DI boxes in a studio

[DCrown]

I once tried some two different DI boxes on bass & guitar, can't remember which ones, and the sound was not improved or something that coukd justify to purchase DI box.
I used then in my homestudio and use pretty short cables for bass and guitar plugged to my RME interface.

Anyone using DI box in his studio?

[Dirk Diggler]

Absolutely both guitar and bass greatly benefit from a DI.
I use an Avalon U5 with great success.
Its a great way to get a totally unaffected signal with great volume. Then of course it leaves you with ultimate flexibility for in the box processing.

[lfm]

I use for bass, guitar gets through amps and stuff to a silent load which has a DI in the end taking signal over amp load.

If you are to use amp sims in computer difference with DI box greatly depend on the sound you are going for.
- if hi gain something is does not matter
- the closer to clean to more it matters to load passive pickups with too low impedance

For bass I use as is in daw apart from some 1176 compressor plugin on it or so.

If using a buffered stomp box pedal of some sort, not true bypass, it can work as DI also.
- pedal will interface impedance well to passive pickups

If you like result you get - don't fix it.

Long or short cables matter more if having hi impedance input, then capacitance in cables steal some hi end.
- normal line level inputs on RME are in the range 10 kohm or so
- DI 0.5 to 1 Mohm, which guitar pedals has as well

Heard a lot of praise for Avalon U5 that Dirk mentioned, and curious to test for bass at some time. But they are $600 or more now.
- preamp lives matter too

[lunardigs]

If by DI, you mean something fancier than your audio interface, then yes! Especially stuff that gives you channel-strip like functions, or coloration, these can be excellent for guitar/bass.

In terms of the good stuff, IMO, you'd mostly be looking at mic-pres that have a Hi-Z, 1/4" guitar jack on the front.
For instance, the Manley TNT with it's impedance settings and sweepable 'transformer effect', and choice of solid state or tube channels; you can do A LOT.
You'll have to spend at least a grand probably, new, to get something worthy, but you'll notice a difference for sure. Moreover, you'll also be getting a super nice mic-pre ... You can basically think of it as a high quality, analog front-end of sorts.
Then there's guitar-specific DIs and magic boxes like the Radial stuff, which I don't have a lot of experience with, but I assume they're high quality, etc.

For me, I think the next DI/Mic-pre I'd like to have is the Empirical Labs Mike-E.

That said, once you run your instrument into something like this, you can (usually) pass that signal on to your guitar/bass amp(s) for monitoring/playing--which opens up a whole other new world of tonal options.

[CapnLockheed]

And, IMHO, DI's are absolutely essential when recording a guitar or bass with active pups.

[Gavincoolguy]

I picked up a Radial Reamp station for $330 from CME as a floor model. It's really cool, it sits on my desk and is heavy enough to not budge with my coiled cable. I di in to my interface for dry, get a buffered signal to my pedals and then amp. Line out from the amp to my interface. Then I can also reamp from my desk by swapping the instrument input to the reamp out or do guitar pedals with computer instruments on my desk. For sure a DI is going to improve your sound if it's known to add color and that's what you are after you can also buy something worse than what's already in most home interfaces so it really depends what you are after. What I don't see mentioned is just how much it helps with elimnating unwanted noise be it from long cable runs or ground loops although that isn't really what you are asking. For workflow it's irreplaceable.

[CapnLockheed]

OH YEAH!! Radial is da shizz!! Everything they make is built like a tank and actually exceeds the hype in real use.

[pekbro]

I use a load box, no DI though...

[Uncle E]

The Avalon U5's tone switch is magic. A Jazz Bass into a U5 on Tone 1, with the low pass filter engaged, is pretty much the perfect EQ. Just add some compression and you're done.

With that said, the $45 Behringer DI100 provides similar sound as the U5, aside from the tone switch and low pass. The DI100 and U5 sound considerably different from the average passive DI.

[khanyz]

I mostly use Orchid Electronics DI Boxes. Their Muting Pedal versions are very handy. Combined with a dbx 376, it is perfect for me, for bass, guitar and electro-acoustic. The dbx 376 has an instrument input, which is OK, but the DI box is better with pedals (EHX LPB1/DOD 250) IMO.

Note that piezo pickups require a much higher input impedance (~5MΩ) than magnetic pickups (~1MΩ). I use a Behringer ADI21 and haven't needed to get anything better.

[lfm]

The Avalon U5's tone switch is magic. A Jazz Bass into a U5 on Tone 1, with the low pass filter engaged, is pretty much the perfect EQ. Just add some compression and you're done.

I looked at U5 at some point, but was a bit turned off by fixed positions of eq knob. Not tried in a shop or something, just by the idea.
- and eq curves looked very different too

Since you have an input taking signal from speaker directly, I asked their customer service if any eq position for speaker emulation
- but they didn't have that

It was around €500 when I looked, and seemed like a lot for one trick pony.

I use the DI input on Audient ASP 800, and works well too for bass.

But talked to Reggie Hamilton over his work on music for a tv series.
- he used a REDDI tube direct box preamps

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... direct-box

[DCrown]

Al Schmitt prefered Firefly

https://youtu.be/2FKXpUD3TWY?si=2EQ5FtzEl-arpric

Prince (a great bass player) used Countryman DI, but you don't get it in Europe

http://guitarcloud.org/equipment/countryman-di

and his guitar equipment in 1982/1983
and 1984/1985 (Purple Rain)

http://guitarcloud.org/era/1999

http://guitarcloud.org/era/purple-rain

[DCrown]

The Avalon U5's tone switch is magic. A Jazz Bass into a U5 on Tone 1, with the low pass filter engaged, is pretty much the perfect EQ. Just add some compression and you're done.

With that said, the $45 Behringer DI100 provides similar sound as the U5, aside from the tone switch and low pass. The DI100 and U5 sound considerably different from the average passive DI.

As far as I understand U5 and DI100 add some colour to the sound, that could be interesting.
Maybe I will give Behringer a try, even though like a lot of people I am sceptical when it´s about Behringer, I mean the price differrence between U5 and DI100 is huge.

[BertKoor]

DI100 add some colour to the sound, that could be interesting.
Maybe I will give Behringer a try, even though like a lot of people I am sceptical when it´s about Behringer, I mean the price differrence between U5 and DI100 is huge.

I own a pair of those Behringer DI-100's, would not recommend them. Even with impedance mismatch, plugging in your guitar directly into a mixing console or random mic preamp gives a better sound. These are not passive devices (9V battery or phantom power required) and I find them noisy little bastards. I use them for live sound only, never in a studio.

Side note: if you have an audio interface with a "Hi-Z" input, then a DI is generally not needed. Unless you like to experiment with boxes that add a bit of this and that (not to be mistaken with pixie dust) at the cost of time & money. You are free to waste it.

[Dirk Diggler]

FYI you can use the U5 with no eq presets, the way I prefer to use it.
That way you get no extra EQ messing with your perfectly clean tone.