What direct box do you guys use live?

I've been using the Torpedo C.A.B. (and WOS III) for a while in my studio and am really loving it.

However, when I played live last time at church, I was pretty bummed with how bright and un-thick it sounded compared to my studio.

Now granted, in my studio I'm using an apollo, and at church my ears are going through the HORRIBLE PREAMPED avioms, but even so we have a very good sound system and streaming studio, and it still sounded bright and thin. The sound engineer says he had my guitar pre-eq so I was hearing it raw in the Avioms.

SO, I'm wondering if the cheap $20 direct boxes they used made a big different.

Any of you guys experimented with this? Would a Radial JDI, or something similar, make a big improvement? I don't mind investing in it if its going to matter. I'm really working to get the greatest direct tone possible, to dispel the myths and mostly to be more consistent than having so many variables in my live amped rig.

Thoughts?

Is your studio acoustically treated, or some mid-level monitors in the corner of a bedroom (i.e. if there are a lot of low-end standing-waves in your studio your sounds will be bass light in a different environment etc)?

It should be a simple matter to adjust mic/mic position, and EQ for your Church system, and save it as a separate preset etc.

Also, how good are the IEM's?

I doubt a DI will help (assuming there's no impedance mis-match happening)?

erick4x4":101ypu92 said:

I've been using the Torpedo C.A.B. (and WOS III) for a while in my studio and am really loving it.

However, when I played live last time at church, I was pretty bummed with how bright and un-thick it sounded compared to my studio.

Now granted, in my studio I'm using an apollo, and at church my ears are going through the HORRIBLE PREAMPED avioms, but even so we have a very good sound system and streaming studio, and it still sounded bright and thin. The sound engineer says he had my guitar pre-eq so I was hearing it raw in the Avioms.

SO, I'm wondering if the cheap $20 direct boxes they used made a big different.

Any of you guys experimented with this? Would a Radial JDI, or something similar, make a big improvement? I don't mind investing in it if its going to matter. I'm really working to get the greatest direct tone possible, to dispel the myths and mostly to be more consistent than having so many variables in my live amped rig.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Hi , what kind of monitors do you use on stage? Because, to me, that would be the weaker link. A DI can't make such a drastic change.

Well, I feel like even with my IEM's in my headphone jack of the interface it still sounds pretty different than the church setup, but its obviously hard to A/B being alone in my studio and in a 6000 seat room with a large band .

But this is all so new to me, I've only used amps for years of playing and recording at church so I'm still in the learning process. Ear's are Shure 425's.

The speakers aren't super nice for sure (M-audio m3-8's), but still pretty decent. I have some basic treatment, but not enough. I DO need to work on that in general. However, if anything usually my mixes have tended to have too much bass when I leave the studio, not too little because I don't hear a ton of bass in the room.

Regardless, I appreciate the comments before dropping $300 on a stereo JDI if its not really going to make much difference.

Any other thoughts?

Every venue is different, so try to dial in some Church presets on a off-day with the FOH engineer if possible.

In any case mic selection, mic positioning, and cab selection plus EQ gives you a lot of variables to optimize something for the Church system.

No I know all that, I'm actually pretty experienced believe it or not I guess I've just never run a non-amp rig, so I've never even owned a direct box, and was wondering if it was likely to be the culprit, or even if its not the culprit, would a better direct box be worth it in trying to be "as good as I can".

I have already been working a lot to dial in my sound before next Sunday. Obviously last Sunday, as soon as I heard the "difference" I used the EQ to dial it back in, I'm really just curious if the DI can make a difference. Like back when I went from a cheap $99 interface to a $800 interface I was pretty surprised the difference, and was curious if the DI played a similar role in this kind of setup.

I'm very happy with the sounds know, and think I'm getting a pretty close approximation at home to how the church setup is. Thank you all for you help. I feel like such a noob leaving my amp collection at home, but actually taking several weeks to audition cabs, dial it all in, has really helped!

Thank you all.