Which DI box / instrument input are you using and why? Do you wanna see me comparing more DI boxes? Let me know! 🤘

One of the best videos on the subject ever! Great work Kristian!

One of the only audio channels worth anything in 2023. Discussing impedance? You are on the good side of the universe.

This is why I like my IK Multimedia Axe I/O interface. It has switches for active or passive and JFET or Pure. Plus, it has the "Z-Tone" knob which lets you dial the impedance from 1 MOhm to 2.2 kOhms.

BEST Di box comparison on KZfaq! Thanks for all you did to show the differences!

Great idea. Personally, I woulda loved to see stuff that most people use and not 2 boutique DI's. For instance, Radial Pro D2/D1, Neve RNDI-and the RNDIS, Radial JDI(which is my preferred generic DI), ADesigns Reddi, BAE PDIS 2, and the creme of the crop Avalon U5. Keep the Telefunken as that's also one of the go too's, however IME, the Telefunken rounds off everything above 15k a bit.

Ive been using the country type 85 for years, it’s built like a tank!! Great DI’s

Pls compare all you can get! :) For di.

This is such a detailed an in depth look at DI boxes! probably the most comprehensive look into different DI boxes that I've ever seen! I have the Rupert Neve DI box and I can't begin to stress how good it sounds! I would love to see how it stands up to these other DI boxes! Cheers!!

One thing guitarists can do is pick a buffer on their board they really like (or an always on boost or something) and use that both live and recording even when recording a DI signal as it'll do the impedance conversion and therefore the DI will have less affect on the sound (transformers and output impedance affect tone too). You can often even use a normal line input (low impedance) with a good buffer if the levels are fine (this still depends on output and input impedance of course). The reason you'd do this is to know exactly how the signal will react when reamped because usually a guitarist is not playing through a studios DI. Also reamp makes a difference because it does the other way and sometimes might be too low for the sound a guitarist once. I personally love very high impedance jfet circuits but they are brighter and higher impedance than my amps but allow more top end to come through and change how the volume and tone controls react.

I just compared a passive DI box (PRO CO) to an active one (RADIAL) and afterwards a passive Reamping box to an active one. Similar differences as you have shown. Thanks again for the great content buddy.

I watched a very in depth DI vid a couple years ago that compared 20, or so, DI’s and the Telefunken TDA-1 was my winner. It’s good to see it stands the rest of time. Great vid! Thanks for explaining so I’m depth the why’s of the different sounding types and impedances.

Over the years I've definitely noticed the differences between plugging into the instrument input on the interface, using DI boxes, or even the instrument input on certain preamps. Great demonstration! I'd be interested in seeing a video where you test out the instrument input on a number of other mic preamps. 🤘🏻🤘🏻

i didn't watch the video yet, but i wanted someone to dive into this topic for years, so thanks!!!!!

Countryman vs Mackie vs Berhinger would be cool to test.

I like the idea of distorting the singal using the DI box. Great video! :-D

Take a shot everytime he puts down that Telefunken di box😂

This has been very helpful to understand the concept. I have always assumed the expectation for a DI would be that when the recorded signal was re-amped it could closely match the sound of the same recorded guitar plugged straight into the amp. This would also mean properly matching levels of the guitar and the DI signal being reamped. I have been thinking to set up a test with a looper pedal to record my loop through the DI. I would then send the recorded track back looped from the daw and re-amp it and then switch the amp input between the re-amp signal and my looper pedal and see how close I could get the 2 sounding through the amp. If I could get them sounding close I would be happy to stick to that DI setting for all recordings.

Dropped a sub, what a great vid. That Lightning Boy does everything well.

When this man says something, matters. It is time to listen! Havent heard you say this or compare products like this since the speaker video through the URM academy.

I use the radial J48 active and I've had great luck with it into a BAE 312 preamp. 312 has a nice upper mid boost and the mic input is like 1400 ohms. I've compared it to the Camden 500, and a BAE 1073. The Camden was the flattest pre and the 1073 had a but of low / top boost. I'd be interest on your take on the Radial!

