Hooking up my bass with to my mixer. Do I need a DI BOX/PreAmp

freestylesanch

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Hooking up my bass up to my mixer. Do I need a DI BOX/PreAmp?

Hey whats up guys?? Just chilling over here. I have a quick question on how best to do this. I have a bass that I want to record. It has active pickups in it instead of passive. I dont have a bass amp, but I use a mackie VLZ 1202 pro mixer which has built in mic preamps. I've never hooked this up so I'm wondering if I would need a preamp/DI box, something tells me I do. I have a guitar amp which is a beheringer gmx2X12 which has line outs and all that and I usually just go from the line outs of the amp to the mixer. It works but the signal is low buts its not that bad. I have a Art Tube MP Studio that I got some time ago ART Tube MP Studio Mic Preamp | Musician's Friend which says it can be used as a DI box. Can I use this to hook the bass up to my mixer?? Or can I just hook up the bass straight to the mixer without the DI BOX/PreAmp and go?? Do the active pickups make a difference compared to the passive?? I just basically want to get my signal to my recording setup which would be Bass -->DI Box/PreAmp (I think)--->mixer which then goes into my audiophile 2496 sound card in my computer.

I also have a tascam us 2X2 that I use with my laptop so I can use that somewhere along the line as well for the mobile reocrdings. I dont know if I want to hook the bass up to my beheringer guitar amp, because its a bass not a guitar and I dont want to ruin/damage my guitar amp. Basically just wondering if I need a preamp/di box or if I can use that ART MP Tube Studio I have as one?? If I do need one I dont want to spend a whole lot. Basically something just to get my signal to the computer/soundcard. I can apply effects afterward or if absolutely wanted to incorporate them I could get an effects pedal or something. The beheringer has some generic effects but there nice for clean guitar stuff. So just basically wondering if I need one of these or not. Like I said I dont want to spend a whole lot and just want one I guess more so for a DI BOX ( cause thats what I think matches the impedance/signal/whatever its called right) if I can use the Art Tube MP thats cool, but I dont mind shelling out some money for one, although I dont think I need anything high end as rather more so just to get the signal to my computer matched/balanced I guess you could say.

With that said I imagine I could get away with a DI Box more then anything as I'd plan to effect my bass riffs/lines afterwards in a software environment. It seems a DI Box is a little cheaper then getting a high end preamp/di box in one thing although if theres some fairly affordable decent ones for like between $30-60 bucks I dont mind spending that much. The most I can probably afford is about $100 at the moment but thats it, although I'd like to keep it about $30-$70. Really though I'm thinking some sort of DI Box will do the trick as I'm just trying to record clean unaffected bass anyway, and like I mentioned I could do whatever after its recorded for effects and it seems like a DI BOX would be cheaper then box that acts like a DI/PreAmp/etc, etc although if theres something remarkably good within the $30-70 range let me know know whats up. I use the Rokit KRK 8 monitors and they seem okay for most the stuff I do. Definitely need some suggestions on what to do here. Its mainly just going to be for recording baselines for more hiphop oriented stuff. Maybe over dose drum machine beats or whatnot. I think the key is getting one of these DI/PreAmp boxes or use the Art MP I have which should allow me to hook into the mixer with the impedance/signals matched right?? I'm almost there guys. lol!! Thanks in Advance. Any help would be much appreciated.
 
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