Hi,
What would people recommend as a DI that can be used to record both Bass AND Guitar for studio recording.
thanks,
richard sven

the johnson J-station is much like the line6 POD series, except that there is only one model, with both bass and guitar amp effects and emulation.
for a traditional direct box, you are limited only by your budget. almost every company, it seems, makes their own tube (active), solid state (active), or passive DI box.
manley makes expensive ones, Tech21 makes SansAmp and SansAmp BassDI, ProCo makes some, HHB, everyone else....

Thanks.
which brings up another question to me.
Which do people prefer... the Johnson unit or the Bass Pod.
Because I live in Jamaica I wouldn't get a chance to actual here either until I next travel to the US.
rsp

I just got done using the johnson j-station in the studio. Has some really good amp modelers and I was amazed that I could get that kind of sound out of a combo guitar/bass box. Definitely a good product with many useful applications. I haven't had much experience with the bass pod, but I assume it's just as good as the j-station. I started a thread a while back as this was my first time in a recording studio and got some really good advice. It was something to the effect of, "plug in one of everything and decide what sounds best later." Use the J-station and the bass pod both at all times if you can this leaves you with a lot of options when it comes time for mixing.

Every recording studio and concert I have ever played has used a Countryman direct box. There must be some reason. My bass sounds fine direct. In fact, that's the way I like to hear it best--all settings flat and coming out of the studio monitors. My live setup (all SWR) is an attempt to replicate that sound live.

I guess I do things the opposite of most people. I take my recorded sound and try to replicate it live. Most people try to get their live sound in the studio. I guess it depends where you spend the most time and what you are used to.

I've never had to bring my own direct box, either. The only time you'd want to do that is if you had some specific sound that you really needed to get.

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http://www.jps.net/jeremy/basspage.html

I've also used the Countryman extensively in the studio, it seems to be the standard. I know that high-end tube DIs are very chic, but when I interviewed LA studio pro Reggie Hamilton, he expressed his preference for passive DI's, essentially an impedance matcher. I tried it once, going direct with just a line transformer. It worked fine, whether it was better than a powered DI, I can't say. We plugged it in, it sounded fine, we used it. It was a jingle for a regional thing, so I guess it wasn't THAT critical.

Check out what he has to say- http://www.bassplayer.com/z1998/9811/hamilton.shtml

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http://www.edfriedland.com

I haven't used a J Station. I really like the Bass POD alot. They only thing I wish they had done was to include the '59 Bassman (from the guitar POD). I thought that was a major oversight. If you want to get that authentic 5Os rock and roll thing you really need it ('59 Bassman sound). Since I play guitar also I have both the POD and Bass POD. L:ine6 has just about all the other basses covered (though I thought a Sunn 2OOS would have been great and the original Sunn Colisium would have been better).
Buddy

You should also check out the Raven Labs line of DI's and small mixers. They don't have "amp modeling" like the J-station or Line6 gear - just very clean, buffered line out. I have the MDB-1, which can take up to 3 instruments w/ gain/cut control for each, and I use it at gigs to balance the output of my 2 very different basses so I don't have to change the amp settings when I change basses. One line out to my amp, a balanced XLR out to the board. I haven't recorded with it yet, but have seen many very good reviews of it in a studio setting.

I just bought an Avalon U5 (literally just took it out of the box). I'll post back when I've had a chance to test it on a few mixes.

The Avalon U5 sounds great and has a lot of nice features:

- two XLR output, one for line level, and one for mic level
- high cut switch that eliminates string noise but doesn't muffle your tone
- a six position tone switch with very useful settings
- lots of headroom and 30 dB of GAIN
- a THRU output for your tuner, amp, effects, etc.
- will accept input from an amp (subject to wattage limits)

Oh, and did I mention that the tone is to die for?

On the minus side, it's not cheap ($595 MSRP) and it's not exactly portable. It's not that big, but it's really HEAVY. If you dropped it on your foot, you would definitely be in a cast. I wouldn't plan to use it on stage.