BehringerADI21 V-Tone Acoustic Driver DI Box

the behringer adi21 v-tone acoustic driver definitely adds warmth to your acoustic/electric sound which helps compensate for the lack of low/low-mid response and thin "plasticky" sound you get from piezo pickups. i thought for $30 it would definitely be worth a shot so i went ahead and got it to go along with my behringer acx900 akewstic amplifier and i'm not dissatisfied with it in the least. according to the other reviews it eats up 9v batteries like there's no tomorrow so i'll be using a 9v adapter to avoid this issue. its very sturdy in its construction as all behringer products in my experience have tended to be and is fairly easy to dial in. i had a friend of mine pick and strum while i experimented with the controls and was able to get a pretty good sound out of it. i'm playing through an $800 taylor acoustic not sure on the model but with the guitars eq set to flat and the amps eq set relatively flat with a slight boost in the high frequency range you can start to shape your sound. I recommend going light on the mid freq knob and going about 80% on the blend knob for starters. then apply a light mid range scoop and you should be on your way to a nicer more natural sound than you normally get with piezo pickups. i bought the amp and pedal for live applications. as a local musician i get a lot of gigs in medium to smaller venues mainly bars, restaurants, coffee shops and such and for that purpose i believe this will suit me just fine. i get no distortion or added noise whatsoever the sound is very clean and although i haven't used it in recording applications quite yet, in the future i will so an update is sure to come. consider the fact that i'm playing thru a "dedicated/made for acoustic" amplifier as well. i might not expect the same result from amp to amp but the two behringer products seem to compliment each other quite nicely. i'd also like to mention that every company on the planet has had a quality control issue or two and behringer is certainly no exception but i currently own 4 behringer products and i'm completely satisfied with all of them so far. in short, for added body and warmth as well as/or a boost in overall gain for $30, you've got a winner in the behringer adi21 v-tone acoustic driver.

I normally use a fender acoustic amp because my guitar sounds horrible direct into a PA.(under-saddle piezo w/o active on board electronics).This makes my guitar sound as good or better than the amp direct into the PA.Took a bit fiddling with the knows to get it to sound right: now it sounds great.This box is way smaller and light than lugging around an amp.I will be doing light gigging with it.They cheaped out and had single-color knobs. I added white dots of nail polish with a toothpick.If that rubs off, I'll make a small dimple with a dremel and re-do. I also highlighted "in" and "out" in white.I can't even fault them at this price point.

Update: Upon further experimentation with this DI and the Headway Band violin pickup, I have to say that it sounds best (clearest) when you turn it off. ("Off" means turn off the effects and filters with the pedal switch; it's still plugged in and the actual DI is still active). After you turn the effects on, there's a muddiness that it smears into the sound. I'm now using this in the turned-off mode as a transparent DI with a simple cheap graphic equalizer pedal before it (just to pull down low frequency hums and bumps), which sounds great. I'm starting to wish I'd gotten a legit full-price acoustic DI like the ones from Radial or LR Baggs. But, honestly, off or on, this DI is very usable and sounds perfectly fine with just a fiddle pickup on one side and a PA on the other side, so I can't complain.Another important clarification from my original comments below: I am *no longer* getting any distortion sounds from the blend function, even turned all the way up, now that I've taken down the =<100 Hz bar on a graphical EQ pedal before this DI. Apparently most of the sound problems I was having were from low frequency noise and boom on my pickup. So, I guess my REAL complaint about this DI is that it should have a low-cut function aka a high pass filter. Many other DI boxes have a HPF or "lo cut" switch that cuts below 80 Hz or so. If this DI had a filter switch like that, I wouldn't need an EQ pedal between the pickup and DI, and I wouldn't have had to spend the past week troubleshooting. :) Also, I'm wondering if some of the other reviewers complaining about distortion would have been helped by a HPF switch as well?Original Review:I use this DI with my fiddle and a Headway Band piezo pickup. For the price, wow, this is a really functional and versatile DI. First impression from my bandmate who is a career audio pro: "This gives us so much control, and it sounds good! You done well!!!" The only improvements you could get on this in any alternative piezo acoustic DI units would require paying at least five times as much. Honestly, my setup sounds pretty good with this box in transparent mode (foot switch off, which deactivates the eq and effects) but I'll be using it in the "on" position with some of that "blend" magic (I guess it's a combination of compression and reverb?). Don't use too much Blend though, on this pedal -- here's the hard but true secret we've discovered: the "blend" effect gets overloaded really easily. That means I can get distortion really easily when I play double stops on the fiddle. The only way to avoid it is to turn down blend, and turn down all the eq knobs well below the mid point. Unfortunately though turning everything down makes some of the subtle stuff a bit muddy. It depends on your pickup, but I've subsequently put a 6-band graphic EQ between the fiddle and DI to cut down the super low end (100 Hz) solely to avoid the distortion from the blend function, and that helps. I don't totaly understand but I guess the blend effect doesn't respond well to a big dynamic range, and my fiddle pickup booms too much in the low end for this pedal. What I *really* want on this pedal, if not a more robust blend function, would be a "low cut" switch like some other DI units have. With another more "tin can" sounding fiddle piezo pickup, though, we found that you have to turn down everything but especially the mids to avoid distortion. NOTE: this pickup and DI combo *never* give me any distortion with the "blend" turned down all the way, or with the effects switch in the "off" position. When this pedal's effects are "off," (the active DI still functions when "off" but not when you cut power) I actually sound clear as a bell, I just lose all the control and effects.. So, verdict: it sounds good for playing fiddle in a band, with the right tweaks, but it definitely makes everything either a little distorted or a little muddy/underwater, depending on what compromises you make on the settings. Anyway, I'll be saving up for a clearer more robust active DI from Radial, but that'll be hundreds of dollars. In the meantime this box seems to be making everyone happy and it's a terrific value for the price.