a little DI box help...

[snow lizard]

This thread is great! (This one too...) In practice, these things are a bit simpler than they might seem in this thread.

I think the problem here is the lack of standards for these things. What's low impedance? Sometimes it's anything below 300 ohms. Sometimes it's 500. So 500 ohms could be low or high, but some people call it "medium"...

Cool...

The most widely accepted practice I've seen is to use a DI to hook up an instrument to a console. Over long cable runs, it's essential. Even over short cable runs, it could help. If you're using a quality DI box that sounds nice, it might even become more desireable. If I had a Reddi or a Brick or a Countryman or a Whirlwind passive DI, it might give me better results than the El Cheap-o Yorkville that I have.

I've seen a lot of reference to this: If it has a 1/4" input, it's made for an instrument and it's Hi-Z. This works fine for doing scratch tracks in my home, running my Music Man bass or my keyboard or the headphone out of my Vox Pathfinder or my acoustic straight to the 1/4" input of my A&H. 10,000 ohms load impedance. The "relatively" low impedance of these sources works okay.

When I do this with my Goya bass (passive) or any of my electric guitars, the results aren't anywhere near as good. After doing a bit of research, it makes sense because the console's input is nowhere near a 1 megaohm load that you might see on a guitar amp. The passive guitar wants more load than 10k. Running the axe through a stomp box seems to help.

In any case, if I wanted better results than that I'd use an amp and mic it. It's still pretty standard to select a good sounding DI and use that instead for recording bass. Either method can work well.

Some of you people into the more technical side of this might find this article interesting.

Anyway, good thread. I'm still learning...


sl

 

[reshp1]

There was an original question?

Yes, and the answer is "no"

 

[easychair]

In practice, these things are a bit simpler than they might seem in this thread.

LOL. Very true, and I forget that sometimes.

ROBlows brought it back home with the old rule active DIs for passive stuff, passive DIs for active stuff. Great rule of thumb.

Behind this simple general recommendation, of course, are two more explanations, one simple and one not so simple.

I've seen a lot of reference to this: If it has a 1/4" input, it's made for an instrument and it's Hi-Z. This works fine for doing scratch tracks in my home, running my Music Man bass or my keyboard or the headphone out of my Vox Pathfinder or my acoustic straight to the 1/4" input of my A&H. 10,000 ohms load impedance. The "relatively" low impedance of these sources works okay.

When I do this with my Goya bass (passive) or any of my electric guitars, the results aren't anywhere near as good. After doing a bit of research, it makes sense because the console's input is nowhere near a 1 megaohm load that you might see on a guitar amp. The passive guitar wants more load than 10k. Running the axe through a stomp box seems to help.

sl

Sounds like you've got a good handle on it.

About the stompbox, you are right. Most of them provide hi-Z inputs and what you called "medium" output impedance, 600-1000ohms, depending on the box. Low enough to work into a 10K line input. Nice term, "medium".

Like active DIs and active instrument electronics, they provide buffering and a lower impedance output.

So they do help. Many don't sound that great as DIs, though, they don't have wide enough frequency response.

Thanks for the link.