Why Do You Need a D.I. Box?

What does a D.I. (direct injection) box do? It converts a high-impedance instrument signal to a line level input.

Why do you need one?

1. If your audio interface does not have a high-impedance instrument input and you connect an instrument directly to your interface, there will be an “impedance mismatch” and this makes the audio sound really bad. It rolls off the high frequencies and makes the audio sound muffled. Converting the high-impedance signal to a line level signal will allow you to get an accurate representation of the instruments output.

2. If you want to record a D.I. signal to your DAW while also playing through an amplifier. This is possible because most (if not all) D.I. boxes have an input, a thru output (send to your amp), and a line output (which you send to your audio interface). This is great if you want to record your guitar tone but want to be able to possible reamp the D.I. signal in the future if you change your mind about what sounds good.

I include demos of all of this in the video above.

Clip from BSP-396: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8NL8v8Jtso
Originally Aired: 4 AUG 2024