Favorite Direct Boxes???

[alexdingley]

Hey there,

This is my second post in the "looking for suggestions on gear" journey;

I have two keyboards that I record all the time... both are instrument-level out, so I would like to get some DI boxes for them to record them "properly", even though it's my home studio.

The big reason I would like to have DI's is for the splitting that they do. I'd love to have them permanently patched into my mic-pre's and have them thru'd to my line mixer for general playing/listening purposes... would save me hassle when recording keyboard takes.

I saw the samson S-Direct Plus models... but they're awfully cheap, so I'm imagining that they don't sound stellar. I don't have the money for 4 countrymen DI's, but I would like to have something decent sounding for the home-studio / pre-production room.

Any thoughts?

[jjbohn]

Personally I like the Countryman and the Demeter tube DI. Countryman because everything sounds pretty good through, can't really get a bad tone and there's lots of headroom. The Demeter because it's just a good solid sound on bass. The thing that sucks about it though is they can be problematic.

[weatherbox]

The Radial ones get pretty good reviews, and aren't too pricey. JDI, I think it's called? I only need one DI, so I'm using the TAB V71, which is absolutely slays. Love it madly.

[joelkriske]

i love my meek vc6q for guitar and my avalon u5 for guitar and bass!
the countryman is a good cheap goto though, and i'm needing a radial...
o gear lust.

[joelkriske]

more directly...
if you wanna drop four bones per channel, the avalon slays.
otherwise, stick with radial or the countrymans.
do a search, i know i've seen posts round here about cheap and decent DOD di's.

good luck

[jamoo]

I have two, they're cheap, and I'm happy with both:

Behringer Ultra-G
Presonus TubePre

The Presonus caveat is low headroom. The "G" part of the Behringer is only
useful for scratch tracks, but as a regular DI, it's swell.

[mrufino1]

I have a whirlwind IMP-2 that sounded decent, $30. I just put the cinemag direct box transformer in it this past weekend. MAJOR improvement- very full and has a bit of a nice edge to it, at least on bass. I also got an active DI on ebay this past week from a company called AXE, long gone, that has a jensen trnasformer and a line level output with adjustable gain, it sounds really good, full, and clean, and was also very inexpensive (although it looks like it was expensive when it was available, if it was- I couldn't find any info on it anywhere). But the cinemag route with the whirwind (or any passive DI) still was only $80 ($30 for the DI, although a friend gave mine to me a few years ago, and $50 for the transformer). Hope that helped.

[ctmsound]

Countryman Type-85 and the Radial JDI. If you are using it for keyboards, get the Radial JDI Duplex (stereo version). If you are on a budget, get the Radial Pro DI series. Their own version of a jensen transformer lowers the cost.

[snatchman]

Countryman Type-85 and the Radial JDI. If you are using it for keyboards, get the Radial JDI Duplex (stereo version). If you are on a budget, get the Radial Pro DI series. Their own version of a jensen transformer lowers the cost.

Yep..I second the Radial Duplex!...

[Moon Unit]

For very cheap, you might be surprized to know that the lowly ART Tube MP actually makes for a pretty nice DI box.

I used to use one when I first started recording, and listening back ... there's nothing wrong at all with the sound of the DI instruments on any of my older recordings.
.

[Doublehelix]

My experience tells me that you get what you pay for in most cases, and this is also true with direct boxes.

(My OPINION) is that the Behringer and Samson units are not worth the box that they are shipped in. If you are happy with the sound, you have not heard a REAL direct box to compare it to. A/B them one time and you will throw your beloved Behringer or Samson box out the window... pretty much guaranteed.

For inexpensive choices, I would go with the Radial JDI (passive) or J48 (active). Both are less than US$200 street price.

The JDI uses a Jensen transformer, and is actually pretty nice for the money.

A step up from the J48 is the JDV which is just lovely.

[snatchman]

My experience tells me that you get what you pay for in most cases, and this is also true with direct boxes.

(My OPINION) is that the Behringer and Samson units are not worth the box that they are shipped in. If you are happy with the sound, you have not heard a REAL direct box to compare it to. A/B them one time and you will throw your beloved Behringer or Samson box out the window... pretty much guaranteed.

For inexpensive choices, I would go with the Radial JDI (passive) or J48 (active). Both are less than US$200 street price.

The JDI uses a Jensen transformer, and is actually pretty nice for the money.

A step up from the J48 is the JDV which is just lovely.

...also,look out for a used Groove Tube "Ditto"..I have one and it sounds good also..!..

[kayagum]

+1 on the Ditto box (it's also the inst input on the Brick)

I haven't tried the Groove Tubes passive DI, but I'd bet it would work well too. (I own one, but I haven't stress tested it).

[snatchman]

Slightly off topic...I have the WhirlWind " Hot Box". Even though it sounds clean, I've never felt comfitable with that impedence switch!.. ..Never seem to have fuction correctly.!.. ..Low output in the line-level setting!
Dang..just read this! My spelling sucks on a couple of words! I find this happening a lot lately. Well....I do have a Birthday come Sat.. Big 5..0..!..

[jebjerome]

I like BSS AR-133s. Pretty clean, but seem to impart a nice thing to the sound usually. They can be found around $100 on ebay and $130 new sometimes. They are active though.