Countryman Type 10 and Type 10S DIs on Tour with Carrie Underwood and Johnny Hallyday

Cam Beachley is monitor engineer for country music star Carrie Underwood and French rock 'n roll icon Johnny Hallyday. Bouncing between Underwood's Play On Tour and Hallyday's European tour schedule keeps Beachley constantly on the go-with precious little time to be fretting over equipment issues. As a result, he says he counts on his collection of Type 10 and Type 10S direct boxes from Countryman Associates.

Long cable runs from the instruments on stage to the splitter box that ultimately supplies feeds for the front-of-house and monitor consoles, as well as recording and broadcast stems, can wreak havoc with the quality of the signal-resulting in RF interference, hums, loss of fidelity, and other less than desirable sonic qualities. This was very much the case for a number of acoustic guitars, fiddle, and bouzouki used during Underwood's concerts and similar instruments on the Hallyday tour. Armed with six Countryman Type 10 DIs and a pair of the stereo Type 10S direct boxes, Beachley has resolved these challenges.

"Prior to the Type 10 and Type 10S DIs," he says, "we had been using another popular line of direct boxes. The moment we switched to the Countryman Type 10s, the instruments sounded much more open and natural. It was literally a night and day difference. As far as design and reliability goes, the Type 10 and Type 10S have been bulletproof.

We've encountered no issues whatsoever. These direct boxes are two more examples of rock solid Countryman product designs. They are extremely clean and clear sounding. After working with these, I can't imagine using anything else."

In addition, he says, "Countryman's tech/customer support is first rate, Whenever I send Chris [Countryman] or Omer [Inan] an email, they respond very quickly. They understand what I'm looking to accomplish and go the distance in seeing that I get taken care of. The company is very responsive to its customers and that provides real peace of mind when you're on the road.

"I move these boxes back and forth between two different touring companies and, in the process, they literally go all over the world," he says. "I couldn't be happier with the performance of these products. Numerous people have asked me about the Type 10 and Type 10S. I've let everyone who's shown interest in hearing them listen and, in the process, they too have been impressed. These direct boxes are a great solution to common signal quality issues. I wouldn't want to be without them."

The company says the Type 10 and Type 10S direct boxes achieve the highest signal-to-noise ratio, lowest phase deviation, and lowest distortion of any DI. Some boxes achieve low distortion over a narrow range of frequencies and levels, but end up coloring the low frequencies and distorting loud signals. The Countryman Type 10 and Type 10S maintain exceptionally low THD and intermodulation distortion across the entire audio band-and for a wide range of input voltages-rendering the sound with extremely high fidelity.