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DI for sound card

4Mal

4Mal

Gold Supporting Member
Jun 2, 2002
15,715
10,208
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Columbia River Gorge
#1
Have a larg'ish show coming up where the keyboard guy needs 6 lines. 4 for his computer plus an additional stereo keyboard. The keyboard is least, 2 countryman type 85's. My other type 85 goes on a drum sampler. Leaves me a single DBX active in my kit.

On to the sound card. All I have left in my box are 3 Radial Pro DI's 1/4 inputs, a generic (GT) passive with gnd lift, and a Radial Pro AV which is a stereo media DI.

So what typically comes off a sound card / computer ? 1/8th ? RCA ? 1/4 ? Surely not XLR...


The band is on tour and get's into town the day prior to the show. Hard to contact. So I'm in a bit of a scramble to figure out exactly what I should have to be prepared on 7/16.
 
#3
Kbd guy spec'ed 4 outputs from his computer though... I'm guessing hew has a sound card with break out box. Haven't thought about one of those in a long time... Guess I need to be patient and wait for the return email...
 
#5
4Mal said:
Kbd guy spec'ed 4 outputs from his computer though... I'm guessing hew has a sound card with break out box. Haven't thought about one of those in a long time... Guess I need to be patient and wait for the return email...
Click to expand...

Ah, I understand now. With regard to that breakout box, they are typically 1/4" TRS connectors that you'll need a 1/4" male TRS to male XLR adapters for. All of those interfaces that I've seen are pretty compact. My former place of work got a couple of Rapco rack-mount 8-channel DI units to accommodate those. We were seeing a lot of R&B bands (and more genres as time went on) come through with 360 Instant Replay and the various break-out boxes for their pre-recorded tracks. I think they still have a half-dozen 8-channel TRS-to-XLR looms floating around. I keep a half-dozen TRS-to-XLR (male and female) in own toy box. I made them with 8" of mic cable.

Of course, I could be wrong, it's possible that some breakout boxes do indeed come with XLR outputs. Yes, that email would be helpful...:D

Ahh, I see Big_Daws beat me to it and with a lot less words..:smug:

I hope this is what you are looking for.
 
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#6
Yep. Helpful from both you guys! TRS to XLR adaptors I have in abundance... Both Male and female XLR... I went through a period when very time a mic cord died, I made adaptors..

I put active DI's on keyboards by default. Do you guys ever use passive ? I have 6 channels of passive DI, mostly Radial Pro DI's and 5 active, mostly Country man Type 85's. This show want's 8 channels of DI...
 
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#8
Heh... Funny my Aussie buddies do chat, can drink me under the table, drive like men possessed, work hard, play harder... I suppose if we have to stereotype there are worse attributes to have... Other than the driving thing. I think 'rally' must have been in the water down there.
 
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#9
4Mal said:
Yep. Helpful from both you guys! TRS to XLR adaptors I have in abundance... Both Male and female XLR... I went through a period when very time a mic cord died, I made adaptors..

I put active DI's on keyboards by default. Do you guys ever use passive ? I have 6 channels of passive DI, mostly Radial Pro DI's and 5 active, mostly Country man Type 85's. This show want's 8 channels of DI...
Click to expand...

Just as an answer, I have 6 Radial JDIs and a couple of the stereo Radial JDIs. But all of my pro friends with the Radial Pro passive DIs love them. I'll use them on anything.

I went through this thing with Countrymans where I was really down on them because we started having a lot of trouble. They have 22 of them and we were experiencing noise, dropouts, and downright failures. All of the are many years old. By chance, I was messing with one where the guitar cable plugs in and I had a light-bulb moment. When I got one apart, I could see where the playing on the 1/4" jack had worn away and the exposed metal was corroded over. I cleaned the jacks, but the because the plating was gone, the corrosion came back pretty quickly. I called Countryman to buy some replacement jacks and they said they would replace the jacks for free if we'd cover the shipping one way. Now THAT'S service! So my faith in the Countrymans has been restored. I really like them, but I prefer the Radial JDIs because (A) they don't require phantom power and (B) they have the Jensen transformer (I've messed around with a home-built DI that had a Lundahl transformer and as best as my well-beaten ears can tell, they sound very similar). That's just me, it's strictly a preference thing. Also, I picked up a Livewire DI for $40 from GC to use with my home practice rig and I'm pretty impressed with it. They would be a good choice if you had a sudden need to run out and get a few passive DIs in pinch (and more, frankly).

I imagine you've seen this, but most national-act riders specify Countryman DIs, or active DIs. No one has ever refused to use the Radials and they have been showing on riders over the last few years. If meeting riders isn't a big part of your business, there's several really good active and passive DIs that are reasonably priced. I'd be happy with the Whirlwind actives or passives, the Livewires, DBX, and others.
 

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