Skip to main content

hi,

how's this for a cheap live-off-the-floor recording technique/
i'm trying to record my band by plugging everyone into our mixing board and capturing the output on my usb interface into my laptop. I also have an output to a 4 channel headphone amp/splitter ..so the Foh/monitor speakers are turned off. The guitars are direct in to the board, drums, vocals are miCD into the board.. so far so good, sound is clean, separated and balanced.

my one problem - getting the bass to work through a DI box.. tried but got nothing.. just a very faint noisy signal. Now i did use this Di box years ago and it worked really well.. But I can't remember how I did it. Ithought it was just plug 1/4: cable from bass into di box input.. and di box output cable into mixer...Do you have to go thru the amp first? ie. bass to amp to Di to mixer?
I thought Di meant direct in..

I suppose it could be;
- a bad cable - unlikely as its a new hi-quality shielded cable
- a bad Di box - it's an old Korg Toneworks
- I have another box to try which is made for bass - a Zoom bass effects box. which is probably much better quality than the Korg box. The manual shows connection as ; bass to box to amp.. can this be used as Di box/ i.e, bass to box to mixer? (it is an 8 channel powered mixer/amp
)

I'm not a bass player or a Di box expert so any insight is much appreciated, Thanks!

Comments

Kev Sun, 12/06/2009 - 12:35

it could be a cable issue
bass to DI ... check cable - bass to amp
DI to Mixer ... check cable - Mic to Mixer

Mostly a DI box will make the Bass look like a Mic ... that is to the mic input of the Mixer
take the bass 1/4 and turn it into XLR and do impedance things that you don't need to think about just yet

BUT
sometimes a DI box may be set to take the output of the guitar amp and split to speaker and to mixer
In this case the VERY LOUD amp will be reduced in level (PAD) so as to interface with a mic input

Does the DI have an AMP / Instrument switch.

The Di box could be faulty ... blown transformer ... Dry solder joint ... broken solder joint ... it's old so could be RUSTY connection in the 1/4 inch
...
broken 1/4 inch or near broken perhaps ?

CAN'T find a reference to Korg Toneworks DI Box on google
just a more elaborate Ampworks processor things

:shock:
just a thought
this is not a battery driven DI is it ?
a dead battery perhaps

anonymous Mon, 12/07/2009 - 11:14

Hi Kev,
Thanks for the info.. starting to get what a DI box does. The Korg box is pretty basic in/out and 4 or 5 knobs. It could be fried.. as the cables are in good shape.

I seem to remeber when I used it the bass produced a good clean signal without an amp attached.. but an electric guitar required an amp as the signal was too low and noisy.. probably something to do with the pickups or signal.

In any case I'll try the Zoom box which has an amp modeller.. after I kick my bass player for not being able to find his DI box :)

x

User login