DI shootout at Sweetwater, with comprehensive sound samples

[Mark Schmieder]

https://www.sweetwater.com/insync/direct-box-comparison-bass-guitar/?utm_content=article1-button&utm_source=insync&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180303

 

The most comprehensive shootout I've heard yet (more so than that old website that I can't find anymore), as it's more on a level playing field than the others.

 

I only listened to active direct boxes as these days I only play passive basses, and concluded many years ago that active basses go best with passive DI's, and vice-versa.

 

My current direct box is derived from the Radial J48, so I don't know if it sounds better were it to be part of the shootout. It's the more flexible gold version that includes piezo pickup coverage.

 

What struck me in the round wound and flat wound P-Bass tracks was that the REDDI sounded the most "real" (especially relative to growl and low end, as well as note attack), the Radial was the most neutral, the Telefunken seemed to reduce the note attack too much but had good bottom and some growl, and the Neve design seemed to take on a mixture of characteristics of the others.

 

I'd have to listen many times over, to reach strong conclusions, but I think I now understand why the REDDI is so popular for recording basses.

 

Not sure I care THAT much though, as I mostly use miked amps now, and the DI track is just for re-amping if the track was great but mistakes were made (e.g. the other mics were off by mistake -- it happens in the heat of battle!), or blending in the mix while using something like AmpliTube.

 

The other site that went dead years ago, focused more on slap/pop playing, which I continue to move away from (it's been overdone by now). From that site, I had decided on Summit Audio for passive basses and Avalon U5 for active basses -- both sold long ago when I switched to Radial for all of my DI and Passive Re-Amping needs.

[zeronyne]

http://basstasters.com/

 

[Mark Schmieder]

I used BassTasters many years ago and it helped decide which pre-amps to buy, when I still believed in using pro sound studio gear for bass vs. old-school dedicated bass amps with all-tunes (power tubes as well).

 

I didn't find that site as useful for picking basses, but haven't visited it in a while, so maybe it is now more consistent and comprehensive in its coverage of playing styles and equal depth per instrument vs. just on the ones the site managers like most.

 

It seemed for a long time that the site was in limbo and thus wasn't keeping up to date with new options -- especially in the DI market. But I'm just back from a three-week off-the-grid vacation so don't have time to check the site thoroughly at the moment to see if it's different from my last survey.