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Author Topic: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys  (Read 9338 times)

Tim McCulloch

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #10 on: November 04, 2015, 09:16:18 AM »


I know it's popular to not like Behringer, but I agree.  The D100s are fine.  I have a couple - although I usually use my own home made DIs first.


Steve.

Berry's cheap active DIs are the most failure prone item we've owned.  We have a stack of them (10?) that have been painted black and are used as monitor wedge angle adjusters.
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"If you're passing on your way, from Palm Springs to L.A., Give a wave to good ol' Dave, Say hello to progress and goodbye to the Moonlight Motor Inn." - Steve Spurgin, Moonlight Motor Inn

Roland Clarke

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #11 on: November 04, 2015, 09:36:52 AM »

Berry's cheap active DIs are the most failure prone item we've owned.  We have a stack of them (10?) that have been painted black and are used as monitor wedge angle adjusters.

I'm surprised this has been your experience.  My 4 (and several other people I know who have bought on my recommendation) have been totally reliable.  At a UK price of around £20 they are a no-brainer Radials start at around £90 and the active J 48 is around £170.  I use Radials on a reasonably frequent basis on other peoples rigs and they have always been fine, but I've never had sound issues with the DI100 either.  I'm not a berry lover for many reasons, but I think that these are probably the best product they make.
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Stephen Kirby

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #12 on: November 04, 2015, 02:03:39 PM »

Worked for years with a keyboard player who had a pair of the silver BSS wannabes and he was constantly futzing with them.  Eventually I got the Radial and took the load off him.  I also have a real BSS and there's no comparison other than the shape.  Those and a couple of Behringer comps I had years ago (for a brief time) soured me on the brand long before I ran into all the internet pile on.  I've seen people successfully using B stuff since and it wasn't as bad as those things but as active DI's go, the ARTs I have sound noticeably better (although not like a BSS or Countryman) are smaller and never given me any trouble.  I also have various Rapco and Whirlwind passives that are fine.  They just don't have the bottom end or transparency of the Radial.
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Roland Clarke

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #13 on: November 04, 2015, 05:44:58 PM »

Worked for years with a keyboard player who had a pair of the silver BSS wannabes and he was constantly futzing with them.  Eventually I got the Radial and took the load off him.  I also have a real BSS and there's no comparison other than the shape.  Those and a couple of Behringer comps I had years ago (for a brief time) soured me on the brand long before I ran into all the internet pile on.  I've seen people successfully using B stuff since and it wasn't as bad as those things but as active DI's go, the ARTs I have sound noticeably better (although not like a BSS or Countryman) are smaller and never given me any trouble.  I also have various Rapco and Whirlwind passives that are fine.  They just don't have the bottom end or transparency of the Radial.

If he had a problem with keys through the Behringer DI100's unless his boxes were faulty, the problems with the keys.  There is a lot of rubbish talked about DI boxes, as long as Impedance is high enough there shouldn't be much in it.  It's like all those that get terribly disappointed when they compare £1,000 a channel esoteric mic amps to £5 chip ones and discover there is little or no discernable difference.  I've used all the above mentioned ones and the only times I've run into troubles have been with old BSS ar116's, unreliable,  fragile, pieces of crap, a couple of the newer 133 ones that were U/S when plugged in.  Radials work great, but the screen printing wears off as they are not built for being kicked around a floor as DI boxes invariably do.

My cheapo Behringers have been kicked, dropped, tossed into cases by people thinking they are doing me a favour, helping me clear.  I've used them on every imaginable acoustic guitar, banjo, violin/cello/bass bug, keys from late 70's to the latest greatest from Nord, Yamaha, Korg, etc, more basses than you can shake a stick at, ranging from vintage, Pre CBS Fenders, Hofner violin basses, to the latest esoteric active stuff and everything in between and not once have I had to stop and change because of "lack of bass", noise, hum, or sound quality issues.  Anything that performs that well is a pretty good product in spite of what name is printed on it.
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Stephen Kirby

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #14 on: November 04, 2015, 06:23:34 PM »

Mostly I saw him poking at the switches and wiggling cables.  Which led me to think that they didn't use very good components in them.  When I bought a couple of the comps and they sounded like blankets over the speakers I just figured it was one of those "you get what you pay for" things and dumped the comps.  Later I ran into the "reputation" on the net and so there may have been some confirmation bias.  I don't jump on every bandwagon I see on the net, but the comments pretty much mirrored my experience.  Since my day job is electronics manufacturing, I'm pretty familiar with different grades of connectors and switches at different cost structures.

