D.I. box, do I really need it?

I want to run my electric bass www.ibanez.com/BassGuitars/model-GARTB20 through my home recording mixer www.behringer.com/EN/Products/X1204USB.aspx . Preferably without either buying something I don't need, or destroying a channel on my mixer!

I would have asked Behringer's support my question, but I am reasonably confident they are going to try and sell me a direct box,whether I need one or not.

It seems to me that I should be able to run 1/4 from my bass to 1/4 in on any channel on my mixer. They all have attenuation.
The first 4 channels have a variable gain control (-10 to +40). While the other 2 have two presets available, either -10 OR +4.
I knew someone 30 years ago that blew out a channel on a mixer by running a bass into it but I am not sure if they hooked it incorrectly, had active pickups or what.

A direct box is not a real expensive item, but if I don't need it I would rather spend my money on other things (like new machine heads for my acoustic bass ) !

I would have thought you can go in at line level.

yep, should be no problem to go direct, lack of gain could be the only issue.

Tony

We record quite often. Don't use a di box, the more stuff you got in the way, the more noise. To record bass guitar direct, just plug it into the channel. Run your effects thru the mixing desk.
Mike

From what you guys are all saying things are the way I understand them in this situation. I guess I just needed some reasurance since the memory of the horror story of this chick I knew that blew out a channel was just throwing me.
She MUST have had something wrong.


Thanks for all the replies !!!!

you should turn all gains and volumes down on the channel and your bass before plugging it in. If it is as active pickups, the signal will be stronger

MAutopsy wrote: you should turn all gains and volumes down on the channel and your bass before plugging it in.

I certainly would do that anyway,but thank you very much for being sure and pointing that out,as some times the most simple basic thing gets overlooked and can cause big bad problems!

MAutopsy wrote: If it is as active pickups, the signal will be stronger

It has passive pickups.

bjm362 wrote: I want to run my electric bass www.ibanez.com/BassGuitars/model-GARTB20 through my home recording mixer www.behringer.com/EN/Products/X1204USB.aspx . Preferably without either buying something I don't need, or destroying a channel on my mixer!

I would have asked Behringer's support my question, but I am reasonably confident they are going to try and sell me a direct box,whether I need one or not.

It seems to me that I should be able to run 1/4 from my bass to 1/4 in on any channel on my mixer. They all have attenuation.
The first 4 channels have a variable gain control (-10 to +40). While the other 2 have two presets available, either -10 OR +4.
I knew someone 30 years ago that blew out a channel on a mixer by running a bass into it but I am not sure if they hooked it incorrectly, had active pickups or what.

A direct box is not a real expensive item, but if I don't need it I would rather spend my money on other things (like new machine heads for my acoustic bass ) !

Go with the DI it has its benefits ,going directly to line will create a weak signal and while you increase the gain to compensate you will also be adding electrons noise.

Line inputs on a mixing desk have a relatively low input impedance (10k Ohm) compared with the very high impedance (1M Ohm) of an instrument amplifier or DI box.

While this won't do any damage, it will have a negative effect on the sound. There will be significant signal loss, especially at high frequencies. Passive pickups will suffer from this much worse than active ones.

For the best sound, I would seriously recommend using an active DI box, it doesn't have to be an expensive one.

At the risk of really showing my ignorance I will tell you my application and you decide if it has any relavence to yours. My wife and I have a duet and she plays a Yamaha PSR 550 keyboard. It has active electronics and we plug 1/4 instrument cable and run directly into a 1/4 inch Hi Z channel input. We set her keyboard volume at 1/2 and adjust system volume via channel gain. She can fine tune her volume at the keyboard during performances and we have never damged anything. Quite frankly, we have never used the Direct Box unless we need to make a longer cable run or we are running our laptop into a channel for DJ purposes.