I have an ART MPA II. It has an independent Impedance knob. It definitely makes a tonal difference when adjusted to each mic....Great Video! Good information for those "non-techy" viewers.

Currently wondering If I needed a DI box, so this video came out at the perfect time. Thanks Kristian!

I mostly use ISA One of Focusrite and 1073 for another channel as alternative - for clean guitar/bass channels, then reamp in real or VST amps. Also have a Redbox of H&K but don’t really use it much.

This is a great video and more people should watch it! I'll definitely send it to my bandmates. Btw., I like to use the analogy of a door and something trying to go through it to describe input and output impedance. The higher your input impedance, the bigger the door. The higher your output impedance, the larger the thing trying to go through it. If the door is too small (i.e. the input impedance too low) your signal won't be able to fit through it without losing size. I hope that makes sense.

Hi Kohle, This has been very helpful to me - My dedicated guitar amp IS basically my Macbook/iPad +plus a DI input. I have a Focusrite iTrack Solo (basically a Scarlett 2i2, but with 1 '48V ghost power' mic input and 1 instrument input. (It's pretty decent.. I think...? 500 kilo ohms instrument input...) However, I also have 2 passive inputs (for iPhone/iPad). The iRig. And the "improved" iRig 2. Now these... Are shit. Had an Apogee Jam a few years back. (Active). That one was amazing. Anyways - this video has been very helpful. The impedance thing actually makes sense to me with this analogy. And now I know what to look for when I investigate the specs of the iPoop and iPoop 2. (I mean... Maybe it's obvious they wouldn't be AS good as my Focusrite thing. But they were advertised to me as decent products at some point in time... And, in my experience, they're really not. (Also, thx for crushing my dream of "...so maybe if Iet the gain knob go into the red, I get this Dark Storm sound...? 😮" . [I say this, while being accompanied by sad gypsie violin music, of course] . But for real - the explanation of that made sense to me as well. (And as you know, I don't exactly have a background in playing tonal instruments, and stuff I know about audio I taughy myself... So very much a lack of knowledge.) This whole tutorial/discussion was very clear, easy to follow BUT very in depth. Cheers from Amsterdam Igor / MCB

With passive pickups, as you reduce the InZ, the first thing that happens is the resonant peak at the top of that pickup’s frequency response gets reduced. The cutoff frequency stays about the same, you just get less boost right at that frequency. This is usually in the range we would call high mids. As that Z gets much smaller, the whole filter shifts downward. (It’s actually exactly the same thing that happens turning down the guitar’s T knob until that knob gets down about halfway and starts doing something a little different) NOW 30K is a very low impedance for a passive pickup. The passive DI into a decent pre looks probably 10 times bigger and the others are 30 times bigger. It’s only like 3 times bigger than the Line In. I think what we’re hearing in that TF is the suppression of that resonant peak. It’s still not rolling off the frequencies above cutoff much more, but it’s boosting high mids around cutoff a lot less. Those higher frequencies are a bigger part of what we’re hearing, and we are less distracted by that twangy part. I think that box is more made for situations where the DI guitar or bass will be used on its own in the mix, and frankly not suitable for the sort of tracking - for amp sims or reamping - that we’re talking about. It is nothing like what you’re amp would actually hear from your guitar unless you regularly keep your T knob down halfway.

Props for your alliterative use of “telephonic” and Telefunken in the same sentence.

the fact that some big soundman youtubers actually point out "tone difference, so do you need it?" more than "balanced and low impedance" is quite cute. well yeah if we're playing at home where we are the only listener, yes we don't need it. but for someone like me who plays for church and some stages, having it is important. thank you for the explanation, great video

Here is what I noticed, harmonics. Each input flavored the signal differently. I could hear the harmonic difference, but could not pinpoint the frequency(ies). The darker the signal, the muddied the liw end got. So my thinking is that the high end is getting rolled into lower freqs, compressing to an extent without increasing sound level accordingly. On a side note, modellers have an advantage here. The higher end ones can set the output impedance with separate outputs as well. A bonus if it also cleans up the signal prior to a pedal chain.

