Direct To Console

Here are some sound samples of various DI boxes, including The projects shown here and Behringer and Radial models. Each sample was played with the real instrument into the DI box (despite the fact that they sound the same as if a recorded sound was sent through the DI box).

• GGG Active DI – Rickenbacker Bass
• GGG Active DI – Fender Rhodes
• GGG Active DI – Strat
• GGG Jensen DI – Rickenbacker Bass
• GGG Jensen DI – Rickenbacker 12 db setting Bass
• GGG Jensen DI – Fender Rhodes
• GGG Jensen DI – Strat 36db setting
• GGG Marshall Sim into Jensen DI – Rickenbacker Bass 18db setting
• GGG Marshall Sim into Jensen DI – Strat 27db setting
• GGG Passive DI Xicon Transformer – Rickenbacker Bass
• GGG Passive DI Xicon Transformer – Fender Rhodess
• GGG Passive DI Xicon Transformer – Strat/a>
• Berhringer Ultra DI – Rickenbacker Bass
• Berhringer Ultra DI – Fender Rhodes Electric Piano
• Berhringer Ultra DI – Fender Strat
• Countryman 85 DI – Rickenbacker Bass
• Countryman 85 DI – Fender Rhodes Electric Piano
• Countryman 85 DI – Fender Strat
• Radial JDI DI – Rickenbacker Bass 27db setting
• Radial JDI DI – Rickenbacker Bass
• Radial JDI DI – Fender Rhodes 30db setting
• Radial JDI DI – Strat 36db setting
• Radial Pro DI – Strat 36db setting
• Radial Pro DI – Bass 12db setting
• Radial Pro DI – Bass 27db setting
• Radial Pro DI – Strat
• Radial Pro DI – Fender Rhodes 30db setting

There are a differing opinions about the Pros and Cons of Active verses Passive Direct boxes. Here are some notes from a studio pro:

Active DI

Pros:
No load on source (best for high impedance sources like old Rickenbacker
basses etc)
Generally neutral frequency response
Active output will drive long distances at high level.

Cons:
Limited headroom, distorts easily on hot input signals
Background noise in active circuit noticeable on quiet sources, or gaps
in audio.
Power required.
Phantom powering affects common mode rejection at mic input.
More prone to grounding issues.

Passive DI

Pros:
100% Galvanic isolation, completely decouples source from destination.
NO self noise.
No power required.
Large headroom, with transformer saturation instead of hard distortion
(think tape vs digital here).
Transformers can be selected for colour.

Cons:
Source loading, high impedance sources suffer from high frequency loss.
Non linear frequency and phase response, varies with transformer (again
tape vs digital).