Pineville, NC, United States
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Radial HDI: Studio-Grade Tone from Clean to Colored in Seconds
The Radial HDI is a high-definition active studio DI and single-channel instrument preamp that captures bass, guitar, keys, and synths with exceptional fidelity and a wide palette of tone. Built around a custom-wound Jensen transformer and a unique Color control, it moves from pristine and transparent to warm, saturated, and amp-like with the turn of a knob. It is the rare direct box that sounds so good on its own that you may never reach for the mic'd amp track again.
The Custom Jensen Transformer at the Core
At the heart of the HDI sits an oversized, custom-wound Jensen transformer, the component most responsible for the box's rich, dimensional low end and its natural sense of weight. A large transformer core moves more signal before saturating, which is what lets the HDI stay clean and full on an aggressive bass line where smaller direct boxes compress and thin out. This is the foundation that makes the HDI Radial's flagship studio DI — the tone starts here, before you touch a single control.
How the Color Control Shapes Your Sound
The Color knob is the HDI's signature, blending seamlessly between an ultra-clean tone and amp-style distortion and saturation so you can dial in exactly as much grit as a part wants. Turned down, it delivers the cleanest, most transparent Radial DI signal ever made; turned up, it adds harmonic thickness and character that make a track sit forward in the mix. A Presence control accentuates the highs and high-mids to help the instrument cut, while everything responds instantly on the front-panel meter.
Opto Compression, Presence, and Filtering
A smooth Opto compressor with a 6:1 ratio and up to 8dB of gain reduction can be engaged to control peaks and even out a performance without squashing its life. A switchable high-pass filter, selectable at 40Hz or 100Hz at 6dB per octave, clears excessive low frequencies that the Color control can introduce, keeping the low end tight and defined. Together these tools let you commit to a finished, record-ready sound at the input stage.
Flexible Ins and Outs for Any Signal Chain
The HDI offers 1/4-inch instrument inputs on the front and rear, plus a dedicated 3.5mm Synth input with lower sensitivity to accommodate the hot outputs of modular synths and outboard gear. On the output side, a line-level XLR feeds your interface directly with no additional gain stage, a mic-level XLR drives a console preamp, a 1/4-inch processed output sends the colored signal to an amp, and an unbuffered thru passes the dry signal along for parallel mic'ing. One box drops cleanly into almost any studio or stage signal chain.
Built Like Studio Outboard, Ready for the Road
With its gunmetal anodized, half-inch-thick milled aluminum front panel, oversized chrome knobs, and a custom output meter, the HDI looks and feels like classic high-end outboard gear. It is a striking standalone unit on the desktop, yet it ships with mounting hardware so one or two HDIs can be installed side by side in a 2RU, 19-inch rack. Like every Radial product, it is built from rugged components to withstand the rigors of daily use and concert touring.
Where the HDI Shines
The HDI is a first-call DI for recording and reamping bass and electric guitar, adding body to acoustic instruments, and processing modular synths and outboard sources. Feed its clean line output straight to an interface, split the dry thru to a mic'd amp, or push a saturated signal into an amp modeler — the routing is yours. For engineers and touring artists who want one direct box that can be invisible or full of character on command, the HDI is the tool that keeps earning its place on the input list.
Original Price$949.99
$100 price drop
New Price$849.99
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