Bass DI box, what would you have?

[AndyEmery]

Hi guys

 

As part of a new sound system in a small theatre, seating 220, we are looking to DI the bass and have no amp because everyone will be using avoid for monitoring. Can you recommend any bass DI boxes, the main requirement otherthan it sounding great is that it works for both active and passive guitars and ideally it would be good to keep it under 500!

 

Any thoughts?

 

Andy

[david.elsbury]

BSS AR133, Countryman Type 85, are both good- rider friendly, otherwise Orchid Electronics DI boxes come recommended and are UK designed and buit.

[cedd]

I've never bought in to the idea of having DI's designed for one job. Buy decent quality ones, have a good number with spares, and you can't go far wrong!

Personal preference as a good compromise between quality and price are the ones from LA Audio. I own 8 or so of them now.

If your budget really stretches that high though then Countryman, BSS and Radial are worth a look. The guys on the KV2 stand at Plasa also had some on show, though I struggled to keep a straight face when he told me the price! Never used them, but according to the rep they're the best thing ever!

I keep meaning to buy some Orchid mini ones as they look very useful to have around.

[RichM]

If it's specifically for the bass guitar then get a Sansamp Bass DI.

 

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/bassdriverdi.html

 

Can be used as a normal "clean" DI but also gives you amp modelling sounds as well. They're fantastic.

[savage1]

Have to agree with Rich: Sansamp or for a general DI: Radial, KT, orchid, bss, etc etc.

[Styxx]

I've never had the luxury of having a range of DIs to choose from, so my general requirements are that if it doesn't hiss, it's cool. I've had a lot of people pass through venues with different gear though, I'd say techs with money to spend seem to favour Radial (though you WILL pay) and bass players with DIs in their rig tend to favour Sansamp. I believe the latter is tuned to be used in place of the amp, i.e. it colours the signal (hence "Sansamp"), while the Radials tend to be praised for clarity. Radial have a DI box for pretty much every application, including one that has a fine tune phase alignment! So if you're looking for something just for bass I'd say Sansamp, though to be honest I think if you're going to spend over £100 per channel of DI I don't think you'll ever have a problem.

 

Hope that helps. I'm not talking from personal experience so if I've said anything that's wrong, someone please correct me.

 

Cedd, I totally agree, a DI is a DI.

[BlueShift]

Radial JDV for the win every time. Sounds fantastic. Much better than a DI on any bass amp

[dickiefunk]

I will put another recommendation in for the Orchid Electronics di's. I won the Orchid Classic DI and find the quality to be superb. I know a few people who own Radial and BSS di's and they found the Orchid di's to have the edge on these though I've not heard these.

[StevieR]

Radial JDV for the win every time. Sounds fantastic. Much better than a DI on any bass amp

 

JDV is indeed fantastic. The J48 oe passive JDI are also very clean and open sounding units.

 

Steve

[paulears]

I've got some BSS, plus some CPC specials and a Behringer. Can't say I can hear any difference on my basses? Maybe I don't have the special ears required to hear these subtle differences. Blind test at some point, maybe?

[Electrolytic]

Radial JDI. but an EMO would be fine.

[J Pearce]

If you want to DI straight out of the bass a lot of players will favour the sansamp, as it gives them the opportunity to get 'their' sound without having to communicate EQ settings to desk op(s).

I've never been disappointed with a BSS DI, the behringers are fab for the money but to me the BSS seems a little clearer and more accurate. Hard to quantify I guess.

[TonyMitchell]

We carry BSS AR-133s and Radial JDIs and have always achieved good results with both.

[dbuckley]

There are essentially two breeds of DI boxes, those that feature a transformer in them, and those that don't.

 

If there is no transformer in the box, then the device is all electronics, and for this sort of DI, I, like Paul, generally don't hear any difference between them, unless there is an impedance mismatch between source and DI box, which can load sources that require a very high input impedance, and the DI just isn't sufficiently high impedance.

 

If there is a transformer in there, then generally you get what you pay for, as all transformers destroy audio to a greater or lesser extent, and it is the better transformers that do less damage, and these "better" transformers are usually quite costly. Transformer DI boxes can do a genuine ground lift, with full galvanic isolation between source and XLR out. Some of these devices are entirely passive, which is just fine for a well driven line source; most have a preamp buffer.

[Lumiere]

I recently borrowed a MTR DI. Can't remember the model number but the 12db boost really helped to put the bass in the main mix