Preamp or Direct Box - Which is Best for Acoustic?

[@tootory9506]

Obviously, the warm audio has a Boomy bump around 120 Hz - I hear a little more harsh upper meds on the warm audio as well, whereas the redeye is scooped touch, in the Hi-mid's and has a little sparkle bump around 5K. The redeye sounds slightly compred, gluing the notes together better .. If I had to pick one today for a session, I would go with the redeye. Thanks for this video. Keep up the great work!

[@rayclark6596]

Max Gall is who we all aspire to be as artist musicians. Thanks for introducing us!

[@2tallB]

I doesn't really matter what you play that would determine what type of DI you use, it's the impedance of the pickup system. The K&K has an impedance of 1 meg-ohm, which is not typical. The Red-Eye is one of the few options for a preamp that pairs very. well with a K&K. It's a solid piece of gear that won't fail and it uses phantom power or you can use a battery that will last a long time. Using a passive DI on an acoustic can be a very nice sound in that it will warm up the sound a bit. It sounds smoother. Using a passive DI with the K&K is not a great match, though, because it loads it down a little and it sounds a bit muffled.... Also, another very good passive DI, aside from your Warm Audio one, is the Radial JDI which has a nice fat Jenson transformer in it, giving a smooth signal. ... one thing I've done that works great for K&K is to use the Red-eye and take the line-out from the loop, and plug that into the Radial JDI (with a tuner/ mute between) and then to the house. That way you're using the correct impedance of the Red-eye and bypassing its small transformer and using the bigger JDI transformer. Sounds great. ... Another final point is that there are now better Soundboard Transducers than the K&K ... one is an UltraTonic ... it takes the same concept but improves the tone with same simple electronics and it pairs with any hi-z (instrument) DI.

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Thanks for the tips! I'm obviously not an expert on electronics so I always appreciate comments like yours that add to this resource.

[@egoncorneliscallery9535]

Or you can just use K&Ks own preamp which caters for the pickup. Question: does the Red Eye beat the K&K preamp? My guess is that the Redeye would balance/compress the output more but is that significantly better? Btw, i use a k&k system including k&k preamp into a TC Helicon pedal, doing a sort of Red Eye processing..

[@picksalot1]

That's a big improvement compared to the under-saddle Piezo in the previous videos. I thought the Full Mix sounded quite nice. The microphone sounded pretty good. The Red Eye was balanced but had way too much highs in the signal. I suggest you try turning down/off the high frequencies typically associated with "Presence" related frequencies. and dial in more bass. The Warm Audio was very boomy, and also had some excessive Piezo highs, but not as much as the Red Eye. When it comes to EQing Piezo pickups, you can't let the dials dictate your settings. You have to close your eyes and turn the dials until you've got the tone you want. Just go with what your ears are reporting, not what your eyes tell you. If you're considering using the Red Eye without without any additional EQ equipment, I would say it's not worth the money, as it is not able to deliver a natural sound with your Piezo pickups. The only time I've ever had a Piezo sound good was when there was significant EQing of the both the treble and bass.

[@AlexPriceMusician]

I’d definitely agree with that listening back. Thinking about how I would use the Red Eye with a bit of modeling, I think it’d be pretty useful. Straight out though just by itself it doesn’t provide anything that much better than the DI box.

[@floodgatestudios1825]

Thanks for the hard work in producing this! The Red eye sounds slightly warmer, lol. The Warm audio sounds less warm , i own 8 of the warm audio passive units

[@BIGTREESJOE]

The red eye sounded warmer to me. I use one with my passive E-violin over the LR BAGGS para acoustic when plugging into lo impedance inputs

[@AlexPriceMusician]

I use mine with an electric violin NS Design NXT & Bridge Lyra) frequently too. I’ve tried posting violin videos to this channel, it never goes over well 😕

[@BIGTREESJOE]

@@AlexPriceMusician I look forward to them.

[@mmckiver]

@@AlexPriceMusician I follow you for the violin content!

[@davidrobinson5180]

Great video. I really love the mixing you did and the music itself. Very nice.

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Thank you David! Max is a fantastic songwriter

[@dkijc]

loved the music! I have the RedEye and it does have that noticeable presence. But I think it's something you can cut with the EQ and for me it's better for me to have a bit more frequency to cut with than to boost something that's not present :)

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Totally agree! Thanks

[@StephenWashburn]

Great video! Well thought out, well planned, well executed, and well explained! Selfishly I just bought an HD-28, am planning to put a K&K Pure Mini into, and am looking into/planning for an acoustic preamp, so it fit perfectly into my research. I'm probably biased because what I heard lined up completely with your conclusions too ;-)

[@scottbecker3485]

As a long-time user of the Red-Eye Fire-Eye Twin (2-channel) preamp, I knew sort of what to expect here. But the actual sound coming out of the DI box really blew my mind…in a negative way. Wow! That low-frequency thump sure gets annoying, doesn‘t it? Odd that it comes across that loudly, and not at all with the Red-Eye. At any rate, the DI signal is unusable from my perspective. I figure every DI box will have its own sound, though, so this naturally can‘t be a conclusive comparison. The Red-Eye is a fantastic addition to my pedalboard and sound, and I will never gig without it. There are other great preamps out there (e.g. the Alix), but this one is so wonderfully compact and gets the job done well. Having the Twin enables me to input 2 different guitars (e.g. in different tunings) and easily switch them on and off, or else have both running at the same time (with a 2nd player). As a small-footprint unit, the Twin is unsurpassable as far as my experience goes. I modded mine to run off the pedalboard‘s power supply, making it incredibly convenient. By the way: I love your pal‘s voice, and the acoustic playing by both of you! Will check him out for sure now.