This is very interesting, now I will tests my Audient's DI input and some other DI box I have lying around!

Man, all this stuff is complications I wish weren't there 😅... I Currently run my Kemper's "Direct Output" for capturing the DI, 6.3mm patch cable straight to my Scarlett Clarett 8pre, but I have no idea if that is a good method or not. I can't say I've ever trusted it, but the convenience has made me not look into alternatives. That aside, the Dark Storm is the clear winner out of these in my book. Added some nice grit to the guitar and made the bass clanky and clear.

Having experience with the 498T in DI and clean amps, that Telefunken DI is very colored. The somewhat honkey tone you hear in the DIs is what the pickup sounds like and what makes it good for passive high gain tones (the tone of a tube screamer is a mid hump, after all). I have done DI shootouts, including level matching and frequency analysis. I'll add on to others saying the Radial J48 is a very uncolored option and is conveniently powered by phantom power. I recently shot it out against an old GT passive DI box, the HI-Z input on the Apollo x8p and on another API clone box HI-Z. The Radial seemed to be the most true to the tone of the pickups. The GT was pretty good, but started rolling off the tone in the high mids, which came off sounding "warm" but was probably too colored for most applications. The Apollo seems to have a harsh bump in the high mids. The API clone had a very unsurprising API color.

I would like to share my thoughts: Over the years, I have experimented with numerous DI boxes, both well-known and obscure ones, encompassing low and high impedance, as well as tube and clean options..... I have never been fond of tube DI boxes for guitars(but bass are another story). While they may work well for clean tones, they tend to make palm muting muddy and soft no mater how you cut the lows. Ultimately, I have found that Type 85 DI boxes suit me best. very high impedance, offering a clean and transparent tone. provide a sharp attack that suits my preferences. Another one is the IK Axe DI. I think it does introduce its own distinct "IK color" in comparison to the Type 85, but in most cases, this coloration is desirable and adds to the overall sound. The DI input on the Kemper is exceptionally "tight," and the DI on the AXE FX II is also commendable for its clean and clear characteristics.

Hi Kohle! Great content as usual dude, thanks for the effort and the useful information you're sharing with us. I use the RME Babyface Pro. On the Line/Instrument In it has an input inpedance of 470 kOhm. Do you think that's good enough for recording metal guitars? I also use that Inout for Bass guitar. I'd be glad for your valuation. Greeting from Germany, brother!

I'm using the Radial JDV mk3 active Class-A direct box for years now... and now I want the Telefunken 😎

Forget comparing DI-boxes - please compare re-amp boxes!!! I'm super confused what re-amp box i should get because your friend Glenn Fricker bashed Radial re-amp box(es) and he swears by Signal Art reamp box... Which is not so easy to get in Europe. And please try to include the new Walrus Audio Canvas Re-amp if just possible! Thanks! 🤘😘

Really great and helpful information. Finally able to wrap my head around what to look for. Thanks!

It's couple years now I have the ADT, sounds great but I never understood why it doesn't have a link/thru output, now I finally got it! Thanks Kohle! (and thanks to Mr. Tauber for this great piece of gear)

Great content. I would love to watch how to connect a pedalboard with amp pedals (Dream65, HX Stomp, etc) and why LI is more important than a DI.

Just what I was looking for before the next record :D Gutes Timing Bruder!

When you explain technical information I feel use of diagrams is easiest to get your point across (specially if you are going to A/B ideas). Your audience will absorb a lot more information.

Thanks for teaching the pronunciation of Telefunken.

