speaker level to line level di (electrical question)

[foreverain4]

my application:
i am a drummer. i play live with a click. i have a small mixer that i want to use to blend my monitor feed and click signal; which will then be monitored with my wired in ears. i want to make it streamline and quick to do so as setup time is limited.

my idea:
to take a parallel out of my monitor wedge (speaker level most of the time) into a di, then into my mixer.

my solution:
i know pro co makes a direct box that you can plug a speaker line in to and it coverts it to line level.

my question:
what is this box actually doing to the signal? is it just attenuating the level? what impedence does the amp see? is there any risk to the pa amp or my mixer? i have an rms di that attenuates -45db. would this essentially do the same thing as the proco?

 

[foreverain4]

i think i found my answer. according to this the RMS di should work just fine...


http://www.tkk.fi/Misc/Electronics/circuits/speaker_to_line.html

 

[engine joe]

move further back in the chain before the power amp.

 

[foreverain4]

move further back in the chain before the power amp.

keep in mind i am looking for quick and easy. i dont want to have to hunt down a rack of amps, then try and convince the FOH engineer to let me start plugging and unplugging in his rack. read the link i posted above. looks like it should work without any issues...

 

[mshilarious]

i think i found my answer. according to this the RMS di should work just fine...

Yes, it will work. The trick is you really don't know the level off the speaker out. Power amps are mainly very low impedance current sources; whether or not there is any voltage gain depends on the amp and the setup. So it's really nice to have a variable attenuator in that situation.

 

[cavedog101]

My drummer has several hookups for his inears...one of them is a Beringer box that goes inline with the speakers, so if we're in a venue with a house PA and no line out for him(one of the other boxes does this) he just takes it off of any speaker line close by. It has attenuation and a direct through so I can feed the bass signal separately which is also attenuated. It does not add impedance to the line. It was cheap cheap cheap!!!