those of you who DI your electric guitars

[mistersully]

how do you go about it?... what DI do you go through?... modeling software?... do you use pedals before the DI? do you split the signal to a mic'd amp too? etc etc

 

i usually mic my tube amps... went through a solo 610 last night and used amplitube live to tweak... the 610 definitely made a difference....keen to hear how others are getting their electric guitar tones for recording

[ac30guy]

I have a friend who uses a bad monkey as his "amp sim" he just sets it like he would his fender amps and sticks it at the end of his chain. I'm always blown away by his tone. When I ran PODs and recorded, I would usually go left channel DId through an old drawmer preamp and then right out into a mic'd 67 blackface bandmaster. It sounded ok, but then I took in my AC30...no more POD for me...

[Flogger59]

I'm way behind the curve technology wise, but I get good guitar sounds. A great tool is the old Yamaha DG1000 modelling preamp. All it does is amps, no effects, and with a 25 bit input, there is no need for a gate. the speaker sim in it is pretty darned good, though undocumented.

I'll run that through a Summit 2ba221 and the RNC. Often I'll mix mic'ed amps with it, though.

[uab9253]

Ever since I tried Gearbox from Line 6 and then onto POD farm, I have not stuck a microphone in front of an amp. I'm sure there are those who will say that an amp is better, but in my finished product, I can't hear it. In fact, my guitars have never sounded better or served the mix better, because now I can re-amp at mixdown when that previously cool by itself tone, doesn't sound so hot when one of 24 tracks.

 

I love my amp sims. I have an older version of Amplitude I am messing with too.

[uab9253]

Sorry to not fully answer your question, I got off on a tangent.

 

I use plug ins from Line 6 in my DAW, Cubase. I plug my guitar into a Toneport USB interface and the output of that into my Audiobox USB. I don't condition it or preamp anything in any other way, except to use the level controls on the boxes.

[onelife]

 

I'm way behind the curve technology wise, but I get good guitar sounds. A great tool is the old Yamaha DG1000 modelling preamp. All it does is amps, no effects, and with a 25 bit input, there is no need for a gate. the speaker sim in it is pretty darned good, though undocumented. I'll run that through a Summit 2ba221 and the RNC. Often I'll mix mic'ed amps with it, though.

 

 

Please tell me a bit more about the undocumented speaker sim. For years I used direct out from a DG-80 with the power amp volume turned all the way down. It has separate level controls for the balanced DI out and for the speaker out.

 

The DG-80 has speaker emulation but I did not know the DG1000 did.

 

I still think the DG series is great and I'm baffled as to why Yamaha discontinued them. I've had my DG-80 for over ten years and never had a problem with it (and never had to change a single tube or deal with quirky tube issues) I've dragged that thing from one end of the country to the other.

 

Lately I have been running Amplitube3 on a MacBook. For Pro Tools, I plug the guitar straight into the DI on the Mbox2 and with other programs I sometimes use the Stealth Pedal when I don't want to haul the Mbox around.

[danbronson]

I've used a bunch of amp sims but never purchased any (just used the demos). Still, I've used them pretty extensively and done a lot of experimenting/comparing with them. Cubase has one built in that I use when I'm just recording song ideas, it's not the best I've used by far but it gets the job done quickly. I plug in with the 'instrument in' on my interface usually, but have a Little Labs Redeye that sounds great and functions as a reamp as well as DI.

 

I also have a Mesa/Boogie Roadster, a Fender Champ clone, a couple nice speaker cabs, a few very different sounding guitars, several good guitar mics and all that goes into my Steinberg MR816. I can get the cabs in an isolated room and crank the amps up if need be. I've recorded friends' amps as well, and some of them own some nice stuff.

 

So all of that being said...I've yet to hear modeling come anywhere close to the sound of a real amp being recorded well. When you compare the results back to back, the modeler sounds flat and weird every time.