I do agree about the silkscreening on the Radials.  Not going to last long unless you package them up each time.  The metalwork is pretty heavy gauge but the lips can be bent if it's thrown into a case with things.

For some reason, nobody seems to make a good form factor for a DI.  Things like the extrusion with fins on the passive Whirlwind are funny as it's just somebody's cosmetic idea.  Basic serviceable features like lips to protect switches, square shape for easy stacking, simple flat black color scheme, seem to be missing these days as people race to create the next iMac.
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George Dougherty

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #15 on: November 04, 2015, 10:49:48 PM »

Berry's cheap active DIs are the most failure prone item we've owned.  We have a stack of them (10?) that have been painted black and are used as monitor wedge angle adjusters.
+100.  Want a cheap DI that holds up acceptably well check Audiopile.net
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Tim McCulloch

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #16 on: November 05, 2015, 03:25:47 AM »

+100.  Want a cheap DI that holds up acceptably well check Audiopile.net

I personally own 6 LDB-101 and the company has a couple dozen.  Great value, sounds good, very simple device.  Highly recommended.

We have other brands of active & passive DIs, but the EWI are the first choice for most applications.
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"If you're passing on your way, from Palm Springs to L.A., Give a wave to good ol' Dave, Say hello to progress and goodbye to the Moonlight Motor Inn." - Steve Spurgin, Moonlight Motor Inn

Tim McCulloch

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #17 on: November 05, 2015, 03:49:16 AM »


My cheapo Behringers have been kicked, dropped, tossed into cases by people thinking they are doing me a favour, helping me clear.  I've used them on every imaginable acoustic guitar, banjo, violin/cello/bass bug, keys from late 70's to the latest greatest from Nord, Yamaha, Korg, etc, more basses than you can shake a stick at, ranging from vintage, Pre CBS Fenders, Hofner violin basses, to the latest esoteric active stuff and everything in between and not once have I had to stop and change because of "lack of bass", noise, hum, or sound quality issues.  Anything that performs that well is a pretty good product in spite of what name is printed on it.

Ours were relatively well treated, but after a couple years they quit responding to phantom power or simply didn't pass audio any more.  They didn't sound anything like the BSS unit they tried to look like but were acceptable cheap DIs for use in situations where they might not come back (which is why we bought them).

I'm glad yours have held up, but our experience is different.
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"If you're passing on your way, from Palm Springs to L.A., Give a wave to good ol' Dave, Say hello to progress and goodbye to the Moonlight Motor Inn." - Steve Spurgin, Moonlight Motor Inn

Roland Clarke

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #18 on: November 05, 2015, 08:21:10 AM »

Ours were relatively well treated, but after a couple years they quit responding to phantom power or simply didn't pass audio any more.  They didn't sound anything like the BSS unit they tried to look like but were acceptable cheap DIs for use in situations where they might not come back (which is why we bought them).

I'm glad yours have held up, but our experience is different.

I think this is part of the problem, in that I've seen people have terrible problems with some Berry gear others not, perhaps manufacture is inconsistent.  As an aside, I had an 8channel headphone amp Berry again,  It was cheap and did a job, but relatively high noise for this day and age, the meters on the front were totally out of wack in that you could have the same level going into three channels and the meters were hardly registering on one and slamming on another.  Most circuit boards these days are all surface mount and largely manufactured in the same way.  You can buy wonderful AD/DA convertor chips for extremely low money, yet there are some older more esoteric, designs, that are fairly average performance yet still cost a lot.  It's more difficult to buy equipment that is costly and be guaranteed that it's really better or even more reliable and there is some fairly budget kit that does perform extremely well.
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Steve M Smith

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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #19 on: November 05, 2015, 02:42:34 PM »

They didn't sound anything like the BSS unit they tried to look like

That's true. In the UK, the BSS seems to be the standard.  It's rare to see anything else on stage.


Steve.
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Re: Mic for Trumpet/Sax / DI for Keys
« Reply #19 on: November 05, 2015, 02:42:34 PM »


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