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Recording your own original music is exhilarating. The opportunity to finally get your songs produced for the whole world to hear. But listen closely, because nothing stops the beat like unwanted buzzing, humming, clipping, crackling, and radio signal noises lurking in the background of your track.
That’s where a direct box comes in.
What You Need to Know About Direct Boxes
The best direct boxes, whether referred to as DI units, a DI box, or just “DI,” all serve the same main purpose: taking a high-output impedance unbalanced signal, and converting it to a low impedance balanced signal, typically through an XLR connector and cable.
Pretty much all electric instruments emit unbalanced signals. A direct box is used to connect your instrument to the input preamp of a mixing console for the purpose of recording, sound reinforcement, or playing live. When this happens, the signal is able to be sent through long cables without interference and with minimal loss of strength, giving you the sound you want, loud and clear.
When shopping for a direct box, “the only thing to consider is what you’re doing with it,” says Philadelphia-based audio engineer Brett Diamond. “For the most part, electric guitar players will want a passive DI, which is just a transformer that cancels noise, and they’ll want one that’s built like a tank. You want a fairly simple DI, mostly because you’re likely doing simple things with it. A DI box is not the unit in one’s collection to drop cash on bells and whistles,” he says.
Sources like electric guitars and basses are used with passive DIs that don’t require power. But for most instruments that are battery-powered or plug into the wall, active DI boxes are a better choice. These typically include a preamp for a stronger signal and higher input impedance, and usually feed off an AC adapter, batteries, or phantom power.
It may not look like much, but this small metal box automatically takes care of a lot of the most common issues, such as level matching, balancing, minimizing unwanted noise, distortion, and the annoying hum of ground loops. We’ve selected three solid choices to get you started recording and playing your music the way it was meant to be heard.