[Lee Knight]

I just about always take a DI when tracking guitar. I use the active Radial. Very nice. Even with a great amp recording there are some cool and useful things that sims can do later after tracking. For instance...

 

Say you track a great take from the basic rhyth guitarist. He was live with the drummer and bassist. Later, after lots of additional tracking you find that that breakdown really needs some creative production. Perhaps a Green Day-esque little ratty amp sound for 8 bars.

 

The guy already played it great and it's perfect but...

 

I take the dry DI track at that section and run it into Amplitube or Trash and come up with something that is intentionally funky. Mute the original. Sims are great for this. Or maybe I'll reamp (Radial Xamp) into a little Alamo or Magnatone or Gibson or whatever thing fits the bill.

 

Pedals before the DI? Sometimes. It depaneds on how I envision using the DI later. With pedals, if the guy has some very cool pedal thnkgs going on but you're not crazy about his amp tone... pedals befroe the DI and reamp later. If you hate everything he's got going but you're getting a performance out of him, DI before pedals and later pull out your stiuff and make it happen.

 

This way, I'm getting the natural performance, but I've got some leeway for creative sound sculpting as the production matures.

[Flogger59]

 

Please tell me a bit more about the undocumented speaker sim. For years I used direct out from a DG-80 with the power amp volume turned all the way down. It has separate level controls for the balanced DI out and for the speaker out. The DG-80 has speaker emulation but I did not know the DG1000 did. I still think the DG series is great and I'm baffled as to why Yamaha discontinued them. I've had my DG-80 for over ten years and never had a problem with it (and never had to change a single tube or deal with quirky tube issues) I've dragged that thing from one end of the country to the other. Lately I have been running Amplitube3 on a MacBook. For Pro Tools, I plug the guitar straight into the DI on the Mbox2 and with other programs I sometimes use the Stealth Pedal when I don't want to haul the Mbox around.

 

 

Press Midi and Clean2, while holding those press the up arrow. The display will read "On".

A pal has a DG80-210, great sounding amp. The reason that they got discontinued was that everyone was buying Line6. I worked for them when these were current, and the fact that people don't have ears was reinforced daily.

[sbrett]

I've been using a Koch Loadbox II on my Mark V head for a few months now. Works great live so I hooked it up to do some quiet recording with--works great there too...no cab needed. I could probably get a better recorded sound if I bought a few more mics and had a more ideal recording environment, but it works great if you want something quick.

[Kerouac]

I use Guitar Rig 3 or the Logic amp sim.

[nerol1st]

Guitar to DI and DI to amp and mic pre. Mic up the amp.

 

I only do it for the editing though, way easier to edit off a DI track than it is a dirt or even clean track (because electric guitars are naturally compressed).

[LowYaw]

POD XT

those are cheap nowadays, you can have one used for about 100-120 off evilbay.

there are several handy options like record processed guitar, record direct - monitor processed, etc. i am not sure if POD really is a professional solution for you, but to me, it seems to be better then plug-ins, and oh well, somehow those POD tones made their way to numerous pro records, so here you go )

[mistersully]

i don't think i'm ready to let go of mic'ing amps... the solo 610 has a 'thru' option next to the DI.... i think i'll record direct with the 610... then back out to a mic'd amp.... as others do.... best of both worlds

 

i was pretty impressed by the difference the 610 made to amp sim plugins

[WRGKMC]

When I'm not micing amps I'll plug into either a Boss, Yamaha, or Rocktron rack unit Guitar preamps. The One Boss has Speaker emulation and is two channel, stereo output and buffered monitoring. its got all kinds of drive and clean settings and two sweep mids blus hig and low EQ. I can get just about any sound I need with some tweaking. I place an older Yamaha GEP 50 and an Alesis unit in the effects loop for some reverbs, chorus, and echo depending on the song.

 

I also have the older rocktron and Boss half rack units which can get some incredible sounds too. I've even used things like Tube screamers and other guitar pedals straight in at line level and gotten some great sounds. preamps with speaker emulation sound the most natureal. If you're going to use pedals, you need an EQ to dial off some of the edge.

