VellaJ
Been asked to provide a PA for a small gig for a friend's band this weekend. They're asking for a couple of DI boxes in the mix, one for Keyboard and one for an electric violin. (Actually they asked for bass and guitar as well, but we'll run through amps for that, because I don't have enough boxes.)
I have one box, an active Red Box, but it looks like I'll need to buy a second. I don't have the cash for another active box, so I took a look at a passive box at a more reasonable price.
Question one: What's the difference between the active and the passive DI boxes in terms of operation/quality, etc?
Question two: Are there any problems with mixing active and passive boxes in one PA when phantom power is activated? My mind says that the passive box shouldn't be affected at all, but I just want to check.
Suggestions?
AlanRatcliffe
There's a general rule-of-thumb, which is: Use passive DI for an active source (like keys) and active for a passive source (like a passive bass). Of course you also get specialised units like the active acoustic DIs, which are used mostly for active pickups, but more importantly, they are tailored for acoustic guitar.
One thing with DI's ...you get what you pay for, particularly with passive, where good transformers can make up most of the cost. I think that on the lower end of the price scale, you're better off with active boxes as decent circuitry is a lot cheaper these days than decent transformers. I've yet to hear a good, inexpensive passive DI...
Big-G
I have to echo Alan's comments here, although I tend to use actives on everything, and never had any issue. Active is the way to go if budget is seriously tight. You can actually get actives for only a small amount more than there passive cousins.
One such example is the ART DI's. I have bought the ART activeX DI, which cost around R500. The passive version was only slightly cheaper. The Dual channel version was R700 ish, so as you can see, they are affordable. Sound wise, I have found them to be very decent. Not great, as you would not expect them to be for the money, but they present no issues, and were surprisingly clear with very little background noise.
What I would say though, is avoid certain brands like the plague! I'm not normally one to name and shame, and I hope that this is allowed, since I speak this from experience, and not from any brand snobbery, but the Behringer active DI's have proven to be noisy and troublesome for my usage. They never failed, but always had a significant level of background noise. I replaced them firstly with some of the ART's, but after one did actually fail me within the first few weeks of use, I eventually decided to replace everything with DBX DB12's. They are fantastic DI's and have been rock solid! However, you can buy three Behringers for the price of one DBX! Well worth saving for though. I realise that doesn't help you in this situation, but may help you in future?
Only other thing to mention is that whilst most passives are able to accept phantom power without any issue, there are some cheaper circuits that may not respond nicely to the extra juice! The most important thing with any equipment connected to a desk with the phantom on is not to plug or unplug anything until the phantom is off.
Regards
G!
VellaJ
Thanks guys. Yeah it looks like I'll be able to make a plan with what I've got, Stu from the forum has a multi-fx pedal that can double as an active DI, so we'll use that as well.
When I say "reasonably priced passive DI" I'm talking around R600; I hope that it's a decent unit for that price ??? Can't for the life of me remember what make it was, but I know it was fairly well-known.
Appreciate the help!
