For DI's I own:

• DAV Electronics BG9 (mono, active) - Fender Rhodes
• Radial J48 (stereo, active) - guitar pedal chain
• Little Labs Redeye (mono, passive) - various/reamping
• Radial Pro D2 (stereo, passive) - analog synths
• Radial JD6 (6-way, passive) - digital synths

I've marked what I mostly use them on, but they can all serve various purposes in the studio and are all excellent at what they do.

(I also gigged for years onstage with of those cheap stereo PAN Palmers from Thomann with no problems.)

mark is a very nice person and blessed with extraordinary talent - besides, he's possibly the best (and most modest) brand ambassador/endorser a manufacturer can think of ;-)

on those occasions i got to work with him, he had both a jdi and jdv from the 1st generation (which had a somewhat different chassis - i'm still using two of each, along with many other newer models).

Out of the Palmers I think I like the Pan4a with the dedicated mono sum XLR out, that could be helpful at some of my gigs.
It's time I got up-to-date with the Little Labs range again, when my friend had his almost 30 years ago they were far above most units on the live scene. The industry standard was still Countryman I think, or a kit from the electronics store and a soldering iron

Right. My Neve 5024 has DI on CHs 1 & 2 that work great for bass, and the stereo Nord outputs.

My Radial PZ-DI arrived. Hoping this proves to be a very versatile DI to use with all sorts of instruments and pickups in a live context

I have more DIs than I could ever use in one session. First choice for bass are the Hi-Z inputs into a Pendulum tube amp or a BAE DMP. Hardly fair to call them "DIs", though.

Like jwh1192, one of my favs is the Little Labs IBP, which is not only a great DI and a reamper, but it's an IBP! Which is great for tweaking when you are also miking the source. Things that need to be plugged in to AC power might not be ideal for stage use of course. And I suppose such tweaking is better left for post-production vs a hectic live recording situation.

Countryman is also one I use a lot. Indestructible. The old advertising showed one under the wheel of a truck, and that's not a lie. I have several Whirlwind IMP blue boxes (and the red boxes for tapping off an amp head) - maybe you could only drive over them with a compact car.

I am in the middle of mixing a concert from the 90's and one of the things I will be forever grateful for is that the guy who tracked this concert took DI off the lead guitarists' amp head. The Countryman can do this - as can the aforementioned Red Boxes.

So it is after the pedals, after the preamp, after the power stage. I am so glad he did because the stage bleed of everything picking up on his microphone was pretty bad.

If I had a DI straight from the guitar, it would have been useless since this was a famous guitarist. I could have attempted to 'recreate' his amp settings and pedals, but his fans would have been incensed at any fiddling with his tone. This way, I got exactly what the speaker was getting, but with no mic and no bleed. Blending that back in with the actual mic was the perfect 'cheat'.

Something to consider if capturing live shows under less than ideal conditions.

Joeq that is an interesting tip on the guitar, DI'ing the actual amplified speaker output, clever! Couldn't ask for a much more faithful signal of what the amp is really doing, could you. Some DI's even have two pads so you can take signals that hot, or a setting labelled Speaker. In my decades of live mixing I must admit, I've never actually done it, I always saw it as a last resort I've never had to use yet. But your post has got me curious to try. But it'd have to be with something with probably 2 20dB pads.

I just learned of a feature I hadn't seen on the PZ-DI before, that you can hit a recessed switch on the side then the Link output is also now drawn from the buffered input, ie now the amp being linked to also gets the loading that you switch on the front of the DI, and from memory I think also the HPF/LPF and I guess the i/p pad too. Neat. There's a violinist I see rarely, classically trained and does orchestral and chamber work, very skilled. But with another group she uses a small guitar amp. THe violin has a piezo pickup and it's clear it's not a great load match into that amp and to me it sounds unbearable. At her standard of playing it's a surprise. Next time I do that gig this DI is so coming with me...

i still have a prototype power soak with a balanced line level output for this purpose although i admit i haven't been using it for years...

The use of DI have been fixed for me for years in that particular order:
1. REDDI
2. Avalon U5
3. Telefunken TDP-1
4. Radial JDI

The new Undertone Audio GB Tracker grabbed my attention but I have not tested it yet.

