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Getting an instrument into the PA

What a DI box does

A DI box takes the unbalanced, high-impedance signal from a guitar, a keyboard or a laptop and turns it into the balanced, low-impedance signal a mixing desk expects. That is what lets an instrument sit at the far side of a stage without picking up hum or losing its top end over a long cable. The passive boxes here use a transformer and need no power, and each has an earth lift for the hum that appears when an instrument and a desk are plugged into different sockets.

When you need one

• Keys or an acoustic guitar at the far side of the stage, with the desk at the back of the room.
• A laptop or a phone with only a headphone socket — the same box gets playback into a channel cleanly.
• A band bringing its own amplifiers that still has to feed your PA rather than only its backline.
• A hum that stops when a device is unplugged, which a DI with a lifted earth solves without touching a mains earth.
• A guitarist who would rather go straight into the desk than be miked up — that is what the amp modelling is for.

What to check

• One channel per instrument: a four-channel box such as the PAN 04 covers a keyboard rig in a single unit.
• The connection is usually jack in and XLR out, and it is the XLR end the desk wants.
• Amp modelling is an active pedal, so it needs mains power and a short lead of its own — worth a socket at that position.
• Leave the same slack at every position. A stretched instrument lead is the one that fails during the sound check.

Common questions

Do I need a DI box for a keyboard?

If the desk is more than a few metres away, yes. A keyboard output is unbalanced and will hum on a long run into a desk, where a DI converts it to a balanced signal and lifts the earth if the two are on different supplies.

What does the earth lift switch do?

It breaks the audio screen between the instrument and the desk, which silences a hum loop without touching any mains earth. Never solve a hum by removing the earth pin from a plug.

Can a guitarist go straight into the PA?

Through amp modelling, yes, and it is quieter on stage than an amplifier. The player still needs to hear themselves, so a monitor or a small amplifier stays on the list.