I’ve shot out 8 or so different DI boxes and ended up more confused than really figuring out which was better. One DI box would sound better than another depending on passive or active pickups but the same di box would sound worse reamping through a modeler like an axefx compared to the di captured from the axefx , then reamping through an amp the opposite would be true. So it all seems to be very dependent on the circumstance.

I think how you explained impedance was a bit confusing. A lot of thruth, though. Guitar signal from a passiv pickup is a high impedance signal, with all the negaitve effects of long cable runs (basically you apply a low pass filter with cables over 3 to 4 meters lenght). An active pickup has a built in preamp and will give you a low impedance signal! To convert a high impedance to a low impedance guitar signal you use a buffer or a buffered pedal as early in your signal chain as possible (sometimes you need to use older fuzz pedals or wha pedals before a buffer to not sound like shit). A buffer just makes a "copy" of your signal and converts the impedance. A "good" buffer has a imput impedance of around 1 Mega-Ohm and a output impedance of around 100 Ohm. But don't just run out and buy a expensive buffer pedal, a stinking old Boss pedal in bypass will do the trick, as all Boss pedals have a buffer (or sometimes multiple) built in. 1 M-Ohm impedace is around the same impedance a guitar amp has, so if you use a buffer after a 3 m cable length your passiv pickup will react as if you are plugged into your amp with a 3 m cable (no loss in high end or dynamics). A good rule of thumb is to use a buffered bypass pedal as the first and last of your pedal board and use true bypass between them. So it won't change the tone when you play. Only using true bypass pedals might seem a cool idea at first, but as soon as you turn one on it will be a "buffer" in your signal chain and depending on your rig can change the tone. With sandwitching your pedalboard it will sound the same, no matter what pedal you use. PS.: I built my own buffer pedal a while ago, to get all the benefits. The schematics were from my brother, who is a HiFi enthusiast, and was based of a JHS little black buffer. He just improved the headroom and also did a V2 version witch improves the headroom even more and you can use it with 9 - 18V of power without damaging the pedal. @Kohle, if you want one, I can build one for you. ;)

Hot take: I dont like using DIs to reamp guitar unless it is for a secondary "character tone" where the detail doesn't matter as much. I have shot out my radial active DI, a two notes torpedo reload, a radial reamp box, direct to line on interface versus my guitar recorded through a miced amp directly (no reamp). I always seem to prefer the tone going directly into the amp... I've also tone matched these DIs with fabfilter pro-q and they all have pretty significantly different eq curves. I know many producers love messing with DIs and tone matching or compressing them. To me it just seems like adding more variables than necessary. I'd rather spend the time dialing in my amp and microphones. Just one man's opinion... That preamp sounded kick ass though. Sounded like a JFET style fuzz or something.

Great comparison bravo Kristian! One thing you forgot to mention about DI is "ground lift". It probably seems not so important while studio recording, but for live use it's necessary. Good luck🤘

I use a Country Man. Bullet proof, and sounds just fine :)

Thank you for this lesson!

I've been using a lot of ampsims lately, so I go straight to the interface, but If it's a reamp or recording with real amps, then DI-BOX are a must.

This is really important. I use the radial jdi passive di. I would never use a preamp inst input. They sound harsher to mee always. The jdi to mee gives a smooth buttery sound to me

Thanks for the info and demo on DIs! I must say, I wish I knew this info sooner as I own a couple of DI boxes I thought should be appropriately equipped for this application, but their input impedance is 220k! (Rhymes with Sadial) Now to resell and pick up a new DI box.

Very cool! I'm interested to see how different all mine are. (I do a lot of live sound) Acoustic guitars are where I think this info could come in extra handy! Could brighten or darken the signal before it even hits the board if it was needing it. Excellent demo!! Cheers from the shores of Lake Ontario just out side Toronto!🤘

Been waiting for this video since I mentioned to you that Telefunken has DI's that you didn't notice behind you on your NAMM video. Would love to see it compared to Rupert Neve DI, Audioscape Classic DI, possibly Radial for reference, and if it fancies you check out the KHAN DI. It's a Tube DI made by the original designer of the Ampeg SVT DI. What's interesting about it is that the THRU output of the KHAN is effected as well and meant to make solid state heads sound more tubey.