Countryman through Millennia if reamping or safety DI. Api, Summit or 1073 style if DI vibe. I have an old Stromberg Carlson microphone microphone mixer/preamp that is the most magical and massive bass DI ever.

The Countryman has a "speaker" switch. The Whirlwind Imp 3 (Red Box) is simply "dedicated" for only this use - tapping off the amp head on the way to the speaker. They seem to be discontinued, but you still see them on Reverb and Ebay for pretty cheap.

A few live sound guys that I knew back in the day swore by them. They got tired of trying to 'clean up' all the stage bleed into the mics. I could see how under some circumstances, it might be too isolated all by itself, but overall, it can be really useful.

There are also amplifiers that have a line or mic out in the back.


If it doesn't work, convince her to buy herself a Tonedexter pedal.

Right, that's where I've seen the Speaker switch, I haven't used a Countryman in years, most of the time it's either Radial or the passives my PA company employer gets made.
That musician was not the slightest bit interested in anything I had to say about tone; what the hell would I know I'm just the guy who critically listens to sound for a living, not the one who plays wooden mechanical instruments and is therefore an expert on pickups, impedance matching and guitar amps. I guess it actually sounded great, I was just too uneducated to know it. I used the term "like a piglet being stepped on" elsewhere, that's what I was thinking of when I said it.
Next time the mic on the amp will just be for show.

For bass, I use either a Neve RNDI or a Sansamp Bass Driver.
The RNDI has full and punchy lows with smooth high frequencies (smoother and less clinical than a countryman).
I have owned the Sansamp since it came out around 1994. I have a love/hate relationship with it and to summerize, I'd say I only use it when I want a slight crunch for a rock bass track. I believe the new ones have a mid knob and don't always have this scooped sound that I don't care for.
Most bass players will tell you that a REDDI or a UA Solo 610 or what's best to track bass.

No one has mentioned the Avenson IsoDI or the Useful Arts BFS, so I thought I should chime in.

I use the Avenson IsoDI and the Useful Arts BFS on bass (two tracks). Depending on the song, I blend them differently on playback. The Useful Arts BFS is really unique, but it lacks something. I was doing a 'shootout' against the Avenson and I heard them both and said 'whoa'. The Useful Arts BFS goes lower and has a lot of high end clarity.

The Avenson IsoDI's are really cool on Rhodes. That's all I have really tried them on.

For the record, I have some Countryman DI's, some Klark Teknik DI's, and a Groove Tubes DITTO to compare. from the 90's as a basis of comparison.

Thanks Kronos and everyone with their experience, so good to have it in one thread.

For the record last night I was able to try a pair of active DI's versus a passive stereo DI on a hot output from a drum pad / backing track. Because this drummer A) sends the output to his own monitoring and B) must be freakin' deaf the output was *very* hot, he'd hit it hard for some samples and the level was pretty big. Even the backing track level was crazy, this unit was set for +4 and then just kept turning up after soundcheck. I wanted him to turn down and let me send more back to get that under control but it wasn't going to happen. In the first set I used the actives, just some cheap things, they were OK until he played certain samples and especially later in the set he turned up yet more. Overloaded they sounded ugly. I was able to borrow someone's new Radial ProD2 passive stereo and under those conditions it sounded *much* better. I don't know if the pads are before or after the transformer, one would hope before for exactly this purpose, it's not my DI and I didn't see a manual. But when it was receiving that much input the transformers saturating were so much nicer than the actives clipping out. Admittedly there were ways I probably could have solved it but the chance to compare the types under stress was worth taking.

EDIT Gearspace seems to think that by the passive unit I was referring to a Telefunken but that's not the case

That sounds like a case (if it’s a repeated client) that a conversation with the drummer in a quieter moment would be a great idea so both of your needs are met. Sounds like that drummer is not used to working with people that will give him what he needs in terms of monitoring. You mentioned the solution already but the drummer wasn’t able to listen to you in that moment for whatever reason (or he couldn’t hear you!). Or a conversation with the bandleader or MD could be appropriate.

