SPL (July 1997)
By Karl Bates
Demeter Tube Direct: The Engineer’s View
I wanted to try out the Tube Direct in a practical live situation, and as I have been working with the brilliant Eagles tribute band The Illegal Eagles, I thought that a London gig would be a good opportunity to audition the single channel version. The band prides itself on getting that distinctive Eagles sound, where the acoustic guitars play an important role. Having used many types of DI boxes, I was interested to see whether having a tube could really make a notable difference. Normal DI boxes do not produce the desired clean but natural sound, so could the Demeter deliver the goods? You bet!
Both of the guitarists were impressed by the sound, and after pointing out to them that the box was used by the real Eagles on their Hell Freezes Over world tour, I was asked if I’d brought two Demeters to the gig! When I used the box with both a six and 12-string Takamine, they brought out the best from the pickups, delivering a clear, warm, and precise sound without colouration.
When used with all types of effects pedal boards and devices, the buffered output jack gives virtually no signal loss. The Tube Direct works equally as well with keyboards and synthesizers, drum machines and samplers. With synths, the results were excellent, the box warmed up the string pads and gave a rare clarity to brass stabs. With a pedigree user list of top engineers and artists, the Demeter Tube Direct will be the tube DI box standard for some time.