question about direct recording

[woody777]

If you are recording guitar or bass through a direct input (a mic preamp that also accepts instrument level - found on most interfaces) does preamp quality matter anymore? Are you only concerned with the quality of the AD converters at that point?

 

[89gtsleeper]

I wouldn't say neccessarily quality... but perhaps color. Also as you probably know, most preamps are also compressors or serve at least some other function other than solely being an input for sound to go through. Even though you're not dealing with a microphone you are still passing a signal through the equipment the same way and it will change the sound similarly in both scenarios... at least to some extent.