Direct Box Question

[lsupro]

If any of you are guitar players:

There is a piece of equipment called a direct box. I assume used when you are not miking an amp.

Does it go in-line before the amp or do you hook an output of the amp to it and then the output of the direct box to a console?

Asking for a friend.. I am ignorant to this.

Thanks!

[Jamie Tate]

What a direct box does is take an unbalanced signal and changes it to a low level, balanced signal. It gets it ready to be fed to a mic pre.

Use a direct box with guitar only if you want to record the guitar clean, as in no processing at all. If you're using amp farm in Pro Tools or something like that or want an unprocessed clean electric sound you'd plug the guitar to the DI and then XLR out of the DI to a mic pre (console).

If you're using an amp or POD or something like that you don't need a DI.

For bass, I sometimes record it direct with a DI. Bass to the DI then XLR out to a mic pre then to tape.

Hope this helped. Glad to answer any other questions.

[lsupro]

Many thanks! I'll pass this along to my friend.