UNITED VINTAGE DIRECT Large Transformer Direct Inject Box Owner’s Manual
- June 29, 2024
- UNITED
Table of Contents
UNITED VINTAGE DIRECT Large Transformer Direct Inject Box
Product Information
Specifications:
- Product Name: Vintage-Style Large-Transformer Direct Inject Box
- Model: Vintage Direct
- Version: 1.0 (as of 05/29/2024)
Product Usage Instructions
Registering Your Product:
Visit www.unitedstudiotech.com to register your
product within 14 days of purchase to ensure proper warranty support.
Safety Instructions:
- Do not open the device as there are no user-serviceable parts inside.
- Avoid exposing the device to rain and moisture.
- Clean the device only with a dry cloth.
- Seek servicing if the device is damaged.
- Always use a standard 3-pin XLR cable in good condition for connections.
- Fully connect microphone cables on both ends before engaging +48v Phantom Power.
- Disengage +48v Phantom Power before removing the microphone.
Warranty Information:
This product is warranted against defects in materials and workmanship for one
year from the purchase date for the original registered purchaser. For
warranty service, visit www.unitedstudiotech.com.
Non-Warranty Service:
If your unit requires service outside the warranty period, contact us at
www.unitedstudiotech.com for repair options.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
-
Q: How do I know when to use EQ with the Direct Inject Box?
A: The EQ usage with the Direct Inject Box depends on your audio requirements. Experiment with EQ settings to achieve the desired sound output. -
Q: What should I do if my device gets damaged?
A: If your device gets damaged, do not attempt to repair it yourself. Contact qualified personnel for servicing.
THANK YOU!
Thank you for purchasing the United Studio Technologies Vintage Direct. We
realize how many direct boxes are out there, and we are honoured that you have
given us a chance. We have done all that we can to exceed your expectations in
a quality passive direct box, in terms of craftsmanship, feel, appearance, and
most importantly, sound. This direct box should perform reliably under any
condition, and last for more than a lifetime. We make our products not ‘good
for the price’; but to simply be the best we can make them. We have
scrutinized and labored over not just the major parts like the transformer;
but in every component from end to end, as well as the circuit design and
mechanics. We used the highest quality gold contact switches we could obtain
and used some of the highest quality audiophile grade (PRP) resistors
available, made specifically for United. With proper care, our products should
last a lifetime of use and beyond.
PRODUCT SERVICE
REGISTER YOUR PRODUCT
Before we begin, please take the time to visit www.unitedstudiotech.com to
register your product. To ensure you receive proper and uninterrupted warranty
support for your product, please register your unit within 14 days from
purchase.
UPDATES TO THIS MANUAL
Occasionally, we may have updates to this manual. All current manuals can
be downloaded at www.unitedstudiotech.com.
For your convenience, every page of this manual displays the version number at
the bottom of the page.
SAFETY
Warning: To reduce the risk of electric shock, do not open the device as
there are no user-serviceable parts inside. Refer servicing to qualified
personnel!
- Read and keep these instructions; heed all warnings, and follow all instructions.
- Do not expose this device to rain and moisture.
- Clean only with a dry cloth.
- Servicing is required when the device has been damaged in any way.
- Always connect with a standard 3-pin XLR (male XLR to female XLR) cable that is in good working order.
- Always fully connect the microphone cable on both ends before engaging +48v Phantom Power.
- Always disengage +48v Phantom Power and give the microphone a few moments to fully discharge before disconnecting the microphone cable.
- DO NOT pass this microphone signal directly through a TT (tiny telephone, tip-ring-sleeve) or TRS (¼ inch, tip-ring-sleeve) patch bay! A preamp, of course, can be followed by a patch bay; just not a microphone signal.
- This microphone ships with a silica gel packet. Do not discard it; this ensures that moisture/humidity does not accumulate on the mic capsule diaphragm and that no part of the device begins to oxidize. If the silica package becomes lost or discoloured, replace it with a new, good-quality silica gel packet.
