Recommended DI boxes for the stage

[Charlie Labs]

I'm looking to add some high quality passive DI boxes to my live rigs (analog and digital keyboards). After some research I picked up a Radial Engineering JDI as I believe in my limited understanding of DI's, that they are a good, solid, high quality product. I'll be using it at a show this Friday however, being on stage and not in front of the house, I'll have no idea of the quality of my purchase. I'm sure it will be fine but I'd like to know what others think. Please give me your input and recommendations.

Thanks in advance!

[muna93]

Me too! I found this: http://www.smproaudio.com/index.php/en/products/diboxes/qdi... It's actually active I know.. But it's 4x4 and since I have a stereo workstation and I'm working on a modular clone I would need at least 3 DIs...

[MC]

They don't get much better than the Radial JDI.

Another great DI is the Countryman Type 10.

[TheZombieHolocaust]

if you're thinking boxes plural maybe get a Radial JDI rack? - you can have a bunch of inputs in a small space rather than a bunch of boxes

I'm thinking about getting that exact same JDI box so don't really know a better brand

[e3p0]

How about a Focusrite ISA One. Animal of a single channel preamp with independent DI. $500 each is probably overkill but only you can justify that. When spending thousands on amps and synths, $500 isn't too steep is it? Plus it looks badass! At some point, a small mixer would do too, right?

Post your decision and results please!!
-e

[MC]

if you're thinking boxes plural maybe get a Radial JDI rack? - you can have a bunch of inputs in a small space rather than a bunch of boxes

I'm thinking about getting that exact same JDI box so don't really know a better brand

I have one of those. Great unit

[muna93]

uhm... it's more than a thousand bucks! I'm not going to spend all that money!

[Mr Arkadin]

Wouldn't it be more cost-effective to just get a cheap Mackie and send that to the PA mixer?

[Charlie Labs]

Thanks for all of the comments so far!

Decisions, decisions.... Here's where I'm at.

Rack mount or free standing.... I would say free standing as I have zero rack gear currently and I'm fine with having a few small metal boxes in one of my gig bags or on the floor by my amp during shows.

Multi input or single... I believe a single input (and possibly stereo input) units would suit me best. If a unit goes down and needs to be repaired or replaced I'll still have the others.

Whatever I end up using must be able to handle over 100 shows a year.

I definitely need a "thru" feature so I can send the signal to a keyboard amp or my own personal stage mixer if I need to.

Would someone mind explaining why (especially a keyboard player) would use a passive passive DI over an active one?

For now... The JDI is looking pretty sweet.

[DeFrag]

100 shows a year?

Radial Engineering hands down love them.

[Charlie Labs]

I used my Radial JDI at 2 shows this weekend. Both shows I had it connected to my Alesis Andromeda which is used for String and Brass sounds (along with the occasional lead or punchy clavinet type sound). My other boards (Moog Voyager and Yamaha P90) went through Radial Pro DI's supplied by the sound company.

From a sound engineers perspective, the guys I worked with this weekend said that Radial pretty much makes the best stuff out there and that I'd made a good purchase. (They both use the same brand).

From my perspective, the JDI is well built and I've heard nothing negative about them so I'll use it.

I'd like to think I've just bought a quality product, and nothing I've read or heard has made me feel otherwise. DI's are necessary to have as a part of my rig so I don't mind spending money on high quality boxes and that they 'should' last me a long time. I'll be picking up a few more in the coming weeks (actually, I've already ordered a JDI duplex stereo DI).

The truth is, I'll never really know what these things sound like (or if they're transparent) or if they're really any better then any other DI out there but, such is life. My ears aren't tuned to be able to tell if one transformer is better than another but again, such is life. I'll just have to trust my peers on this one.

Thanks for all the replies!

[misterpete]

might as well use the same Fireface 800 i use in the studio

uhm... it's more than a thousand bucks! I'm not going to spend all that money!

[filtered]

I suppose it's a completely different style of music, etc., but I always go to the trouble of playing through an amp- for one, you're not completely reliant on the monitor mix to hear yourself, and two, a vintage overdriven tube amp can make your modern analog synth sound, well, less modern... tell your sound guy to just put a sm57 on whichever speaker is less blown, and there you go...