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Thanks so much Scott!

[@ludlow555]

I liked the preamp. The DI sounded kinda woofy in the bass.

[@dcallan1]

Passive pickups benefit from active DIs. The music was great!

[@gordospeti]

Dear Alex! Thanx for the vid! I am buying a guitar with Takamine CTP-3. I wonder whether to get a preamp to it or a DI box would be just perfectly fine? My chain would be CTP-3 - effects - DI Box with a balanced output or another preamp with a balanced output - studio monitor. What do you think?

[@Sanjiocom]

What was the pickup and signal path that the singer was using on his guitar?

[@sTVG2]

TBH the piezo versions sound different but the Red-eye does not sound better to me... And if I was the producer I would opt for the sound recorded with the microphone. If I was the guitarist playing live and a mic was not an option I would just stick with the warm di. Nice complimentary lead lines!

[@JorgeSolisMusicaCatolica]

Great vídeo!! I am looking to increase the gain of the Yamaha cx40. Should i go for a di or the pream is better?

[@AlexPriceMusician]

A DI box won't boost the signal so if you're looking to get more volume for whatever reason, a preamp is the correct choice.

[@joshmcdzz6925]

@@AlexPriceMusician active di can be considered in addition to a preamp.. I am a sticker for mic.. so I use a mic preamp with phantom power straight into my audio interface

[@steverolfeca]

My least favourite was the Warm. Plasticky transient on the initial plucking attack, and the almost subsonic thumping sounds in the low end. I know the red eye has a treble control. Did you have it set flat, or did you use it to tame the treble a bit?

[@AlexPriceMusician]

The tone control on the Red Eye would have been set flat.

[@gylezme21]

Perfeito obrigado ❤

[@johnperkins2174]

Curious, could I replace my Fishman under saddle with the Pure Mini and run it into the onboard preamp that my piezo was ran through?

[@AlexPriceMusician]

You definitely could with a bit of soldering. No promises on the results though, as per the K&K website. They say some people have success, others find that their preamp just wasn't a good match.

[@johngerardmusic7761]

Have you tried using the WA as a reamp box? How’d it work out?

[@richardl8241]

I like the red eye more. The warm sounded twangy to me.

[@pnluther]

What did you use for the audio? Equipment? Sounds great.

[@AlexPriceMusician]

At the time I was using a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20

[@1234588001]

hi brill video I'm using an effects pedal what's the best to use passive or active thanks again

[@AlexPriceMusician]

Some people prefer the way active DIs color their sound and some prefer the pure sound of passive ones. All up to you! I think these radial DI boxes are fantastic for acoustic - www.zzounds.com/a--3971116/item--RADSB4PIEZO

[@clintonrich60]

IMHO I could work more with the Red-Eye than the Warm Audio or even the mic.The Warm Audio sounded choked.

[@AlexPriceMusician]

That “choked” sound you’re hearing is an impedance mismatch - it’ll be inherent when using an acoustic with any typical DI box

[@terrillmel]

To me the Red-Eye made it sound like your typical acoustic-electric with the built-in preamp. Which is to say... Not my favorite. Made it glassy, spikey, and unnatural sounding. It's common knowledge that acoustic guitars plugged in sound unnatural. The words "honky, quack, nasal, piercing" come to mind. It's an extremely common complaint. The major appeal of the K&K is that it has a more pleasant subdued sound. I came to this video trying to decide whether I would use an active or passive DI for my Martin triple O with the K&K and I've decided that I prefer the passive DI, which goes against the common narrative that passive instruments need active DI boxes and active instruments need passive DI boxes.

[@egoncorneliscallery9535]

Why not a K&K preamp? Seems the obvious choice..

[@myfinalcut]

What’s the song? 🤷‍♂️

[@eleinad59]

Sound’s its better with mic!.. i don’t like Both D.I and preamp!!🤷🏻‍♂️

[@kenanbarends5543]

Is it just me, or does the camera look out of focus?

[@AlexPriceMusician]

It was a broken lens. I thought it just kept getting out of focus but actually one of the internal layers of glass was cracked

[@CarlosCastilla]

DI Warm audio all the way

[@michaelmaris7]

I prefer the warm audio

[@zwing99]

Me 2. But i think it might be the eq on the red eye?

[@michaelmaris7]

@@zwing99 I'm not sure. I know it only has a treble boost and cut as far as EQ goes for the red eye and I do know the K&K pickup that he's using is already a warm pickup. It just seems like the warm audio di captures a little more of the warmth & a little less of the quackiness.

[@CarySagady]

The ads are holding me hostage so much I could not access KZbin ...I won’t be watching u.

[@terrillmel]

@@michaelmaris7 Quacky is the word. The bane of acoustic-electric guitars

[@Benbutlermusic]

How did you split the signal from the guitar into the two boxes?

[@RobertEMason]

I liked the DI better