Direct In vs Micing

[Armistice]

Only if you do it with a Gerbil. How do you get that Habitrail up your ass anyways?

So I typed a few obvious words into Google to answer that exact question and ended up on Amazon looking at a Swell Guy "appliance"... and thought, "This is going to come back and haunt me at some stage"....

Thank god I found the "manage browsing history" page!

 

[dainbramage]

I use the cab sim output of a T-Rex Spindoctor preamp and go direct in. It sounds pretty good when using Amplitube cab simulation in addition. That is, I bypass the amp function of Amplitube and only use the cab.

I do this however because I lost my amp (yes, lost it, believe it or not) and this was prior to my recording interests. So I am planning to get a new amp shortly and I expect to mic as from what I've heard through samples it sounds much much better to my ears. Like others have mentioned it sounds much fuller and more alive.

As for now the preamp->cabsim works ok.

 

[ollie99]

I much prefer micing my amp, although there are circumstances. For overdrive and distortion, I definately prefer micing my amp, the plugin's are always way too fuzzy, crackly and unrealistic, however I think I would say the clean sound is slightly better on plugin's, and you do get great flexibility. I use distortion most of the time because thats the music I like, but when I heard some people's songs that were recorded on plugin's I was like "no way did they do that on pod farm" or whatever, so I experimented and realised that the sounds are epic! I get exactly the sound I want 90% of the time

 

[BeniRose]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned re-amping yet. I've occasionally done this where I record direct for flexibility, but then send the signal back out through one of my amps and mic it later.

Most of the time I mic the amp for my band, but go DI whenever I'm doing my pop or electronic stuff.

 

[Telegram Sam]

Hey man,

Could you tell me what impulses are? I've heard about there here and there but have no clue what they are. Much appreciated

Impulse Response (I think) is the response to an impulse, so you provide an impulse to a speaker and using a convolution program you can model the speaker's true sound based on the response to the impulse. They usually use some sort of noise for the impulse, you can also do the same thing with reverb, there are even some amateurs that play around with it as a science hobby; taking IR's of various sized spaces and then layering them over other sounds.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned re-amping yet. I've occasionally done this where I record direct for flexibility, but then send the signal back out through one of my amps and mic it later.

I'm in the process of getting my modest home studio up and running and I am going to go direct for everything but acoustic guitar and vocals. As a simple recording hobbyist, there is much to be said about not having to deal with all the ins and outs of room treatment, mic placement, finding a quiet moment, etc.

I intend to record dry signals along with my direct guitar tracks (via modeler) for the purpose of reamping, that way if I get some better tones I can just apply them after the fact.

 

[Justsomeguy]

99% of the time i do both. Guitar ---> DI-----(link of through)--->amp that way you get the best of both worlds. it's a great "safety net" if it turns out the original amp sound isn't working and you can't easily re-record the part. it also gives you a world of options with blending guitar tones between the DI and the mic signal.

plus, as someone mentioned earlier, real re-amping is awesome! i had to re-amp some parts for a track a while back as the mic tone didn't work in the mix and the virtual re-amping didn't sound right. it was actually quite fun because, without having to worry about a musician getting fidgety, you can spend as much time as you like really getting the exact tone you want

 

[RecordingMaster]

Sorry to hijack, but to further on the OP's question, rather than starting a new thread...

Being a drummer by trade and a "part time" guitarist, I wonder about all those guitar plugins and what they are intended for. Most simulate different amps and such and add effects, but I'd assume most of those are intended to be used on a clean DI signal to give the dry unprocessed guitar sound a soul of its own..."re-amping" if you will, no?

If yes, then I wonder which of ANY of those plugins are actually meant to use on a mic'ed guitar track? The reason for my questioning is because, say i recorded an electric guitar track with some distortion (think an alternative rock rhythm track for ex). So when i slap on an amp modeler like a Triple Rectifier, it's modeling the rectifier based on the sound of the recorded amp (;et's say it was a Fender Twin for an extreme example). To me that doesn;'t make sense and doesn't seem like that was the ORIGINAL intention. Just changing the guitar sound I guess? I wonder which plugins are just intended to "sweeten" a mic'ed guitar track.

Hmmm...

 

[Bobbsy]

I prefer miking to DI-ing, but I've never tried 'micing' - isn't it illegal?

It's a common technique at the Disney sound stages.

 

[somegeezer]

Sorry to hijack, but to further on the OP's question, rather than starting a new thread...

Being a drummer by trade and a "part time" guitarist, I wonder about all those guitar plugins and what they are intended for. Most simulate different amps and such and add effects, but I'd assume most of those are intended to be used on a clean DI signal to give the dry unprocessed guitar sound a soul of its own..."re-amping" if you will, no?

If yes, then I wonder which of ANY of those plugins are actually meant to use on a mic'ed guitar track? The reason for my questioning is because, say i recorded an electric guitar track with some distortion (think an alternative rock rhythm track for ex). So when i slap on an amp modeler like a Triple Rectifier, it's modeling the rectifier based on the sound of the recorded amp (;et's say it was a Fender Twin for an extreme example). To me that doesn;'t make sense and doesn't seem like that was the ORIGINAL intention. Just changing the guitar sound I guess? I wonder which plugins are just intended to "sweeten" a mic'ed guitar track.

Hmmm...

They aren't meant for an already mic'd guitar. They are amp sims, because they simulate an amp. It'd be like playing through an amp, then plugging that amp into another amp otherwise. You should never need to use an amp or cab sim on an already mic'd track, ever. You have already sent it through an amp and cab. You can, however, send an amp signal through DI and just use a cab sim to beef it up. Or DI into an amp sim and reamp through a real cab that you can mic up. But if you intend to use both sims together, you go straight DI. That is the point of them.

If you want to play around with the sound, that is what your EQ and reverb and compression and such is for.

 

[GONZO-X]

i use a combination of miced cabs, and direct via a Palmer PDI-09.

i gotta say, i love the palmer.

it gives me exactly what i want MOST of the time, with super dry clear in your face tones, that i can eq so much easier than the miced tracks.
but i still love the 'room sound', and i mix the two together when i need a more organic tone.

but for dead quiet, deadly accurate super dry tracks, or tracks i want to radically eq or put effects on, the direct capture with the palmer is super cool.

 

[guitarguy101]

I've always thought miking the amp gives me the sound I want and the sound I'm used. After trying a hoard of computer programs for electric guitar, I decided to forgo it and do the natural thing.
When I DI my guitar, I get part of my sound.
When I run my Gretsch through my Fender Hot Rod Tube Amplifier, using my Ibanez Tube Screamer, I get what I want.

 

[andybhoy]

could you not do both? gives you loads more options then. enhance and use the mic'd recording, or the di recording or use both in the mix.

 

[RecordingMaster]

Thanks some Geezer. That's what I thought. Surprising there aren't more plugins out there that are for an already mic'ed guitar cab. Liked CLA Guitars for instance.

 

[somegeezer]

Thanks some Geezer. That's what I thought. Surprising there aren't more plugins out there that are for an already mic'ed guitar cab. Liked CLA Guitars for instance.

I think the hardest part is recording all the impulses. Though if you know anything of the new Kemper Profiling amp, I think we'll begin to find a lot of great amp and cab impulses to load into it from the whole community that will begin using them. If I had the money, I'd get myself one.