HELP. active vs. passive bass record

[nestle]

OK, I hope I get a quick answer, but today I am recording a fancypants bass player a "hot session dude" type. I think he might come in with active pick-ups-
Why do I hate that sound so much and is it appropriate to tell him to turn those pick-ups off?

[Zeppelin4Life]

active pups can sound pushy and twangy..unnatural. hard to explain. I hate them. plus its kindof weird to ask someone with a $1100 Stingray to 'change your batteries'. Convince him they suck you should be ok. with that said, sometimes they fit. really funk-metal stuff works nice with actives. ala Flea

[Huntlabs]

Although different they both can get a good bass sound.

Why don't you just focus on getting the best bass sound you can... instead of focusing on how much you hate active pickups???

$.02

PS: If you think active pickups suck in general then do Vince Gill and David Gilmore have shitty guitar tone?

[JohnDavisNYC]

well, if it's your own project, or you are producing, then i think you'd be in a place to tell him it's not cutting it, but if it's his money paying the studio time, i think you owe him the sound he wants, and to capture it well. active pickups/electronics can sound really bad (EMG) or pretty great (old bartolini). it's not the sound of rock, but for latin music, some pop, and jazz (when there is electric bass... blasphemy)

john

[AGCurry]

Listen before you speak.

[rolandk]

Wow. I don't know what bass you are referring to but at least give it a chance. I have a Stingray (and a passive American Jazz) and the SR is the most ridiculously easy bass to record ever. They do have a distinctive sound that you may or may not like but they really cut through the mix and are very even string to string and up and down the neck. I've recorded in several different studios and every engineer was tickled pink, just di from the amp head and hit record. My Jazz bass is easy to get a 'good' sound but harder to get a 'great' sound. You either need to run it through an all tube amp or combo di and amp.

Anyways, good luck with your session. Try to keep an open mind. As a hack semi-pro engineer, I find one of the coolest things is when somebody brings a guitar (or whatever) in and you think "OMG, I would never use that!" and it turns out great. OK, sometimes it dosen't.

[nestle]

Listen before you speak.

You're all pretty right about this. I did the session this afternoon and as predicted it was an active bass with 5 strings no less. But I was non judgemental and just plugged it in countryman>UA610>dbx160A= WOW.....shit sounded awsome, maybe that active thing could be OK afterall.

BTW, this was a commercial session for some TV thing so I was calling the shots, I would never tell a client what instument to use..but if his pick-up's battery was fading which I've seen many times for some reason I would pipe up.
Come to think of it this is probably why I have such a strong opinion about active bass...to many dead batteries.