Level balancing question

[Daryl Shawn <highhorse@mhorse.com>]

Because of the way I use my four-track decks (mixing w/the monitor 
section to control the mix of live playing w/looping tracks), I need to 
use the powered headphone out instead of the line out. Some decks have 
an unpowered monitor out, but my main squeeze does not. Obviously, sound 
people HATE the thought of me giving them a powered signal, though it's 
never caused any actual problems. I keep the output level very low, and 
am sure never to bump it up by accident.

But it seems like I'm putting things at risk. Is there some way for me 
to change the headphone level output to line level? Will a direct box 
effectively take care of the issue (maybe one w/ a 15db pad)?

tx,

Daryl Shawn
www.swanwelder.com
www.chinapaintingmusic.com