An active DI box will not increase gain, as they are not designed to do that. Active or passive with regard to DI boxes just refers to the method they use to convert your signal to a mic level balanced output - transformer or active electronics.cphollis wrote:I've been using a small mixer to boost my keyboard levels before piping them into my onstage QSCs. I usually play with two boards -- it's a Nord Piano 2 and a Nord Electro 4D these days. I don't have a problem with hum or noise. However, I might be better off using a DI box, especially a stereo one such as the JDI unit. So the question is -- active or passive?
I don't believe a passive unit can boost gain, so I assume that would mean a 9V active unit for me?
You do not need a DI box between your keyboards and your QSCs either before or after your mixer. You only would need a DI box if you needed to feed the main FOH desk. In this case, you would use the "pass through" connections on the DI box to connect your keyboards and mixer to your QSCs. These connections are passive (simple plain wired connections) on both active and passive DI boxes.