But sounds like you found the best band aid to get through the gig!

does anyone here have or have used the GEddy Lee Sansamp DI, rack or pedal ???? thx john

I had a chance to try something on one guy's Warwick bass, the PZ-DI set at 220k Ohm, an active DI the PA company had made with a nominal 1M Z and the green Brooke Siren Systems one. FWIW, I like the one on 220K. It was also much nicer than the direct output of his newish Ampeg head, not massively surprising. Either an SVT 4 or that other thing that looks like it. I usually don't mind taking the direct outs from Galien Krugers or Ampeg but the PZ-DI on 220K was better IMO. Definitely lower noise. Out of interest I also switched it to 1M, I thought it lost a certain mid clarity. All three 1M DI's sounded very similar to me, the setting that made a difference I could hear was the 220K

Indeed when using passive pickups, the impedance of the first device the pickups "see" is by far the most crucial spec. Switching from 220k to 5meg can make a guitar/bass with passive pickups sound like a different instrument.

Yes, and the last time I actually got a piezo pickup to DI was about 2 days before this thing finally arrived (a week after they promised). I wish that violinist with the tortured chicken tone quality would come back...

For bass I can recommend the Lehle BassWitch. Nice EQ and a couple more options designed for live use, but overall great sound. The only thing that for me came close to the sound of the Lehle was a Phoenix Audio Nice DI.

Thanks, they were both new to me, I did a search and Thomann have it for sale, Sweetwater have one called a Phoenix Nimbus. Both pretty up-market, for my needs more than I can pay but they look like great gear
Really OT but being a DI thread, Radial is a safe mention so I'm thinking of getting their 8 channel splitter with the Jensen tx's, for recording live when the same mics have to go to a PA
I know Radial is a live industry standard and therefore common/old news/etc but I have to say, the quality is good and for the price, why not. Economies of scale right?
EDIT but yes now I want one that can handle level right off the speaker out from a guitar amp. Gotta try that.

I looked at the GS link and it's listed primarily as an IBP, and the instrument input is like an extra as per a lot of mic pre's. No photo of the back panel though, so does it have line in/outs only and you place them after your pre or maybe as inserts (to a console, pre etc), or what? 2 inputs, 2 outs? I'm not familiar with this type of processor

here is a pic of the back ..

Ah thank you, now I get it. Line in/out on XLR, so it just adjusts phase between them on one channel and you might use that to phase correct one channel against another. So I'm surprised it even has a DI / re-amp function but so much the better. Probably mainly for the benefit of phase correcting an instrument so why not just make it a real DI, I guess. Looks like a handy gadget.

OT another Radial product I think I like is the mid-side matrix unit, I forget what it's called. I've got several options to use mid-side for recording but a gadget like that would make it much easier to use MS live, and I'd get to try some fun setups

exactly. One of the times you most want to mess around with the In Between Phase is when you are taking a DI and miking the amp, so you can do it 'right there' - or you could insert lit later.

it is a great sounding DI even as an 'everyday' DI. I have other reampers, but the IBP is my favorite. It really has the 'invisible guitarist' thing going on.

So many times that would have been a huge help, often the player asks for a blend of mic and direct but as soon as you do you just hear the phase cancellations drop all the good out of it. You can phase invert one channel and maybe it'll help but the IBP would be so much better. Great tip, much appreciated

yeah, crazy how many things are useful .. joeQ laid it out well ... and Crazy how Phat Sounding the DI is .. it blows me away everytime i plug it in !!

thats what i used it for too .. DI bass and AMP - dial it in !!

cheers john

The UAD plug-in of the IBP is one I use on every mix is fantastic. When I’m recording with my Apollo I do use it on the way in, but having the box at live shows would be great. I do use input delay to line up sources when needed, which helps a lot. I haven’t used a console yet that has all pass filters on the eq to do that part though. I’m not saying one doesn’t have them, I just haven’t used one yet.

A lot of bassists ask for a blend but if there's a phase problem (and that's not unusual) you're better off without. Technically it COULD help you out but when does it ever. It sounds like a super useful unit, and the way it's not just 90 or 180 degrees but variable must be the biz
That mid-side processor is out of production as it turns out, THAT would have been great for me so maybe I'll just have to find a IBP to cheer myself up with instead