Guitars and D/I's

[Bloomington]

How should a person record and electric guitar?

By running it through a rack effect e.g. an EQ and/or a compressor and then into either a Mackie 1604 and then to a Roland 880 recorder or directly into the 880 is there a need to use a D/I?

Same question for bass too?

What is the general use rules for D/I's?

Thanks !!!!

 

[Wide Awake]

A direct box is used to convert a 1/4" instrument -level signal into a balanced XLR line-level signal, and vise versa. So you can plug straight into a mixer channel input.

You may be able to plug a bass guitar right into your 1604 mixer and go direct with decent results, it just depends on your bass.

A better solution to recording guitar and bass DI (direct input) is a specialized device like a Pod, J-station, Sansamp, Yamaha DG Stomp. They simulate the sound of real amplifiers using modeling technology. I use a Bass Pod and a Sansamp and they are amazing tools. It's best to go try all of them you can because like real guitar amps, they have their own sound and personalities.

 

[Roel]

The VS1880 has a low impedance connection which you can directly plug a guitar in... Don't know if your VS880 has that too... (Look for a jack input named LowZ )

If you have an effectsboard installed, there are amp simulations on these boards too. Don't know how they compair to the POD etc. But I have used some of these simulations happily...