When working with electric instruments you will need to ensure you can get a clear and strong signal into your computer or portable device. When using an electric guitar for instance, many audio interfaces have dedicated ‘instrument’ inputs, but if your interface does not have this facility and/or you are using additional equipment such as a mixing desk to create your sounds, you will need something to match the output signal of your instrument to the input of your computer set-up. A Direct Injection (DI) box in certain circumstances can help match outputs of your instrument to the input of your computer set-up. DI boxes do this by ‘impedance matching’ and more detail can be found here.
There are ‘active’ and ‘passive’ types of DI Boxes and generally, but certainly not exclusively, active DI boxes are used for electric and bass guitars with ‘passive’ pick-ups. Passive DI boxes tend to be used for instance with electrified guitars and basses with Active Pick-ups. Active DIs require a type of powering called ‘Phantom Power’ which, depending on your set-up, can be provided by a mixer or audio interface. Look out for a 48+V switch on your device.
Electronic keyboards which generate sounds from internal circuitry, and other electronic devices that can generate sounds via software synths, such as laptops and iPads usually do so at ‘line level’ output. In the absence of enough line level inputs on an audio interface, a passive DI Box can be an effective way of getting signals into your computer set-Up via an XLR input.
Finally, DI Boxes have a number of other useful features including something called ground lift. In instances where there is an audible low frequency hum heard in your speakers or headphone when an electric instrument is connected to your computer set-up, DI Boxes usually have a ground lift switch which can safely reduce this unwanted interference when the lift is switched on.
As with everything in life, the quality of DI boxes varies according to their cost. UCan Play, the company managing the Interface:Response project, can provide you with preferential pricing on any technology items that you might want to purchase. We can advise you further on the options through our mentoring support programme (part of Interface:Response). Please get in touch with us for further details.
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