Radial Engineering HDI DI Box w/ Color Control & Opto Compressor

The Radial Engineering HDI is a direct box designed to give you the colorful tone you want as quickly as possible. Use it on passive or active electric basses, electric guitars, or any mono instrument you wish to inject directly into the mixing console or house PA.

The HDI offers some of the connections you'd typically find on a DI box, such as a 1/4" to XLR I/O path with a 1/4" thru jack for outputing unaffected sound to an onstage amplifier. However, these have been expanded: you'll note the 3.5mm input for synths and auxiliary signals, a 1/4" processed output, and dedicated XLR outputs for mic and line signals.

Notably, the unit shines in the color options it provides. You'll find a Color control that offers subtle harmonic distortion not dissimilar to tube amplifiers; you can drive this control with the Level knob. Also, an Opto circuit with a fixed 6:1 ratio musically smoothes your levels. A high-pass filter can cut some of the lows out of your colored sound, eliminating mud from the harmonic distortion and leaving the unprocessed signal unaltered. Finally, a presence knob adds midrange grit to your signal. An IEC power cord is included.