Can I use a Stereo DI box as Dry/Wet, rather than just L/R?

[AinsleyWalker]

So I had an idea, just wondering if anyone knows if it'll work as expected...

I'm considering running a stereo DI box to send 2 Mono signals - 1 Dry signal at the start of my chain, 1 Wet signal at the end of my chain. The reasoning is that it would be more convenient than having 2 separate DIs.
DIs like the Walrus Canvas have 2 Thrus, so this might be possible...

Planned signal chain: Tuner > DI Left In (DRY XLR out) > Out of Left Thru > other pedals > back to DI Right In (WET XLR out) > Out of Right Thru > amp. 

Let me know if you have any thoughts/if you do something similar! Fairly certain this should work as I'm imagining, but not sure how to really test.

[itu]

You may add signals in odd phases which may result in dropped frequencies and levels.

 

Phase + out of phase = 0

20 + (-20) = 0

It may also happen that only some parts of the signal is lost:

20 + (-7) = 13

I suppose you do not have a two chanel (#5) oscilloscope? It would be easy to see possible phase errors.

[Downunderwonder]

You are wanting to record dry along with best stab at effected? That'll work.

 

@ituhas the right idea but the wrong maths. A +20 and -20 are 40deg out of phase and somewhat coherent to the ear. 

 

Distortion and chorus are particularly prone to returning a 180 degree out of phase mirrored signal. That means to the extent that the returned signal still sounds like your bass it will be cancelling with the dry signal.

 

When the pedal is operating in line it doesn't matter. Billy Sheehan got so worked up over engineers non cooperation with his 2 channel biamping that he got a pedal instead. I'd follow Billy's lead on this if I was you.

[itu]

(I didn't want to be exact and use degrees, just giving easy piano examples with simple numbers. But an excellent correction you have there.)

[AinsleyWalker]

Thanks for the replies. I'll probably just stick to using 2 different DI's to keep things simple. 

[mike257]

Stereo DI boxes are just two mono DIs in a single enclosure so you shouldn't have any issues caused by the DI itself. Any phase differences incurred by the blending of your two signals as discussed above would be the same whether you used two individual DIs or one stereo. 

Edited January 27, 2023 by mike257