WARRANTY SERVICE
United warranties this product to be free from defects in materials and workmanship for one year from the date of purchase, for the original purchaser to whom this equipment is registered. This warranty is non-transferable. This warranty is void in the event of damage incurred from unauthorized service to this unit, or from electrical or mechanical modification to this unit. This warranty does not cover damage resulting from abuse, accidental damage, misuse, improper electrical conditions such as Mis-wiring, incorrect voltage or frequency, unstable power, disconnection from earth ground (for products requiring a 3-pin, grounded power cable), or exposure to hostile environmental conditions such as moisture, humidity, smoke, fire, sand and other debris, and extreme temperatures. United will, at its sole discretion, repair or replace this product promptly. This limited warranty extends only to products determined to be defective and does not cover incidental costs such as equipment rental, loss of revenue, etc. Please visit us at www.unitedstudiotech.com for more information on your warranty, or to request warranty service. This warranty applies to products sold in the United States of America. For warranty information in any other country, please refer to your local distributor for United Studio Technologies. This warranty provides specific legal rights, which may vary from state to state. Depending on the state in which you live, you may have rights in addition to those covered in this statement. Please refer to your state laws or see your local retailer for more information.
NON-WARRANTY SERVICE
If you have a defective unit that is outside of our warranty period or
conditions; we are still here for you and can get your unit working again for
a modest service fee. Please visit us at www.unitedstudiotech.com to contact
us about setting up a repair or for more information. With the proper care,
your United gear should last a lifetime and provide a lifetime of enjoyment.
We believe the best advertisement we can have is a properly working unit being
put to great use. Let’s work together to make it happen.
LET’S GET STARTED
HARDWARE CONTROLS
- FRONT PANEL:
- Attenuation Switch – Engages the output pad
- Phase Inversion Switch – Engages an 180° phase inversion on the output.
- Ground lift switch – Engages a ground lift, isolating the input from the output ground.
- Output Control – Three transformer-based out-put tap positions.
- REAR PANEL:
- Output XLR – Main direct injection output for connection to audio interfaces, mixers, recorders, etc.
- Input 1/4” – Input for the Vintage Direct. This is where you will plug in your sound source; guitar, synthesizer, etc.
- Thru-put 1/4” – Passive pass-thru for connecting a live guitar amp, pedalboard, or processor.
CONNECTIONS
To operate, simply plug the source into the instrument input, and if an
amplifier or guitar processor will be running at the same time as the DI
capture, this can be connected to the THRU output. The balanced XLR output can
connect to almost any preamp or record-ing interface using a standard XLR mic
cable, where your preamp’s gain and input pad can be adjusted as needed to
capture a clean, full DI signal. The Vintage Direct has a total of six
attenuation settings for the best compatibility with a wide range of preamp
inputs. The Vintage Direct is passive, requiring no battery or wall-adapter
power source.
LEVEL SETTING
Vintage Direct offers six different output level options, thanks to its
3-way control and -12 dB Pad switch. Use these controls in conjunction to dial
in the most suitable level for the device you’ve connected the Vintage Direct
to for tracking. An input level between -12 and -6 dB is perfectly acceptable.
Unlike other DI boxes, level tailoring in the Vintage Direct is built into the
transformer taps of its output, which is far more tolerant of adjustment
without affecting tone. Vintage Direct uses three different secondary winding
configurations in conjunction with a precision resistor T-pad output
attenuator for six evenly-spaced output lev-el settings. This broad range of
output levels ensures that Vintage Di-rect can handle everything from the
hottest analog synths to low-output piezo pickups.
POLARITY
The Polarity switch inverts the incoming waveform by 180°. This is useful when using Vintage Direct to capture both a mic’d speaker cabinet and Vintage Direct’s output simultaneously. If the material recorded from Vintage Direct’s Output and your mic’d cabinet sound thin or phase when played back in unison, you likely have a phase-cancellation issue that can be quickly resolved with a flip of the polarity switch. Additionally, some vintage studio equipment uses a non-standard pin configuration in its XLR connections, which can result in poor, phase-cancelled signal quality when connected to contemporary devices. Because the Polarity switch functions by toggling pins 2 and 3 of the XLR connection, engaging it can do a great deal to mitigate these phase issues. You may also opt to adjust your mic positioning to help resolve phase issues.
