di signal too hot,should I turn down guitar vol knob?

[falken1208]

pickup-di box(jdi j48 countryman)-api 312-interface
I would never use pad or trim on di or mic pre, as I tested. turning down the guitar vol knob I Get the best di close to professional band album dis
pad or trim kill my guitar tone heavily
is that normal?

 

[Machinated]

there’s always some kind of trade off unfortunately.

J48 colours the tone a lot and isn’t really appropriate for passive pickups - I’d generally try and avoid any DI’s with less than 1M Ω input impedance.

In this situation, if you are using actives and are happy with the J48, I’d just go with what you think sounds best. Dropping the guitar volume or padding the preamp each have their own downsides so just pick which suits you best.

I’d have thought padding the api would help but the tone can change quite drastically on those preamps. Perhaps you have another preamp on hand? or you could even see what kind of level you’re getting going directly into the converters?

 

[falken1208]

there’s always some kind of trade off unfortunately.

J48 colours the tone a lot and isn’t really appropriate for passive pickups - I’d generally try and avoid any DI’s with less than 1M Ω input impedance.

In this situation, if you are using actives and are happy with the J48, I’d just go with what you think sounds best. Dropping the guitar volume or padding the preamp each have their own downsides so just pick which suits you best.

I’d have thought padding the api would help but the tone can change quite drastically on those preamps. Perhaps you have another preamp on hand? or you could even see what kind of level you’re getting going directly into the converters?

I have JDI ，J48 ，countryman type 8 ，type 10.
Im happy with emg - jdi ， I could do it without any volume pad.
but if I use 48V active DI box， the volume is out of control， as I tested every -15db pad button would kill the tone audiblely
I suopose my preamp is broken so it was loud when 48v engaged. how was your situation， is your J48 louder than JDI？

 

[Machinated]

I'm not using any of those particular DI's but some of mine do clip more easily than others.

API preamps are quite easy to clip anyway - its common on things like snare's to either clip them, or use the pad in the preamp (which is well known to suck tone). It's not broken, its just the design of it and probably isn't an ideal pairing with a loud DI.

If the JDI sounds good and isn't clipping I'd use that in this instance. Long term, I'd recommend something like an Avalon U5 or Creation Audio Labs MW-1 where you can go directly from the DI to a converter without needing an interface. Alternatively, you could find a preamp that has an output trim to give you a finer resolution of the level you are capturing.

EMG's at 9V are quite easy to clip internally before it even reaches the DI, and its just part of the sound. If it sounds good to you, I wouldn't worry too much. You could also try lowering the pickups and seeing if that increases your headroom a bit.