Experts answer this.

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bazzlad

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Always baked my noodle this one.

Why in a studio do people prefer to mic up amps rather than DI, or line out them?

I do it myself without thinking, but why???

Cheers,
Rich
 
Usually because the amp itself is an integral part of the electric guitar sound.......
 
bazzlad said:
Always baked my noodle this one.

Why in a studio do people prefer to mic up amps rather than DI, or line out them?

I do it myself without thinking, but why???

Cheers,
Rich
Click to expand...

Because the sound of the speaker, and to some extent the room, is considered to be part of the sound of the instrument.

Having said that, I don't own and don't want an amp, so DI works fine for me.
 
Generally speaking, nothing sounds quite like a speaker moving air. Not that a guitar processor can't be just the ticket sometimes. I have a POD, a J Station, an ART SGX-2000, a Rockman, a Hughes & Kettner BATT and a few more that I still love to use but like I said, sometimes you just have to have an amp light up the guitar, ya know what I mean?
 
Yeah but most Amps have LINE OUTS, which feed the distorted sounds straight to the desk etc....
 
Because DI guitar only offers a certain amount of sounds, and by moving around microphones (as well as microphone selection), placement of speaker and so on you can achieve different tones. Also, most guitarists own an amp that they will want to use because it is 'their' sound. Also, DI boxes aren't tube devices and many guitar amps are.

Because while I'm not against DI devices like the POD, I've yet to hear one that sounds good after being quadruple tracked. In fact, I've yet to hear one that sounds as good as myself physically miking a decent amp.

However, if time/noise/space is a concert DI boxes can get pretty good results.
 
bazzlad said:
Yeah but most Amps have LINE OUTS, which feed the distorted sounds straight to the desk etc....
Click to expand...

True, BUT those line outs are one of the following:

a) direct out from the preamp section, totally ignoring the tonal characteristics of the power amp and speaker, or
b) emulated line out, which does its best to emulate the power amp and speaker.

I have a Tech21 Trademark 60 with a SansAmp line out, which is one of the best emulations I've ever heard on a line out. BUT I can still tell the difference between the line out and the speaker sound. Not to say that one is better than the other, they are just different.

As has been mentioned before, mic'ing an amp brings in the characteristics of the power amp section, the speaker, vibrations of the amp chassis, room dynamics, mic response and character, differences in mic placement, and character of the mic preamp.

Use whatever you like the sound of, but don't ever make the mistake of saying that they are the same.
 
Also, recording through speakers allows the guitar's pickups to create a feedback loop. I know FEEDBACK is bad!!! Well in a closed circuit anyways. A lot of guitarists use this speaker/pickup feedback as an integral part of their sound. More often than not though it is one of the key components (As well as cabinet resonance), that goes unnoticed when recording direct, or with an isolated miked cab.

Because it is one of those elements, that adds a certain ambience, or air to a track though, it is sometimes the missing bit of sound we can't quite put our fingers on.
 
I dont think ive ever used a line out on an amp that sounds good. A few emulators work pretty good but it still lacks what im looking for in a guitar sound.

If it were that simple to get an amazing, unique, well known guitar sound then everyone would be doing it.

Danny
 
Generally,

Because of the sound you get. Blue Bear said the jist of it.


Yet that is arguable. It depends on the producer and/or the artist as to which sound and method they desire.
 
I just ranted about this on the mic forum so i will not recap all of it here, but about half of my work is mixing records other producers have done and if the guitars are recorded direct the sound will either suck or be sub par mediocre. For the most part of I stopped accepting mix jobs if the guitars were recorded direct because I know the end product will be sub par. Other people may be much better mixers than I and be able to make fake amps sound as good or better than the real thing, but to my ear the difference of pushing up a fader with a real amp and a fake amp is night and day. If you must go direct the best I have heard are the sans amp and the boogie studio pre.
 
Nothing compares to a good amp, combined with good pres and mics. Emulators can do fine but it all depends where and how you use them. If nobody can notice it the job is done, the idea is try to get as close as you can to a real amp.
 
bazzlad said:
Yeah but most Amps have LINE OUTS, which feed the distorted sounds straight to the desk etc....
Click to expand...


I'd say about half of an amp's sound comes from the type of speaker it uses. That's why you see guitar geeks upgrade their amp speakers to expensive celestions and what not. Add in the fact that most of a distorted guitar's "power" comes from the interaction of the speaker with the cabinet at certain volumes.
 
I should add that it varies a lot with the style of music. Yeah, if you're playing blues-driven overdrive with feedback, DI isn't going to work that well.

I find it works well with clean tones, and fairly well with metal. It's great for industrial, I can get all kinds of sounds I can't get with an amp. At least with one amp, and I don't have money or space for four or seven amps.

I use a tube preamp with carefully selected tubes for DI, along with a DSP emulator that I spend a lot of time tweaking the settings. That's another thing you'll find is like most effects, the presets tend to be useless.

My favorite feature is recording the clean tone of the guitar while monitoring whatever sound I want. Then I can wait until mixdown to decide on a final tone. You can do that by reamping, but emulators are so much more convenient for that.
 
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