USING THE GROUND LIFT
Unwanted hum and noise are commonly caused by ground loops, which occur
when there is a difference in electrical potential between multiple grounding
points. The Ground switch removes ground-loop-induced hum and noise by
disconnecting (lifting) the ground between the Input and Output.
GOING SDRAWKCAB
Don’t forget that your Vintage Direct is bi-directional. Not only does it
convert your in-strument-level signals into balanced signals suitable for use
with audio interfaces and mixers… because of its passive architecture, it also
works the other way around! So if you’ve been wanting to experiment with
running a condenser mic into a guitar amp, the Vintage Direct will let you do
that. Have fun!
ABOUT THE VINTAGE DIRECT
CHAD KELLY’S HISTORY OF DIRECT BOXES
As I’m sure is the case with many electronics hobbyists and enthusiasts, the direct box (along with my hand-made cables) was the first thing I ever summoned the courage to put together on my own, probably almost 30 years ago. I remember the first time I heard the comparison between the built-in active DI that is included on so many preamps and interfaces and the sound of a dedicated passive DI made with a high-quality transformer. The added weight, headroom, depth, warmth, and clarity left an impression on me. A great passive DI, coming into the mic input of a pre, can have a much better self-noise and it becomes so much easier to control gain structure and avoid the all-too- common problem of instruments clipping on input with the onboard DI. This is especially true with bass, but quite often with guitar as well; and with extremely hot analog synth, it’s a down-right requirement. The direct signal sounds bigger, and punchier, and seems to live in its own sonic space.
Chad Kelly’s History of Direct Boxes
I also keenly remember buying my first high-end active, transformer-less
direct box and finding to my dismay that it was not as transparent as the
passive ones I had built, not only adding a certain pillowy character to the
sound but also introducing a good amount of radio interference that I
struggled to fully eliminate. It was refreshing to read Bruce Swedien’s first
book, many years later, where he described the same problem and why he still
relied on his trusty Bass Box passive DI built with a large, vintage
transformer. I have built hand-made direct boxes on occasion for the last 30
years, and many have found their way into major recording studios. Many of the
early units were often in brightly-coloured boxes and made in mono or stereo
versions.
Passive DIs often get a bad reputation as being the less transparent between
active and passive, suffering from high-frequency loss and compression of
transients, etc.; but I feel this is not entirely true. Passive DI boxes can
have those qualities, but they do not have to. I have made passive DIs that
are neutral. I have also made some that have a good amount of deliberate
colour. Modern transformer design allows for parts that have an exceedingly
low load-ing loss and excellent high-frequency response; many can even have a
slight high-frequency lift. To my way of thinking, the benefits of a trans-
former outweigh the negatives. The noise rejection, isolation, common mode
rejection, and reliability are simply best with a well-made trans-former
design.
The Vintage Direct hanging out with a few keyboards.
L-R: Moog Prodigy, Wurlitzer 200a, Roland RE-201 Space Echo, 1979 Fender
Rhodes Eighty Eight, Nord Electro 3, Siel OR400, Moog Little Phatty. The
Vintage Direct is resting on a 1968 Fender Bassman 2×15 cabinet.
THE CUSTOM US-MADE 5078 TRANSFORMER
In the early days of direct boxes, there were no specially made direct box transformers as we know them today. Transformer makers had a much more limited catalogue in those days, with most parts having a variety of applications and a sometimes wild number of taps available to configure in all sorts of ways, from unity gain to extreme step up to extreme step down… These early transformers were larger, more complex, and more expensive to build. Modern passive direct box transformers are usually very specialized parts made for a single application, and are usually much smaller, often relying on outside semiconductors (pots, resistors, RC networks, filters, diodes, etc.) to pad and protect the trans-former from clipping or from exces-sive levels and outside interference. What we embarked on with the Vintage Direct was to return to the beginning, with a part that was directly inspired by one of the vintage UTC parts manufactured in the 1960s that was used in some of the earliest direct boxes. We endeavoured to maintain all of its original tap options as close to what was originally speed as possible, utilizing these additional taps to give us the output level range we desired. Because I believe that having a lot of semiconductors (pads, pots, etc) in front of the transformer could contribute to some degree of parasitics (loss and the dreaded tone suck’, we were adamant from the beginning that the incoming signal must hit the transformer directly, with nothing in between.
