Purpose of the DI box?

[KuruPrionz]

I used a Whirlwind IMP 2 for many gigs. It's cheap and sucks somewhat less than other DI's in that bargain basement price range. Often, it was better than the terrible DI's the club had (can you say Behringer?).

 

Now I have 2 Tech 21 DI's - The Bass Drive V2 and the Para Drive V2. I play guitar and bass and these are a big step up in both categories. The EQs are really nice, the SansAmp can be used to subtly fatten up a tone and the Blend knob is just the thing for mixing your clean tone with a bit of beef and grit. Probably not the very best but prices aren't insane and they are built to last. You can footswitch from no SansAmp to whatever your Blend is, so there's a boost for solos built in. Worthy of consideration.

[Mark Schmieder]

I'll take Sound-On-Sound's DI articles over Sweetwater's overall, but they have quite a few of them and this is just a small sampling:

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/using-di-boxes

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/using-mics-di-boxes-stage

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/prepare-di

 

Many other articles that I have read at that site over the years, but I think these might be the most pertinent to the O.P.

[Mark Schmieder]

Dr. Mike has reminded us of a very important point regarding the JDI Duplex, which is the one I alluded to earlier but which I no longer need/own. Indeed, on one or two occasions, someone tried to steal mine between sets!

 

I wasn't aware of the new JDI Stereo box. Might be worth looking into, as a cheaper alternative to the JDI Duplex.

 

At a gig, having two separate mono boxes in one housing may not be critical. In the studio, one might get better results than with the newer stereo box, just like the "mono block" approach to high-end amplifiers.

[KuruPrionz]

I'll take Sound-On-Sound's DI articles over Sweetwater's overall, but they have quite a few of them and this is just a small sampling:

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/using-di-boxes

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/using-mics-di-boxes-stage

 

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques/prepare-di

 

Many other articles that I have read at that site over the years, but I think these might be the most pertinent to the O.P.

 

 

Sound on Sound is one of my Go-To sites when I'm sussing out gear. Tape Op is the other favorite. This month they reviewed the Useful Arts BF-S Pro DI, a mono tube DI. Only $1,000 and the review says it sounds very good indeed. Which it better at that price point.

 

For live performance at a certain point it becomes pearls before swine. The "missing gear" thing can and does happen. Never lost a direct box but one night at a club we failed to keep an eye on the stage after our last set and 3 SM58s vanished into thin air. We were doing our own sound so it wasn't the sound guy.

[jazzpiano88]

I have a Radial JDI Duplex that comes to every gig with me. I don't use it often but it's a lifesaver when I need it. There are other companies than Radial that make DI boxes.... I think. I've never actually bothered looking around.

The newer JDI Stereo is a single-control-set DI for stereo devices rather than a pair of single-channel DIs in one box, so it's a lot cheaper, which doesn't make it cheap per se. My Duplex costs more than some of my iPads did, and I keep a close eye on it at every gig.

 

That JDI Duplex is just a killer device that has amazing flexibility:

 

- Jensen transformer

- 2 independent DI using 2-1/4 inch inputs, 2 RCA inputs, or stereo mini plug

- 2 independent DI using 2 balanced inputs converting line to mic level (-20dB Pad)

- 2 1/4 inch thru + 2 rca thru

- Stereo to mono passive mixdown of the input and thru jacks for each DI channel independently

- -15 dB Pad

- Polarity inversion

- Ground lift

- Built like it could go through a war.