Recording direct in and miked simultaneously?
- Thread starter mellotron
- Start date
suprstar
It aint ez being green
The amp puts out a signal on ONE output. Either the amp, or the headphones jack. You'd have to hack the hardware - You might be able to take it apart and do something to the jack, so it doesn't detect when a cord is plugged into it or something, so it'd continue playing thru the speaker while the line out is connected.
If you have another amp and a mixer, you might be able to do what I do: I run a POD directly into my mixer on one channel. I send it to an aux that's plugged into my amp. There's an sm57 on the amp, I plug it into my mixer on a different channel, so I can record the direct in AND the mic simultaneously. You could similarly plug your guitar right into the firebox and do something like that, but you'd be recording your dry guitar sound, not the guitar sound as the cube is playing it.
Another idea you could try is: record the direct in, then play it back thru your amp on an aux or whatever, and record with the mic. It's not 'simultaneous' but it could achieve the same results.
If you have another amp and a mixer, you might be able to do what I do: I run a POD directly into my mixer on one channel. I send it to an aux that's plugged into my amp. There's an sm57 on the amp, I plug it into my mixer on a different channel, so I can record the direct in AND the mic simultaneously. You could similarly plug your guitar right into the firebox and do something like that, but you'd be recording your dry guitar sound, not the guitar sound as the cube is playing it.
Another idea you could try is: record the direct in, then play it back thru your amp on an aux or whatever, and record with the mic. It's not 'simultaneous' but it could achieve the same results.
Last edited:
In theory, yes, recording a direct signal simultaneously with a mic'ed signal can be done and in some cases gives pretty interesting results.
I'm not familiar with your amp--are there effects built in to the amp that you wish to use in the recording? If not, then you could try splitting the signal to go directly into your Firebox and also directly into your amp, and then mic the amp. Of course this will give you a completely dry direct in, but you could then apply effects after the fact in software. Warning: applying distortion in software usually sounds like holy hell, but clean tones work nicely enough.
mattr
Resident moody teenager
I always record a clean direct signal along with the mic(s) in case I ever need to re-amp or amp-sim. The way I work (record with mobile rig, mix at home) means that its not usually practical to rerecord things if the original amp tone wasn't quite right, and also I would hate to lose that perfect take because the amp started buzzing halfway through, etc 
Anyway, its perfectly simple to do. Just get a DI box which has two outputs (one 'bypass' or 'thru' output) - most active ones do.
Plug the guitar straight into the DI box and record the clean signal from the balanced output, and run the 'thru' output to the amp (or pedal board; wherever the guitar would've gone). On most DI boxes this output shouldn'd affect the signal or impedance in any way and so it should be a transparent splitting of the signal.
Anyway, its perfectly simple to do. Just get a DI box which has two outputs (one 'bypass' or 'thru' output) - most active ones do.
Plug the guitar straight into the DI box and record the clean signal from the balanced output, and run the 'thru' output to the amp (or pedal board; wherever the guitar would've gone). On most DI boxes this output shouldn'd affect the signal or impedance in any way and so it should be a transparent splitting of the signal.
Okay, thanks for the help. A Line6 Pod acts as both a DI box and amp simulator, right? I think I'll just do suprstar's method until I can afford a Pod or DI box. I'm not sure if I need a Pod since all I want to do is record a dry direct in and then apply effects with software. Thanks again.
suprstar
It aint ez being green
If you want to record a totally dry straight-off-your-guitar track, then you can do it with your existing hardware. Your firebox is a DI, plug your guitar right into one channel, run the output to your amp, mic the amp on the other channel, and record both at once 
Just make sure you don't send the mic signal back to the amp again, and you should be good to go.
And yes, a POD acts as a DI and amp sim.
Just make sure you don't send the mic signal back to the amp again, and you should be good to go. And yes, a POD acts as a DI and amp sim.
suprstar
It aint ez being green
You're right, technically that's true. It's the equivalent of running a mic pre/DI box into an amp, I've seen ppl do it, and I've done it too, it works.. My amp is driven off an aux on my mixer, same thing right? And I've run my POD into my amp on 'DI' and 'Amp' output settings, the only real difference I notice is the volume. If you keep the level down so you don't overload the input you should be ok, no? I'm vaguely aware that there are differences in the signal, but I'm not sure what the implications are..