DI Boxes, what are they and how do I use them?

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Promkingdrummer

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I have heard many people talk of recording both distorted guitars and basses through DI boxes, but I still dont really know what they are. Could somebody please explain to me what they are, what they are used for, and some advantages they might have. Thanks a bunch.
 
Ok I know a bit I mainly use them for live acc then straight into a desk. it changes a unbalanced signal to a balanced, signal in to DI on 1/4 inch lead then sent out on XLR Balanced. many DI's will emulate a mic'd intrument or cab. I find it has a better signal for recording or live also the integrity of the sgnal is better over greater distance say from stage to front of house. commonly used for bass as I have never seen any one mic a bass cab for live performance as issues with feed back, remember many amps have inbuilt DI's, XLR outs. Also accoustic guitar straight into a DI box then straight into mixer this is pretty typical. Recording I use a avalon u5 DI I love it, Its quiet has signal booster and tone selector. I use this DI for Bass and Acc as I do not have a decent quiet bass amp neither do I have a decent room, noise floor or mic's for acc. oh yeah and mics that have XLR male female are already balanced so they dont need to go through a DI. I am sure someone can supply a link with more info or just elaborate on what a DI does and where you might use one.

Rock on man
 
Many of the DI boxes you purchase under $100 are just a 1/4 inch jack wired to two wires of a tiny transformer then on the other side of the transformer wired directly to the XLR jack. Occassionally you may find a resistor or two but often not.

A really great trick is to pick up a really big transformer and replace the tiny one in the box. This will deliver a much richer signal to your preamp. You may have to mount the transformer to the outside or find a bigger box. Not advised if you are using an active DI, this trick is for passive units only.

Cheap approach and you will find your DI signal is much fatter tonally.

MM
 
ok, cool, are there any good DI boxes that you would recomend, and do you just record bass off of them and mic up the other instruments. Thanks for the help as you can probably tell I am new at this.
 
Most bass amps have a inbuilt DI I like eden bass amps they have great DI's. guitar can also go through a DI I would suggest only if you dont have good mics or preamps. DI's are more often used in live. However I use my avalon DI for recording wich is excelent you cant get much better but micing is always the best if you got the gear. I use the DI as I have no decent recording mics or a good room and I also have a loud noise floor so I just use the DI for now I am very happy with the bass and acc guitar.

for stage a behringer for recording Avalon
 
It's not really gonna increase your amplitude ... But things might sound louder because there impedance is set up correctly.

A mixer (or a preamp) is designed for use with a microphone (balanced, Lo Z).
Guitar/bass pickups have a Hi Z (impedance) output and are unbalanced. So a DI box will convert your Unbalanced Hi Z signal to a Balanced Low Z signal so it just acts like microphone. Both are mainly done because of noise rejection reasons.
DI's are mostly provided with a Ground lift button. In some cases this might kill soms hum generated by ground loops.
Some DI's also allow you to hook them up to an amplifier's output so you get the signal coming from your amp. I suggest you to be very carefull with this as Amp outputs are mostly fragile (as in shortcuts might blow him)

There are 2 kinds of DI's: Active and passive. Passive DI's only use a transformer, Active DI's electronically balance your signal (sometimes these have a transformer aswell)

Behringer makes great DI's for little money.

Bass guitar is often recorded trough a DI (sometimes in combination with a mike)
I personally wouldn't use DI for guitar recording or Live but some do. I think you get a lifeless sound out of them. Don't mind experimenting

greets, Arno
 
There are 2 kinds of DI's: Active and passive. Passive DI's only use a transformer, Active DI's electronically balance your signal (sometimes these have a transformer aswell)

ok, thanks for all the help. One more question, the difference between active and passive DI's is there any special purpose for chosing one over the other, does one give a better sound, and do you use them both the same when recording? Thanks for all the help so far.
 
MISTERQCUE said:
A DI box is simply a device to raise the amplitude of an unbalanced signal to line-level.
Click to expand...
A di box does the opposite. It takes a line level signal and turns it into mic level.
 
Promkingdrummer said:
There are 2 kinds of DI's: Active and passive. Passive DI's only use a transformer, Active DI's electronically balance your signal (sometimes these have a transformer aswell)

ok, thanks for all the help. One more question, the difference between active and passive DI's is there any special purpose for chosing one over the other, does one give a better sound, and do you use them both the same when recording? Thanks for all the help so far.
Click to expand...
An active DI will work better with a passive bass than a passive di will. A passive di will load down the pickups of a passive bass, an active di will not.
 
Farview said:
A di box does the opposite. It takes a line level signal and turns it into mic level.
Click to expand...

Or more to be exact, DI's take a signal from an instrument (a git, bass, keys etc.) and, by presenting a very hi impedance to the instrument and balancing the output, prepares it for direct connection to a mixing console.
 
Sometimes certain instruments just seem to work better with a passive Di than an active, but most of the time active will be a little nicer. Active DI's also require either a battery or phantom power.

Personally, I would buy a pssive proco or passive whirlwind long before I buy an active Behringer DI. The Behringer DI's really seem to shape the sound of just about anything you plug into them, and in a bad way. It seems to really muffle the lows and make the highs very harsh. The Behringer DI is a very obvious copy of the BSS DI's. All they have managed to get right however is the external look of the BSS. It sounds NOTHING even REMOTELY close to the sound of a BSS.
 
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