic higher impedance Taurus output stage. For use with Bass Amplifier instrument inputs[/i][/indent]
[indent=1]LO-Z Output: output jack outputs the Taurus audio signal from a low impedance output stage. For use with line-level inputs[/indent]

Perhaps the HI-Z would make more sense with the active instrument input? I can't try it though until I'm back in the studio next week.

Any other ideas/recommendations?

Thanks folks

[icastle]

This generally happens when you connect two items to a single channel input.

Using DI boxes won't help because you're still running both items to the same point.

Best bet is to use a little mixer.

[dannybuoy]

Bear in mind most mixers won't work well with a passive bass being plugged straight in. Blend pedals like the Boss-LS2 can be used as mixers also. Just ignore the send outputs on the pedal and plug the Taurus into the return socket.

[The Twickerman]

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1392138420' post='2365223']
Best bet is to use a little mixer.
[/quote]
[quote name='dannybuoy' timestamp='1392138979' post='2365228']
Bear in mind most mixers won't work well with a passive bass being plugged straight in. Blend pedals like the Boss-LS2 can be used as mixers also. Just ignore the send outputs on the pedal and plug the Taurus into the return socket.
[/quote]

Thanks guys. That last one, in particular, is an excellent idea - especially as I have an LS-2 kicking around somewhere! I knew I'd kept it for something!!!!!

Edited February 11, 2014 by The Twickerman

[dannybuoy]

Great, let us know how you get on as I've never actually tried it with an LS-2 in practice! But bass into the input, then the Taurus into the channel B return should do it. Then you have channel A to control clean bass volume and B for the synth.

[The Twickerman]

Hit a snag.

I need both inputs active at the same time. The only option on the LS-2 is to mix A and B. Therefore I need to plug bass and pedals into those inputs. Unfortunately the pedal doesn't turn on unless there's a jack in the main input. So I need to plug in something. If I use an unwired jack, it's prone to picking up noise.

Any ideas?

Cheers!

[Zenitram]

[url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-Channel-Line-Mixer-/390780872084?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item5afc5ae594"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item5afc5ae594[/url]

or

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SoundLAB-4-Channel-Mono-Microphone-Line-Mixer-/200940406523?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2ec8fb46fb

Maybe, unless they're crap.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Zenitram

[The Twickerman]

It's a line level mixer. I doubt if it will perform very well with an instrument level output. But depending on the final price, it may be worth a punt! Thanks.

[Zenitram]

Yeah, you'd need a DI box of some sort to turn your bass to line level first. I thought you said you had one, sorry.

Edit: not a DI box, a preamp of some sorts. Or something.

Edited February 25, 2014 by Zenitram

[EBS_freak]

[quote name='Zenitram' timestamp='1393329471' post='2378712']
Yeah, you'd need a DI box of some sort to turn your bass to line level first. I thought you said you had one, sorry.

Edit: not a DI box, a preamp of some sorts. Or something.
[/quote]

A DI would do it