Good Idea, Bad Idea, Crazy Idea

[Fishmed]

I was wondering if I took a clean mic pre that had unbalanced outs and went into a DI say a Manley STDI or an Avalon U5, would they impart some "character" to the signal anywhere in the ballpark of their respective mic pre's?

[Mike Brown]

Uhhhh If you DI-ed it.. you would probably need to put it back into another Pre again....

So probably any "character" you gained would be smashed back again...

This sounds like a interesting idea if you are going for a not-so-clean probably a bit distorted sound.

[Fishmed]

Originally Posted by Mayor999

Uhhhh If you DI-ed it.. you would probably need to put it back into another Pre again....

So probably any "character" you gained would be smashed back again...

This sounds like a interesting idea if you are going for a not-so-clean probably a bit distorted sound.

On most DIs I would agree with you, but reading the specs of the ones I listed, I thought the additional mic pre was optional and I could go straigt to tape. I do realize I would have have to watch my gain staging, but not having used either one was the reason why I posted the question.

[GoldenOne]

I think that you're going to run into some issues running a line level signal out to a DI input that is expecting to see an instrument signal. DI's are basically impedance matching devices between instruments and mic pre's. I can think of a few good mic pre's you could buy for the amount you'd spend on the STDI or the U5. If you did get a really nice character DI like these do you still have a nice preamp to couple them with?

[Fishmed]

Originally Posted by GoldenOne

I think that you're going to run into some issues running a line level signal out to a DI input that is expecting to see an instrument signal. DI's are basically impedance matching devices between instruments and mic pre's. I can think of a few good mic pre's you could buy for the amount you'd spend on the STDI or the U5. If you did get a really nice character DI like these do you still have a nice preamp to couple them with?

Thanks GoldenOne. I do have a couple of nice mic pres. A couple of my lower end ones have unbalanced outs, so I was just curious to see if could add some character to them using the above idea.

[Flying_Dutchman]

maybe you could use a reamping-box before the di box,
so level and impedance could be right

[Jules]

IMHO this is wishful thinking. I doubt there would be enough character influencing circuitry involved in the chain to deliver what you are looking for..

But there is nothing wrong with wishing...

[Fishmed]

Originally Posted by Flying_Dutchman

maybe you could use a reamping-box before the di box,
so level and impedance could be right

That was Plan B.

[Fishmed]

Originally Posted by Jules

IMHO this is wishful thinking. I doubt there would be enough character influencing circuitry involved in the chain to deliver what you are looking for..

But there is nothing wrong with wishing...

Thanks Jules, that was kind of the information I was looking for.

[Clive Banks]

IMHO this is wishful thinking. I doubt there would be enough character influencing circuitry involved in the chain to deliver what you are looking for..

But there is nothing wrong with wishing...

well said.

[John Suitcase]

I think using a DI might not get you what you're after, but running the output from an unbalanced preamp through something like a Cinemag output transformer can add some nice mojo. I have a few cheap-o line transformers from a 70's Peavey mixer that add something kinda cool to the basic preamps in my Yamaha mixer. Just wire them up in a project box, with some 1/4" jacks.