Fairlight-CMI

so...after a couple of months noodling about with the CMI IIx, I tried 
sampling some stuff last night.

First up was a kickdrum from a TR-909. Decay on the drum was to the longest 
and tune to almost the lowest, maximum click.

It sounds like shit ! No attack. sounds distorted. And with a fizzel on the 
decay part.

Sample rate was 30200
Filter low 3
Filter high 9

Then it struck me, I was going direct from the 909 to the CMI IIx line input 
via a 1/4" mono jack to XLR cable. Tip to Pin 2, Sleeve to ring and ground. 
The CMI being 600 ohms on both the line in and mic in......

Am I having impedanceproblems ?

 Today I brought some passive DI´s and transformerboxes from work....but it 
doesn´t seem to make it better.

Sampling the Snaredrum from the 909 sounds great though, but there´s not 
that much bass in the 909 Snare.

How are you guys connecting stuff to your CMI IIx inputs ? Are you using 
external pre´s ?

WT