DI Boxes

cobhc

Amiga Enthusiast
Oct 30, 2003
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Nottingham, England.
Just to clear something up, a DI box can be used for running your guitar/bass straight into your comp right, and also i know it's cheap but will the behringer DI box do the job well enough for some n00b :loco: recording?
 
... mh .... behringer :ill:

No. A DI box converts a asymmetric signal into a symmetric signal in order to cover longer cable distance. Like going from a normal 1/4" mono plug to XLR.

You need a preamp to boost the signal of your guitar to a level where your soundcard can work with. If you have some sort of mic input on your soundcard you can try to plug it in directly, but I doubt that would work (never tried that myself).
 
2dark said:
You need a preamp to boost the signal of your guitar to a level where your soundcard can work with. If you have some sort of mic input on your soundcard you can try to plug it in directly, but I doubt that would work (never tried that myself).

Yes a mic input will work! usually if a card input is a mic one, that input is preamplified!
I think a behringer DI works really good, it's the only thing besides v-amp that I bought with the infamous mark on it!
Don't except the same quality as a radial or as a little labs red eye.

Maurizio
 
A DI box is essential for recording guitar, regardless of your interface and preamps. They will get better tone from your instrument, critical for later re-amping. I've done the tests and compared. I recommend the Radial J48 active DI, especially if you have active pickups. You will need an interface/preamp with phantom power to use it though!

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/J48/
 
2dark said:
just that the mic input on a soundcar usually is a mini tt plug.
so there's no need for a DI box.

Wrong, the output of a guitar is not the same as a mic.
The impedence is different on a guitar than on a mic, so that's why people use DI to connect a guitar to the mic input of a mixer.
I'm not an engineer but I always read about "pro-people" doing it this way.

Maurizio