Why does D.I sound so bad?

C

Chrisdb

New member
Why does recording through D.I sound so bad?

Heres the thing, I have this nice Seagul acoustic and I was experimenting to see how good I could make it sound without mics. When so I plugged it into my Mbox 2, and recorded. And it just sounds so bright and seems to lose a lot its detail and warmth :confused:

Then I thought well it sounds nice through my amp. So if I plugged it into my amp, then connected my amp to the Mbox 2 using the line out of the amp with the D.I input then I would get the same sound as what I hear coming out my amp? Right.

But it doesn't appear to be like this at all. Maybe the answer is obvious here, but why exactly does it lose so much quality and warmth. I mean if its direct input should it not sound just the same as what the amp sounds like? Am I doing something wrong, or in general is it hard to get a nice sound with an acoustic usuing D.I? :confused:

Cheers
 
Chrisdb said:
Then I thought well it sounds nice through my amp. So if I plugged it into my amp, then connected my amp to the Mbox 2 using the line out of the amp with the D.I input then I would get the same sound as what I hear coming out my amp?
Cheers
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Line Out to DI is not what you want. Line Out to Line In. A DI input is for instrument cables, a guitar, a bass, being Directly Input. You are running through an amp first which is putting out a different signal out the line out.
 
I've only ever gotten a good DI after running it through a nice pre amp.

nothing stock. I've put it through the MPA Gold, Neve Clones, API, all sound good. Stock 003 pres, berhinger pres, all drasticly sound awful.

I'm not the type of person that says the pre's are all the sound. but to me, on di. the pre's are the sound.
 
There's no air. An acoustic guitar sounds great in air. It sounds best unamplified, and if it even sound passable through your amp, that's because there's air between your amp and your ear. It sounds okay through a PA because there's air between the mains and the audience. That's what acoustic electronics are engineered for. (here's a test--check an acoustic signal at the mixer with headphones--sounds harsh and brittle compared to what's coming out of the PA's mains)

Think about this--even as far as amp modeling has come, a mic'd amp for an electric still sounds better than modeled--and that's an intstrument that already depends heavily on electronics for its sound. So if its true of an electric guitar, how much more so true is it for an acoustic?

DI for an acoustic guitar can have it's place--for FX, or adding a purcussive layer to another guitar part, etc. But for good true acoustic sound--DI won't do it (as you're finding out...)
 
iownrocknroll said:
I've only ever gotten a good DI after running it through a nice pre amp.

nothing stock. I've put it through the MPA Gold, Neve Clones, API, all sound good. Stock 003 pres, berhinger pres, all drasticly sound awful.

I'm not the type of person that says the pre's are all the sound. but to me, on di. the pre's are the sound.
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I will add by saying it to depends on the sensor you are using in the guitar as well. I have an LR baggs transducer in my martin dx-1. I run it to a vintech dual 72 (500.00 a channel). It sounds pretty good but it mostly picks up the attack of the strings. I will also use a mic to get the natural ambiant sound of the guitar. The two in the mix sound pretty good together for a particular sound in mind. I totally can see where I would use just the mic.
 
guitar486 said:
Line Out to DI is not what you want. Line Out to Line In. A DI input is for instrument cables, a guitar, a bass, being Directly Input. You are running through an amp first which is putting out a different signal out the line out.
Click to expand...
Don't over think this when the answer is so simple. Plug your iPod or cd player or whatever you have into your guitar amp. Play a song. Doesn't sound anything like "regular" speakers or headphones, does it? Guitar amps go way out of their way to NOT reproduce sound accurately...because the signal coming off an electric (or acoustic electric) guitar is so damn dull when reproduced accurately. Some of this can be done in circuitry. Most of it is done by the actual vibrations of the cone and the shape of the cabinet.

So if the sound isn't coming out of the guitar amp's speaker, it isn't being "messed up in a musical way". Taking a line off a guitar amp just won't sound the same.

As for why the acoustic guitar itself sounds different in the room than straight out of it's DI... In one case you hear the vibrations of the body and the strings and the pick. In the other case you hear the vibrations of a single thin pickup strip.
 
Ah I see, so If I plug the cable from the amp to the line slot it should work better. Some really informative information about amps, and D.I there, thanks :)
 
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Chrisdb said:
Ah I see, so If I plug the cable from the amp to the line slot it should work better. Some really informative information about amps, and D.I there, thanks :)
Click to expand...

But by doing this you are still bypassing the characteristics of the amp, speaker, room (and any mic that you would use to capture those). If you like the sound of the guitar in the room, why not set up a stereo pair and capture it?
 
Other than the obvious impedance mismatch issues (if you don't have a DI box made for guitar) I've always found acoustic guitar pickups fail to capture the full depth of an acoustic. I use a combination of mic and pickup with my acoustic, and blend to taste.

I use an original Lace soundhole pickup on a fairly decent Washburn dreadnought and mic it with an AKG C414B-ULS.
 
I'm not reading any of this thread, but let me just say that the line out on an acoustic guitar is good for 2 things. 1) A tuner; and 2) playing live.

If you're recording an acoustic guitar and you're not using a microphone, you're fucking up....Period. The end. No exceptions ever.
 
Very informative information :), and yeah thanks I am very aware that mics are the way forward :rolleyes: But this thread was created out of general curiousity about D.I's sound quality. I've never taken into consideration how Line outs do not pick up the characteristics of the amp due to room, vibrations etc So cheers for the informative replies.
 
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