Quick Amp Recording Question From a Neophyte

[Tritonean]

I'm in the process of setting up my home studio, one which is geared mainly to just recording my own ideas, nothing extremely fancy but have a question about hooking up my guitar and bass amps. If I'm using a seperate Amp vs. a software amp how should I connect it?

Specifically, while I intend to use the DI port on my Ampeg SVT 4 head, I have two Orange Crush combo amps, one guitar one bass. For these two amps if I want to use them should I use the line out as a 1/4" to 1/4" or should I use a DI box and connect to my interface via XLR?

Not sure if there's any preferred method or if this is more of a play around and see/personal preference but wanted to see if anyone had any advice.

 

[cobaltaudio]

If you take the DI output of the amp, you will get the tone of the amp but it won't include the sound of the speaker.
If you plug into a separate DI box, plug that into your interface with a link to the amp, you get the raw sound of the instrument and the flexibility of an amp simulation plugin.

Alternatively you could mic up the amp, if you're happy with how it sounds.

It all depends with how much you like the sound of your amp. If you like it, use it. If not, DI directly into the interface.
Or use the DI and a mic.

Try stuff out, experiment, enjoy it - this is the fun part!

 

[Farview]

If you are going to go direct, try the 1/4 first to see if it works well, since that is the cheapest way to go. (line out, not speaker out). However, the line out of guitar amps can be pretty nasty sounding, some Di boxes have high cut filters that can be switched in that help with that.

Also, do not run an amp without speakers attached unless it was designed for it. You can ruin a tube amp pretty quickly by doing that.

You could also just buy a 57 and stick it in front of the amp and record that. The speakers are part of the sound, if you bypass them, things tend to sound a little strange.

 

[Tritonean]

Thanks for your replies, just the kind of information I was looking for! My equipment arrives this weekend (in theory) so I'm looking forward to comparing the different configurations.