By Darius Van Rhuehl
When
I heard that I had a direct box to review, I must admit that I was a bit
concerned about filling an entire review with something that usually has four
jacks and a transformer in a box. Luckily for me and you, the acoustic
guitarist, the
LR Baggs Venue DI
is so
much more. It actually combines three units in one: a super low-noise,
transformer-isolated DI; an equalizer with notch filter for dealing with
feedback issues; and a chromatic tuner. And it does it all in a very
smart-looking, pedalboard-friendly package.
What’s on the Venue?
Packaged in a sturdy, futuristic-looking,
two-tone brown case,
Venue's
icontrols are laid
out in a recessed area, which protects the knobs from happy feet. It houses an
EQ section comprised of Bass, Low Midrange, Hi Midrange, Presence, and Treble.
Bass, Presence, and Treble are fixed EQs that offer 12dB of boost/cut at 90Hz,
3kHz, and 10kHz respectively. Worthy of special mention is LR Baggs’ proprietary
Garrett Null anti-feedback notch filter. In essence, it’s a sweepable filter
between 60Hz and 320kHz, which is the primary range where feedback occurs in
amplified acoustic guitars. For a little extra help in the feedback department,
the Venue also has a phase reversal switch. I’d recommend flipping this one at
every gig (phase can change from venue to venue) until you find the position
that sounds best and is least likely to feed back.No signal loss is Venue’s Gain
Venue's Gain control is
accompanied by an LED clip meter that allows you to set the appropriate level
for your instrument. And as long as we’re on the topic of LED meters, there’s
also a battery check that warns you when you have about four hours of battery
life left. This readout will help you avoid any nasty surprises during a show.
While the Venue does allow for use with an AC adapter, it doesn’t come with an
AC power supply. Rather than stick you with a proprietary power supply and the
problems of replacement, the Venue has a standard 2mm plug and will operate on
AC power supplies rated between 7.5-14VDC with any amperage of 100ma and over.
Next we come to the Master Volume control. Even this control
shows a great deal of forethought, as does every other feature’s circuit design.
The volume control adjusts the level of the 1/4" output only. The
transformer-coupled DI is not affected and remains at line level. This allows
you to raise your onstage or monitoring volume without affecting the level of
the DI signal so there’s no need to tweak your front-of-house mix or recorded
signal.
Just a footnote
Finishing up the controls, there are two
footswitches. One is a Boost switch with a rear-panel level control that gives
you up to 9dB of extra mix penetration. The other is a Mute/Tune switch that
either mutes the DI or activates the onboard tuner. To engage the tuner, just
press the Mute/Tuner switch, which simultaneously mutes all outputs and
activates the tuner. If you’re not tuning or playing, the tuner automatically
shuts down after one minute to save power. The face of the tuner, in keeping
with the modern design of the
Venue, is reminiscent of
the LED readouts surrounding rotary controls on high-end digital mixers and
control surfaces.
Getting signal in and out of the box is
accomplished via 1/4" I/O and a balanced XLR output for plugging into stage
boxes and/or long cable runs. That signal then passes through an isolated
transformer for noise-free operation and protection from the perils of the
phantom menace (phantom power from the console). The
Venue also has an effects
loop with 1/4" send and return that enables you to patch your effects pedals
while taking advantage of the Venue’s transformer-isolated noise and hum
protection. Speaking of which, along with transformer coupling to provide
electronic isolation through the DI output, there’s also a ground-lift switch to
eliminate ground loops when connecting more than one unit to the DI.
Brown Bagging it
By way of real-world testing, I ran the
Venue into a Soundcraft
LX7II out to Mackie SRM450 powered monitors (a fairly ubiquitous setup). And
just as I would do in any live setting, I dealt with feedback first. I turned up
the level of the guitar just to the point of feedback and used the anti-feedback
filter to "ring out" the guitar. All you have to do is turn the knob until the
offending frequency is found and the notch filter takes care of the rest. In
fact, the bandwidth of the notch is so tight that I found the filter to be not
just transparent, in terms of its tonal impact on the guitar, but virtually
invisible. I’m not sure how LR Baggs pulled this one off, but it pretty much
eliminates any tradeoff between a full-sounding guitar and performance-killing
feedback. You can disable the notch filter by dialing it counter-clockwise until
it clicks off. As a nod to the tonally meticulous, the off-position takes it out
of the signal path entirely for a purer signal.
I also found the EQ to be quite musically
useful with crossover points geared to the response of an acoustic guitar (as
you would expect). Being able to cut bass at 90Hz helped with feedback
elimination and allowed the guitar to sit better in a full mix. And the 10kHz
treble was just right for adding "air" and sheen to the guitar. In use, I found
the sound transparent and crystal-clear, but appreciated the ability to tweak
where needed or add color as desired. Overall, the
Venue really stepped up the
quality of my live sound. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find an acoustic
guitar preamp in its league. Thanks to its ultra-quiet performance, I also used
it for direct recording and found that it makes for a great re-amping device
too.
It’s in the Baggs
A quality DI is an essential piece of
gear for any acoustic guitarist, especially when you’re playing sound-system
roulette from gig to gig. But the
Venue is so much more than
that. If you want to get your sound under your control in any venue, putting a
Venue in your gig bag should be your first order of business.
