DIRECT BOXES - DIRECT INPUT OR DIRECT INJECT – 1ST PERSPECTIVE

A direct box—also referred to as a “DI,” which is short for “direct input” or “direct
inject” – is an indispensable audio tool equally at home in the studio and on stage.
There are a number of different kinds of DIs, but all have the same basic job: to
convert the relatively weak, high impedance signal from instruments with magnetic
pickups (such as a guitar or bass) to a low impedance, balanced mic-level input signal
compatible with a mixing console. To get good results with a DI, it’s important to
look at what your input signal is and what you’re connecting to.

Figure 1: The passive magnetic pickups on a typical electric guitar produce a weak
signal that is not compatible with the line-level input of a mixing console.

All Connectors Are Not Created Equal

Although the connectors and cables from your typical guitar rig look like they should
be compatible with the ¼-inch line-level inputs on a mixing console, they are not. A
standard guitar or bass output is a two-conductor signal (positive and ground) that
uses tip-sleeve (TS) connectors, while a line-level input on a mixing console is most
commonly a balanced, three-conductor signal (positive, negative, and ground) that
uses tip-ring-sleeve (TRS) connectors. (For more detail on this, see our What’s the
Difference Between Balanced and Unbalanced? post.)

There’s a second issue that makes the signal from a pickup on an instrument
incompatible with most line level inputs: impedance mismatch. A typical passive
guitar pickup has a high impedance (resistance to the electrical signal flow) while a
typical line-level input on a mixing console has a low-impedance. Plugging your
instrument directly into a console’s line-level input jack usually results in a low-level,
wimpy signal. That’s where the direct box comes in.
The direct box is designed to translate between the two worlds; it converts the
instrument-level signal into something the console can use easily—a mic-level signal.
As a bonus, the direct box changes the source signal from unbalanced to balanced,
allowing longer cable runs that are much less prone to noise and RF interference.
The most common I/O connections on a DI box are unbalanced ¼-inch TS jacks for
the input and a male XLR for the output; many direct box designs also provide a thru
jack that allows the source signal to be connected to another device, usually an
amplifier.

Figure 2: In this picture the output from a guitar is connected to the instrument-level
input on a direct box. The Thru connection, marked ‘amp’ on this model, allows the
guitar signal to be connected to a vintage amp while the raw guitar signal is
simultaneously sent to a mixing console or recording device via the XLR mic output on
the DI box’s rear panel.

Passive and Active Designs

Direct boxes come in two basic types—passive and active. A passive DI uses an
internal transformer and requires no power source for it to work. Just plug the
instrument into the input of the direct box and a mic cable into the output; the mic
cable then connects to the mixer’s XLR mic preamp inputs.

An active direct box, as its name implies, has circuitry inside that requires a power
source. That power can come from an internal battery or from a phantom power
source (typically 48V) provided by the mixing console that is delivered over the same
XLR mic cable used to connect the DI to the mic input. Which type of direct box you
choose is a matter of personal preference, but as you’d expect, everything that you
put in a signal chain has some impact on the resulting sound.
Direct Boxes In Action: So how do you set up a direct box? Let’s look at a few
common scenarios.

1. Guitar: Guitar players love their amps, and it’s really hard for them to get past
having an amp on stage. Getting that tone into the PA has largely been a job for a
mic—just shove your favorite dynamic mic up against the speaker grille and go. But
consider some of the specialty direct boxes out there designed specifically for use
with electric guitar. There are designs from companies like Radial, ADA, and Hughes
& Ketner that are intended to capture the signal coming from the amp’s output
before it goes to its speaker, eliminating the need to mic the amp. This not only
simplifies your audio setup, but it also means you can use smaller amps on stage and
keep stage volume down. That helps mix things more cleanly at front of house and
also cleans up monitoring on stage.

Figure 3: This specialty direct box captures the sound coming from the output of the
guitar amp before continuing on to the speakers. The guitar amp sound can be
connected to the PA system without using a mic on the amp. [diagram courtesy of
Radial Engineering ]
In the recording studio, a direct box is a good solution for guitars when you want to
get the squeaky clean sound that a direct box offers, but note that you may also
want to employ an amplifier to get those other tones since the direct sound of a
guitar is much brighter than a guitar player is used to hearing. Recording a clean
copy of the guitar signal also makes processing the guitar later—through either a
guitar amp (also referred to as “re-amping”) or through a modeled guitar amp DSP
simulator within your DAW recording software—a breeze.

2. Acoustic Instruments: Using an acoustic instrument such as a guitar or mandolin

on stage will almost always require some sort of reinforcement to get the sound
level of the instrument up high enough to be able to compete with the other
instruments on stage.
To get the most natural sound, you’ll almost always use a connection direct to the
PA system rather than to a guitar amp; an amp designed for electric guitars just
doesn’t have the frequency response that allows the true tone of an acoustic
instrument to shine through uncolored.
 A pickup system installed on an acoustic
guitar, for instance, can include one or
more pickup devices (magnetic, piezo, or
microphone) that allow the instrument
to be connected to a direct box and then
to the PA system.

There are also specialty direct boxes

designed specifically for the piezo
pickups commonly used in acoustic
instrument pickups.

3. Electric Bass: In the studio, a direct

Figure 4: The built-in pickup system on
this acoustic guitar allows the performer
to blend two different pickup sources (an
under-saddle piezo and a mic) that are
sent to a single output jack, which gets
connected to a direct box and the PA.
box has been the go-to solution for
recording basses for years, especially if
the bass player is performing in the
control room. The super-clean signal
path works well with compression and
EQ from the console.

At the concert level, there’s rarely a live

performance where a direct box is not used on
the bass. It’s a great way to capture the full
fidelity of the instrument and add appropriate
processing like compression and EQ while at
the same time allowing the bass player to use
an amp on stage for feel and monitoring.
Another feature common to most direct boxes
is a switch that allows the ground connection
to be reversed or lifted. You’ll need this feature
when connecting an instrument to both an
amp and the mixing console if a ground loop
between the amp and console causes hum Figure 5: A direct box is a go-to
because of differences in the electrical way to get bass into a PA system
connections. or recording device.

4. Keyboards and Synths: The DI is equally at home with the output from keyboards
and other electronic devices like drum machines.
Bands that use in-ear monitoring may not need any amps on stage, instead relying
on modeling DSP devices and/or direct boxes for the connection to the sound
system. If you play a single electronic keyboard or synthesizer, a pair of direct box
connections can deliver the full sound of your stereo keyboard to the PA. Just patch
the left and right outputs from the keyboard into each direct box’s input. As with a
guitar if you want to have an on-stage amp, connect the thru jack from the direct
box to a keyboard amp.
If you use multiple keyboards and have a small mixer in your rig, then patching the
output of the mixer into the direct box input accomplishes the same thing. You set
the blend for all the keyboards and your master keyboard mix goes to the PA system.
Of course you can put a DI on each keyboard in your rig, but especially for smaller
bands, that may not be the most practical solution.
Stereo direct boxes as well as multi-channel
solutions are available to help connect your
signals to the PA.

5. Specialty Direct Boxes: Laptop computers are

quite common onstage: drummers use them for
loops and click tracks, keyboard players run
virtual synth instruments on them, etc.
Connecting the output of a laptop to an amp or
PA system is always a challenge. Fortunately Figure 6: A multi-media direct
there are a number of special purpose direct box can be used to interface a
boxes available that are designed to interface computer to a PA or recording
computers and other multimedia devices. system.