 

I used to use my rolland space echo as an effects unit too. Mine has an instrument level input and you can plug your pedal board right in and just use the echo as a preamp or dial in reverbs and echos. i need to pull that baby out and do some more tracks with it. It does have great analog tone.

 

Many of those newer Boss floor units can be plugged into a computer via USB to record. If I didnt have all the options I have now, I'd likely try to get one of those used and use it for recording.

[UstadKhanAli]

I don't DI very often, but when I do, I typically go through a Vox ToneLab SE. Otherwise, for all other DI applications, I go through a Radial or a SansAmp and then straight in.

[Karma1]

I've gotten some good results using a Mesa Boogie V-Twin tube preamp as a front end for recording into ProTools. I've also used a Zoom G9.2tt fx/modeler.

[davesacre]

I record into the guitar input of my Alesis io|26 and primarily use Amplitube 3 as my amp sim. When I want a more "processed" sound or strange effects, I go for Guitar Rig 3. GR3 is very fun for getting odd tones. I even have Revalver III, but I do not use that as often. Maybe I should, because sometimes it sounds great, but I have a difficult time matching cab impulses to the amps for the best sound. For bass, I use Amplitube 3 and Ampeg SVX exclusively. I cannot get a bass tone I like out of GR3. Sometimes I will put my Groove Tubes Brick in front of my recording interface to give some added warmth and "tube feel."

[Mark L]

I plug my guitar straight into my 16-track and use internal insert-effects

 

And that, my friends, is why my recorded electric guitar always sounds so {censored}e!

[Kerouac]

 

I cannot get a bass tone I like out of GR3.

 

 

I love Guitar Rig, but I'm right there with you. Then again, I can't find a bass tone I like ANYWHERE. That's probably the single tone I'm pickiest about.

[nerol1st]

Like I said:

 

Guitar to DI.

DI thru to amp.

DI XLR to mic pre.

Sm57 in front of the cab into another mic pre.

 

My toneport is a turd at producing reampable DI tracks.

[davesacre]

 

I love Guitar Rig, but I'm right there with you. Then again, I can't find a bass tone I like ANYWHERE. That's probably the single tone I'm pickiest about.

 

 

Yeah, I think I can be a little picky as well with my bass tone. I did manage to get a couple presets with Amplitube that get me close to something I like, though. And I have a bass that takes EQ before the amp very well, meaning that it still sounds good after you jack the mids.

[DVaz]

 

Like I said: Guitar to DI. DI thru to amp. DI XLR to mic pre. Sm57 in front of the cab into another mic pre. My toneport is a turd at producing reampable DI tracks.

 

 

Yep. Pretty much identical setup here.

 

I always go

Guitar -> Radial J48 -> ISP Decimator -> Amp

Radial -> Mic Pre

 

V30 - SM57 is pretty much always there, mix/colour with an MD421, usually, but not always.

 

Reamps with X-Amp, if needed.

[samtrips]

When di'ing my guitars I don't have anything fancy to run it through, just go into my pedals and the Profire 2626 I use. I've had a few good results though - I used to be a stickler for amp sound in the room but since I've been doing electronic stuff I like to mix live and d.i guitars as sometimes the thinner DI sounds better.

[t_e_l_e]

i'm doing it the cheap way

 

i use a stereo-out-efx guitar pedal as DI box to split my signal. currently we used an old ibanez DPL-10 pan delay, turned off.

right goes directly too sound interface sound interface instrument input

left goes to other efx used in recording and than to the amp, which is mic'ed with a sm57 which goes to second input on sound interface (presonus inspire 1394)

 

so i have always a DI track with the mic'ed track, which i can use later reamped or whatever.

just to be usre that the efx box is not turned on while recording, orgerwise in my case i would have stereo pan delay on both tracks