DI recording for guitar

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bass2man

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First port here....Hi Everyone..

I record bass direct using a Sans Amp and it sounds great.

I want to do the same with guitar and have gone direct but it really sounds thin..

I am considering getting a H&K Redox Classic as I want to record with my Fender Blues Junior...I play mostly jazz and like the warm sound of a tube amp..

As I understand it, the steps would be as follows:

Unpug the speaker cable from the back of the Blues Junior.
Plug a 1/4 inch cable into the speaker jack and into the "from amp" in the Red Box
PLug the speaker cable into the "to speaker" in teh Redbox
Run the XLR into my audio interface ( Focusrite USB) low-z XLR and turn on Phamtom power
PLug my guitar into the amp...
Arm track in Cubase and record normally

I will still hear the amp...correct?

My question is what woudl I need to not have the speaker sound...I know the DI/amp needs the speaker load on a tube amp but can I place a speaker attenuator between the redbox "to speaker" out and the speaker?..I am trying to record silently as I record later at night..

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome..thanks!!
 
bass2man said:
I record bass direct using a Sans Amp and it sounds great.

I want to do the same with guitar and have gone direct but it really sounds thin..
Click to expand...
Totally outside the box and probably irrelevant, but have you tried double and treble tracking your DI guitar ? Mucking about with guitar and amp settings might make some difference. And if not, forget you ever heard from me ! ;)
 
bass2man said:
I want to do the same with guitar and have gone direct but it really sounds thin..
Click to expand...
DI from the guitar? DI from the Amps's Line Out? The gtr DI is thin sounding?

I am considering getting a H&K Redox Classic as I want to record with my Fender Blues Junior...I play mostly jazz and like the warm sound of a tube amp..

As I understand it, the steps would be as follows:

Unpug the speaker cable from the back of the Blues Junior.
Plug a 1/4 inch speaker cable into the speaker jack and into the "from amp" in the Red Box
PLug the speaker cable into the "to speaker" in teh Redbox
Run the XLR into my audio interface ( Focusrite USB) low-z XLR and turn on Phamtom power
PLug my guitar into the amp...
Arm track in Cubase and record normally

I will still hear the amp...correct?
Click to expand...
Correct, but make sure you use a speaker cable from the amp to Red Box. You'll still need the speaker connected or a dummy load.

My question is what would I need to not have the speaker sound...I know the DI/amp needs the speaker load on a tube amp but can I place a speaker attenuator between the redbox "to speaker" out and the speaker?..I am trying to record silently as I record later at night..

Any thoughts or ideas are welcome..thanks!!
Click to expand...
Depending, the attenuator can take the place of the speaker. e.g. Hot Plate on Load. What attenuator do you have?

My recommendation is to use a load box with a Line out and then use a cab sim plugin with impulses as the cab. Way more flexible.
 
I record direct all the time now - I haven't miced up a cab in two years or something like that. I just bought myself an axe-fx and called it done. I get great guitar sounds direct - check out northern45.com or jingleboysmusic.com - 99.9% of the electric guitars on both of those projects were direct through my axefx.

Never had good success with a speaker load box - I have tried a Palmer PDI which is still in my travel rack, but I was never near as happy as happy with that as I am with the axefx.

FWIW
 
Thanks for the response..

Sonixx...I dont have an attenuator but from your reply it sounds like I could put an attenuator i.e. Hotplate or something similar on the Redox in place of a speaker and it would work...

gdgross...thanks for the axe-fw lead..looks like a very cool piece of hardware..the samples on the site sound great..

I play mostly jazz..think Herb Ellis, Tal Farlow, Wes Montgomery, et al, so not really useful for me..I see it has a Roland JC-120, great jazz amp..I don;t use distortion so Polytone or JazzKat sound would be the sounds that would work for me versus Marshall or Soldano... :)

Thanks again!!
 
Not to push it too much, but it's got a couple of good clean amps too - I do a lot of jazz work as well, usually my heritage 575 through either the deluxe of jc120 models. Track 3 on jingleboysmusic.com (Santa claus is coming to town) is the 575 through the jc120 model if you want to hear a more traditional jazz guitar tone.

Good luck either way, and I apologize for my axefx proselytizing, but it's totally changed my entire rig and approach to recording guitars - lets me concentrate more on the music and less on the engineering.

In either case, I'd be interested to hear how the DI recording comes out, given my limited success with that. I was working with mostly overdriven tones though; might sound a bit better for cleans.

Good luck!
 
You could try using impulses that would give you more options. There are a lot of free ones and some you can buy (just look up guitar impulses and some how to's). Basically an impulse is a .wav file that you use with a reverb plugin that essentially runs your signal through whatever the impulse was (whatever mic, distance, or cab). Best of luck with whatever you decide!
-nocarsgo
 
gdgross1978 said:
I just bought myself an axe-fx and called it done.
Click to expand...

It should be called the ASS-FX because that's exactly what it sounds like. It's just as fake and one dimensional as all the rest of the digital modeling toys on the market. The only way to get a half way decent sound from one is to run it through a tube power amp and speaker cab and mic it. So at that point it becomes a useless piece of gear.
 
ARRRGGGGG! I CAN'T STAND IT!!

You just KNEW i'd be here, didn't you?

My GOD, it should be ILLEGAL to go direct with an electric guitar. No matter WHAT kind of music you play- jazz is no excuse for bad technique. Quite the contrary- most jazzmen have TERRIFIC technique, at least in their playing, why throw all that out the window when recording?? Late at night? So WHAT?? If you just GOTTA maintain the peace in the wee hours, find some time during the day to lay down the guitar lines, and PLAY THROUGH THE WHOLE FREAKIN' AMP- SPEAKERS AND CAB INCLUDED, LIKE GOD DECREED IT SHOULD BE.

Okay, I'm done.
 
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