"Tele-Funken" is the single greatest word in the world. I love to say "Holy Telefunken". "By the great Telefunken in the sky!".

Thank You !

Really cool collection you get there! I made a little DI comparison on my channel, comparing accesible active DI box, my DIY passive DI box with fancy transformer and two Hi Z Inputs of my audio interfaces. I found that for my application active DI works best: great high's, decent lows, not as coloured as going through passive DI, sounds faster and more clinical, probably closer to the source.

For bass, I like to use a valve preamp / channel strip as a DI. I was introduced to this in the early 2000s and never really looked back. I now can't see any reason to use a DI box when tracking bass. My TL Audio preamps and compressors have unbalanced outputs on 1/4" jacks, as well as balanced XLRs, so they work well as reamp boxes too. The C1 stereo compressor, sadly discontinued, is an amazing bit of kit.

So funny I was just looking at DI's. Ended up by a cheap Rapco D-100 which seems to have really flat performance, for $15. If it sucks no big deal. But the one I almost bought was the Neve RND, which can take a load from your speaker out of your amp to capture power amp goodnessI. I'm glad I didn't buy anything higher end yet though, this seems like something you would want to take some time to figure out which is the right one for your use case.

Great video, learned a lot!

put a buffer in front of a cheap passive DI for a clearer sound.. I use the waza tuner

Wait up What i got from that was we can possibly have a Impulse response of different DI's yeah . Great idea . Kinda like the amp speaker or guitar circuitry thing .

Nice comparison sir, I'll buy a Telefuuuuuunken for sure

Radial, Palmer, BSS and Whirlwind would be a great comparison.

Cool video! I’m curious how the DI’s from most modelers sound compared to a separate DI. 🤔 Most modelers let you record the DI via USB simultaneously. I’m curious if they’re on par with these, or if they have a noticeable difference in quality.

Radial Pro DI here.

This was amazing!! I really dig your comparisons!!

I always the DI's on my Audient but seeing this video I might want to use the DI on my Golden Age pre. You can also dirty up that single going in. Would be an interesting experiment.

Enjoying the Demos and Chugging! I’m using active acoustic pedal chain into Warm passive DI for Zoom H6 loops. Gain staging challenges.

I was wondering how much of these differences can be compensated for with the amplifier settings, booster, IR, preamp, and post-processing. All of these boxes sound different, but with the complete setups, you can surely make them all sound similar. Maybe the only thing that would change are the transients. What do you think?, i can put saturn before any amp sim and add some saturation to my D.I like you did with sand storm, is just different i know but, i dont know.

Please review the Beyerdynamic MC840 as there is no proper review dedicated to this amazing mic!!!

I compared instrument input of my Steinberg UR242 to Simpleway DI - was amazed by difference. Also, I tried my Darkglass b7k as DI - it works cool as well 😀

i have a rack of apollos and an RNDI and the Neve has a great sound. I had a Radial and it was ok but wasn't as good as the Apollo, the Neve blows them both out.

Interesting! I can say I pretty much disliked the tone of the Telefunken, it has this resonance or whatever, it made the guitar tone kind of 'whining' IMO :) I really really liked the Atelier der Tonkunst the most though, both on guitar and bass! It was crispier and I believe it is a better starting point for many guitar and bass tones. Anyway, great comparison! I was also secretly expecting you to do a comparison with audio interface built-in DIs like the ones from Audient or RME or MOTU or whichever you have in your studio! Was a bit disappointed tbh that you had not included these :) very interesting how those do stack up because built-in DIs are certainly what the average bedroom producer would use for their guitar and bass needs :) Thanks!

thank you!!

