[LAU] OT(ish): Connecting balanced out to line in

[Gabriel M. Beddingfield]

On Wed, 8 Dec 2010, James Stone wrote:

>>> I guess in hardware?
>>>
>>> Thinking more about it, do I need to plug the DI out into a preamp
>>> before it goes into the line in for the soundcard? (the instrument is
>>> a bass guitar unamplified).
>>
>> If you can, just skip the DI and plug the guitar straight into the sound
>> card's line-in.
>
> I've tried that before, but (at least with an electric (non-bass)),
> the sound was rather woolly and lacking in treble - I though due to
> the mix of Hi-Z and line level input.

Sounds like you want to use a pre-amp, then.

AFAIK, this chain is effectively a NO-OP:

    guitar --> DI box --> XLR --> DI/Transformer --> line in

..except for distortion introduced by the DI's.  So 
even if you get it set up -- you'll probably get the 
same results as plugging straight in.

But, if you have a 2nd DI box or one of those $10 
transformer things[1]... it's worth a try.

-gabriel

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balun#Audio