The transformer simply had to be made to such a quality level, and size, and have such exceptional shielding that simply nothing else would be necessary. The transformer is simply so large and robust that it would be very difficult to clip. It has no pad, per say, and all of its level control is merely output control. To us, this ensures the maximum preservation of your instrument’s tone. We spent years exploring many versions of this design, experimenting with different winding ratios and alloys; we ultimately settled on a high- nickel lamination and a winding ratio very close to the classics that inspired us. United’s US-made 5078 is one of the largest transformers you’ll find in a DI, delivering a pristine low-noise signal, wide frequency response, extraordinary headroom, and outstanding noise rejection.
SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN COLOR & TRANSPARENCY
As anyone who knows me knows, the process of ramping is near and dear to my
heart. To do ramping convincingly requires a direct box that faithfully
retains the energy and sonics of the original cap-tured performance. However,
a vintage direct box is something that is known to have a certain character.
We experimented with different core alloy materials and combinations, and
different winding methods for years until finally coming to what we feel is
the perfect compromise. A transformer that measures almost perfectly linear in
terms of frequency response; yet has an unmistakable hint of iron in the
signal path that gives instruments just a slight heft and larger-than-life
character. Tracked into a fairly neutral preamp, you will have a fairly clean
and accurate reference DI track. Tracked into, say, a nice tube preamp and
overdriven a bit, you can have a bigger, thicker-sounding bass or keyboard or
drum machine track. Our Vintage Direct splits the difference about as closely
as anything can, and allows the user to ultimately shape some aspects of tone
via the preamp choice and gain structure.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
- Input Impedance 80k Ω (unbalanced)
- Output Impedance 50-250 Ω, depending on setting (balanced)
- Frequency Response 20hZ-20KhZ, +/-0.5dB
- Maximum Recommended Input Levels +10dB or lower
- Output Levels -42, -38, -34, -30, -26, -22
- Auxillary Controls Phase Inverse, Ground Lift
- Dimensions
- Height (w feet): 52 mm / 2″
- Height (w/o feet): 46 mm / 1.8
- Width: 149 mm / 5.86″
- Depth: 155 mm / 6.1″
- Weight .95 kg / 2.1 lbs
As a commitment to constant improvement, United reserves the right to change any specifications, at any time, without notification.
OUR STORY IS YOUR STORY.
Every musician and audio engineer has to start somewhere. We start with the
entry-level gear we can afford and work our way up to using the best of the
best gear.
In today’s age, we all have the luxury of simulating all of the best classic
gear directly in a DAW — but is a simulation as good as the real thing? Sure,
we think plenty of it is great, but it never settles our need for the original
gear. With the rise of software-variants of classic gear, quite a few
companies have taken to selling the “original’’ as a hardware recreation — but
very sadly, many of us have seen we’re not being sold the real thing by these
companies. And to top it all off, the best classic gear is getting older, less
reliable, and more expensive — even finding truly great technicians to work on
them has gotten to be very difficult.
We at United are working hard to make sure everyone can finally access gear
built like the original classics, with zero compromise. We have put everything
we have into our products — from conception, custom parts, New Old Stock
parts, and in many cases final assembly and testing that is done by hand in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Welcome to the United family!
Don’t forget to register your product at
www.unitedstudiotech.com
©2024 United Studio Technologies, LLC. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. United Studio Technologies is a trademark of United Studio Technologies, LLC.
Vintage Direct
7 Vintage-Style Large-transformer Direct Inject Box
Owner’s Manual
Version 1.0 as of 05/29/2024
Additional Support
Visit www.unitedstudiotech.com for
additional support.