Do any metal bands record direct in?

[ericlingus]

Do you guys know of any metal bands that don't use a mic when recording their guitar parts and use an amp modeller instead like a Vamp or POD?

[jonnyc]

Since I only have one room to record I usually run the guitars direct only for help in tracking the drums. I can honestly say that'd I'd never accept the sound thats produced from DI. However I do know a few local engineers that do a lot of DI and they can make it acceptable, I never try. I think for a cheap demo or for ideas its cool but if you actually want people to spend a few bucks, mic'ing a cab can't be beat, ever.

[VomitHatSteve]

Direct input will rarely give you a natural or full sound.

If you do manage to get something that sounds good, you've probably put enough work and effects into it to make it not worth the effort. Plus, that gets really hard to reproduce live.

[Massive Master]

I've "done that" with a POD, but it almost always sounds better when there's some air moving.

[ibleedburgundy]

Originally Posted by ericlingus

Do you guys know of any metal bands that don't use a mic when recording their guitar parts and use an amp modeller instead like a Vamp or POD?

I'm going to expirement running direct in out of my Mesa coupled with a mic for a comparison. I will get back to you about it.

[jonnyc]

Originally Posted by ibleedburgundy

I'm going to expirement running direct in out of my Mesa coupled with a mic for a comparison. I will get back to you about it.

Still sounds like crap, tried it with my marshall, less crappy but still crap.

[jimmycs780]

I mixed a local band live using all Pods. and a drum machine. They had a huge sound. I did add a lot of comp to the guitars to tighten them up and make them less mushy.
I have recorded DI guitars straight from mp pre amp using an ada micro cab and had some good results.

[Chris Shaeffer]

Speakers have a huge impact on the sound- some natural compression and quite a bit of high and low end tayloring. Direct Outs from the preamp don't have the benefits of those changes and so sound very different from the miced speaker. Line signals recorded with miced signals are also often out of phase- that needs to be fixed before it will sound good. I usually only capture DI tracks so I can re-amp them.

POD's and other amp and speaker sims are better in this regard. Its kind of the ultimate "What you hear is what you get." I personally don't like it as much as even a cheap amp with a 57 on the grill, but to each his own. No matter how you tweak it, its still a canned guitar sound.

So in my experience, no. I haven't worked on any serious metal projects where guitars are recorded direct. Preproduction, songwriting, farting around? Sure. CD for sale? No.

-Chris

[scrubs]

I read that Master of Puppets was all done through a POD.