mic'd amp or DI connection?

  • Thread starter Thread starter drumboi
  • Start date Start date
D

drumboi

New member
is there an advantage of using a Direct injection box to record a guitar over micing an amp?
 
direct injection? direct input? you say potato, i say too many carbs on my diet.

micing cabinets is for people who want the sound of the cabinet....you can get a pre amp and DI into the mixer or whatnot and that would be useful if you live in an apartment so the neighbors wont go off on you about being too loud.
 
The 'advantage' would be that you wouldn't get bleed from any other sources into your mic. But understand that usually you are sacrificing significant sound quality for this.
 
Agree with starch on the bleeding over, especially for home studios without isolation rooms. This is a major advantage. Another advantage is that your're not committed to your amp tone and settings. If you record direct and then use a plug in like Amplitube or AmpFarm, your options are unlimited. You can also playback the clean track that you recorded into your amp and rerecord it on another track, called RE-AMPing. Or re-amp through your POD. I like to record direct and use Amplitube. Another option is to use the direct box and split one signal to your amp and mic it and the other direct to your mixer clean. Then, if you have a good performance but don't like the tone, you have the other options. You can mix them together if you like. By the way, direct is often the best way to go for electric bass, and Amplitube works great for bass IMHO.
 
But understand that usually you are sacrificing significant sound quality for this.
starch said:
Potentially, yes. It's hard to beat a properly miced amp with just the perfect tone. But most guitar players I've introduced to Amplitube thinks its very cool because of the ability to radically change the tone on the fly. I'm working at the "home rec" level. This may not hold up in the real world. Anyone else like guitar modeling software?
Click to expand...
 
D.I?? Disgusting input!!

I would never use a D.I. to record my guitar or even put my guitar or anyone elses guitar straight into the mixer or recorder. The only time i have recorded guitar straight in is when making a guide track or when recording to my digital recorder at home, because i dont have my amp at home or a decent mic at home to use! You can get alright results going straight in but if you are wanting to take the recording seriously and professionally then you NEED to mic up a decent amp in my opinion. I have had good results using a bad amp before, it just depends if you get the settings of the amp and guitar FXs right before recording i suppose which is ALOT easier with a nice amp like a DSL100. A decent serving of compression should be used with as little eq as can be helped, but if eq is needed just use it. Maybe a little room reverb to thicken the sound out. Double track or triple track the one guitar track by recording the same part again onto a different track and play simultaneously. DONT use a doubling effect and DONT just copy and paste the same track onto another track and move it slightly out of sync. This gives a really unnaturall sound and sounds DIGITAL AHHHH.....!!! You want your recording to sound as natural as possible with still a bit of rawness to it. Anyway id better stop ramblin on eh!! good luck.
 
It somewhat depends on what gear you use.

Amp modellers, like POD units from Line 6, are designed with both live and recording use in mind. Going direct from a POD unit generally works very well, and provides a zero volume method for recording.

If your sound comes from amp overdrive, then micing your amp may be the only good way to get a useable sound.

Ed
 
A simple and inexpensive way to get a good electric DI sound is to run it through a stomp box. Of course, you have to want THAT sound in order for it to work.
 
The Seifer said:
you sound like a dumbass
Click to expand...
You havin a ruff day? The dude gave a clear answer of his view which is much more than you did.
 
I just miced up a Marshall tube stack and a 59 Les Paul reissue for a very competent player. WOW, can never beat that tone with an amp modeler. But I can't change it much in the mix, either. There is not a right or wrong way, what we are talking about here are options. I do think that, once it's in the mix, you'll have more trouble telling the difference than you think.
 
Last edited:
This weekend I will record a friend's band in my single room home studio. I'll mic the drums up. Bass will go direct. Guitar direct with a Yamaha DG stomp -- can use this as a scratch or doubled track if we want to mic up the Marshall amp later and redo the guitar tracks with a real amp. The guitar player will stand away from the drums and sing a scratch vocal, trying not to bleed into the drum mics. This way we get a live feel and the bass and drum tracks down. This is the way I record a full band in one room. Could not do this without using DI! (Sorry to ramble on...................this forum is cool)
 
Last edited:
NYMorningstar said:
You havin a ruff day? The dude gave a clear answer of his view which is much more than you did.
Click to expand...
He didn't give a clear view of anything. He spewed a bunch of misinformed bullshit about how its SO IMPOSSIBLE to do anything direct and articulated it about as good as a 12 year old. I bet he and the rest of you have heard POD'ed guitars on commercial albums, but you would never realize it because you're not good enough to mix direct guitars properly so they don't sound like shit and you've been brainwashed by this bbs.


I await more bullshit.
 
The Seifer said:
He didn't give a clear view of anything. He spewed a bunch of misinformed bullshit about how its SO IMPOSSIBLE to do anything direct and articulated it about as good as a 12 year old. I bet he and the rest of you have heard POD'ed guitars on commercial albums, but you would never realize it because you're not good enough to mix direct guitars properly so they don't sound like shit and you've been brainwashed by this bbs.


I await more bullshit.
Click to expand...
He did give a clear view of his opinion. Does his opinion not count because it is different than yours? Does the difference give you some right to call him a dumbass? Are you a fascist bastard?

You mentioned age but it is rather obvious that it is you that needs to grow up.
 
I always mic my amp but I'd like to experiment with combining with a DI signal.

I don't have a DI box or line out of the amp, so was wondering if it's feasible to get one of those 1/4" Y jacks, plug into the guitar, then take one feed to the amp, the other straight to the mixer.

Seems like a cheap way to do it but would I lose signal by splitting it like this?
 
I've used DI when it seemed a good idea, and I've used various mic setups when those seemed like a good idea. Each was right for the occasion. My recording quality was pretty rough each time because of my skill level, not the limits of my equipment.

Try this trick: Ditch the dogma.

Try D.I., get to understand how it behaves, and then try micing techniques and get to know how they behave. There will be times when you choose one over the other. The key is to understand your instruments well enough to know why. It takes time - not dogma.
:cool:
 
I spend an ungodly amount of hours on each track dialing in various settings to get the exact tone I am looking for. 99.9% of the time I end up with a mic on an amp in an iso booth. But there is still that .1% of the time that a DI sounds best.

So to concur with Tree, it really just depends on the song.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top