It would've been cooler if you added the GB tracker to this list as Eric valentine went to great lengths to make it the most transparent. Cool video nonetheless!

To me, it's easy to be impressed with the aggressive, upfront sound of the Dark Storm but it seems like the ADT seems the most (I don't know the right word) versatile? Useful? It seems like it hits the sweet spot of not being too bright or too dull.

my focusrite sounds 1:1 as my countryman 85. thats the gold standard for me. generally you don’t want any tubes or transformers in your di box, it should be clean. so if that dark storm sounds like a tubescreamer. ehh do you really need that? it should be compared to the guitar plugged in straight into the amp ideally.

Fantastic! Thanks for the efforts! I would be curious how the Radial boxes compare to some of these.

Frikkin amazing video man. ty

Excellent video thanks you

Ok that dark storm sounds wicked. But thats quite the money, compared to most DI Boxes out there, tou would have to dish out for it. I would love to grab it, but have to pass

Pity you haven’t show the Audient guitar input as it is not just a clean DI but really coloristic. Which sometimes you don’t need if you want to reamp. But for practising and for using the guitar is is it is really nice

Man, the bridge explanation was great thank you! Something I'm missing in the analogy though: If high impedance means a "more solid" connection with better treble and transient response, why is more not always better? Why isn't everything 1meg or 1.5meg for example?

It feels like the DI's are affecting the stereo field differently as well...

I've been using a Radial J48 for about 10 years at this point. Never really had GAS for DI boxes, until I saw the Telefunken, but from this demo, I can deduct, that I am no longer interested in it.

I`ve never considered any DI box (because why anyway?), but in my country I`ve seen only Behringer, DBX and Radial

Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI > Everything else IMHO for over 20 years.

If you do more DI shootouts i'd love to see the Warm audio DI that can switch between active and passive (think it has an amp setting too?) think its the "WA-DI-A"

Great video, thanks a lot! :) Personally, I'm most interested in RNDI vs Telefunken and maybe vs some radials as they seem to be very popular with people. I tried using Warm Audio DI and Audient's interface DI, but I wasn't too happy with them. A lot of amp simulations, especially Marshalls, make them sound like they hate the whole world and want to drill a hole in my brain, brrr :-O Speaking of built-in DI interfaces, I liked what RME had. And in the past, before he died, call me a freak, built-in DI Behringer FCA610. In the amp simulations, it sounded darker, with a much nicer sound.

Awesome vid Kohle -- DI boxes = not sexy -- but super useful. Question -- what is the pretty, light blue 500 series preamp module you're using for the vocal mic in this vid?

There are some inaccuracies. The tube amp and speaker comparison have nothing to do on how a tube amp work. The impedance is matched on the output transformer it is the feedback on the amp what produce the curve of a tube power amp. You can design a transistor amps with the same curve. It is the amount of feedback. You mixed stuff that will make the viewers more confused. A passive di box just transform impedance so depend of the input impedance of the preamp. An active di isolated the impedance keeping the input impedance high and output low. Check your di input impedance. You need 1 meg minimum for passive pick ups the more the better. Anything 33k or less is probably fine for keyboards, computers maybe active pick ups but definitely not for passive pick ups.

how abt some mic pre blending on mixing guitar mics

Now you have me wondering what happens if you play an overdrive pedal into a DI. Would you get the same effect?

You should definitely check the instrument input on Focusrite isa one (especially when it goes thru main transformer) and the passive version of the Telefunken.

Avalon U5 on passive Bass. otherwise Radial JDI

I wonder how the Telefunken compares to the Undertone Audio GB Tracker. Or if there's anything else in the sonic universe of that Telefunken DI. I really dug it.

Great video man! If I have to choose only one di box to work with both active and passive pickups, witch one you reccomend? Active or passive di?

Countryman Type 85. You don't need to think about anything else. Just get a Type 85.

Shi*ttt great video !! PLEASE a Chep DI`s version !!