www.premierguitar.com PREMIER GUITAR NOVEMBER 2009 177
The Venue DI from L.R. Baggs is a super-handy expanded version of their famous
Para Acoustic DI, which I’ve had in my rig
for over a decade now. In addition to the
5-band EQ, the Venue includes a Garrett
Null anit-feedback notch filter, a tuner and
a truly useful clean boost. I’ve plugged into
enough PA systems over the years to prize
highly a piece of gear that lets me take control of my sound, bust the feedback for myself (almost instantly) and be heard clearly
the way I want to be heard inside a mix.
The Venue is a powerful weapon in the fight
against those frightening creatures known
as “Soundtechs From Hell”—you know
the ones. They think acoustic guitars are
for girls and old people, and have usually
burned out so much of their hearing that
they can’t tell what you sound like anyway.
Take a Tour of the Venue
The Venue is a sleek-looking piece of gear
that will be immediately familiar to users
of the ParAcoustic DI or the Baggs Core 1
Reference Monitor. The 5-band EQ section
is responsive and powerful, with Bass, Low-mid, Hi-mid, Presence and Treble controls,
with the mids controls being particularly
robust, allowing you to choose the specific
frequencies to cut or boost—from 100Hz–
500Hz in the lows and 500Hz– 2.8kHz in
the highs. The Bass, Presence and Treble
controls are 12dB boost/cut at 90Hz, 3kHz
and 10kHz respectively. There is the customary 1/4" instrument input, an XLR out and a
line out. The unit requires a 9V battery or a
standard DC power supply, and cannot be
phantom powered.
The proprietary Garrett Null anti-feedback
control is easy and quite effective. The knob
allows you to sweep through all the usual
suspects (that pesky 60Hz–320Hz range) and
eliminate just the offending frequency while
doing virtually no damage to your tone. The
knob clicks off when you turn it all the way
counter-clockwise. When you hear feedback
starting to blow up, simply sweep the knob
slowly from left to right; when the knob
reaches the problem frequency, the feedback
just ... stops. That’s it. I’d call that an idiot-proof solution that’s tone-friendly, too.
The Venue has Gain and Volume controls,
which gives you yet more control over your
tone. The Gain should be set so that the
LED clip indicator is flashing up to orange
Venue DI
L.R. BAGGS
BY GAYLA DRAKE PAUL
PRODUCT REVIEW
