The direct-In challenge

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Richard_S

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I've been playing, songwriting, and recording for years, but have always lived in apartments, or condo's where I can't mic a cranked amp. (bummer) Direct-In recording has been great to get my ideas down, but I'm never totally happy with the final mixes. The tunes come out listenable, but nothing I would release. They just don't sound big and mean enough production-wise. Can anybody relate? Have any tips/advice? other than the obvious...moving.
 
If this is your only choice, then why not try to improve your DI signal chain. Buy a nice DI, a good cable, and some good or different emulating software. Some people get very acceptable results using DI guitars and basses.

Try Waves GTR solo for one year free ... http://www.wavesgtr.com/html/product_gtr_solo.html

If you have no option of amps and miking, to make the best of your situation, you should upgrade your DI chain. :) Good luck.
 
A possible work-around:

Get your DI sound as close as possible. Record it...but at the same time record a duplicate signal path that is just the clean tone directly off of your guitar. So you are hearing the amp sims while you play, but you are recording a clean tone. How you do this is up to you. I don't know your DAW.

Then you wait for a Saturday afternoon when nobody will complain about an hour of loud guitar. Run the clean recorded track off of you DAW straight into a guitar amp. Spend some time to get the tone and mic perfect. Record the sound coming out of the amp.
 
Yeah, you called it. I've experimented with that in the past, and had fairly good results blending the two together. Maybe I should try that again.. on Saturdays, haha. I get good recordings with my setup, but because of the DI factor, they usually don't sound right to me in the end. It's like the difference between playing through a tube amp and solid state one. I like music to really breathe, and be inviting. Hard to do without the mics. Thanks for the input (same to erock above), much appreciated. Every little bit helps~
 
I've never used one, but I've heard of people putting their amps in some sort of treated cube or box. Anybody had any luck with this?
 
What type of cranked amp tone are you after?

Not all amps have to be cranked. My Dorado is one of them. It's got a great recording tone even close to whisper volumes.
 
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With a low-wattage amp, like 5W....you can get some great tones and not really disturb anyone. I've played them with people sleeping in rooms next to my studio.

Another option is to put a smaller amp in a closet (one that is full with clothes)...and pick the closet not near your neighbors if possible..stick a mike in there, and you can put that amp up to a decent level and with the cloths and door closed, it won't bother anyone...and it won't matter if there is other noise around, as it won't get into your mic.
 
Great replies man, thanks! I did try to make my own self-inclosed cab years back (after Randall put one out). I pulled a speaker out of my carvin combo (dang), and kinda sacrificed it to build what I thought would be a sound proof cabinet that I could mike. Just one 12, and it was still screaming loud. I think you're right about going back to the mini-amps and closets.
 
Yes of course...attenuators.
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I just purchased two more Weber MiniMass units...now I have two 50W and two 25W MiniMass attenuators, and I may get a couple more, that way I'll have them for every amp and no need to disconnect/connect from amp to amp.

The Weber MiniMass is a nice box for a very reasonable price...and I usually pick mine up on eBay, so I'm only like half-price for them.
Seems like a lot of guys buy them but don't realy use them *shrug*....so most are in like-new condition. :D
 
I use nothing but signal processors/effects units when I record direct-in. I've tried lining out amps in the past into DI boxes, and they usually sound like total crap. Nothing but fry/shit. I think my problem is... I need to live in a bomb shelter, where I can be as loud as I need to be, haha. I've rented plenty of rehearsal spaces before, and they too can be hard to work in. As soon as you stop doing what you're doing, you hear a couple other bands jammin' it out. Your train of thought goes right out the window. Can't win, sometimes.
 
Red Box is not a classical DI. This thing has to be plugged not to preamp output a speaker sim (which is actually also possible with this device)

The thing about the tube amps is that overdriven power amplifier tubes (not only preamp tubes like in classical DI approach) contribute a lot to the sound.

The Red Box is plugged between power amp and the speaker. So it captures all the sound, including all the electromechanical effects of speaker-output transformer interaction. So it reproduses the frequency responce of speaker.

This is a completelly different thing!

Cheerz!!
 
wow great posts! definitely going to try the recording the clean signal, then playing back through amp and recording that technique. will help out a lot with guitarists who cant nail it on one try or want that perfect tone.
 
another thought

I have a tech 21 trademark amp it's tube emulation, but it's pretty decent. I have use the built in sans amp Di and pluged a jack into the phones to kill the power amp.
 
another thought

I have a tech 21 trademark amp it's tube emulation, but it's pretty decent. I have used the built in sans amp Di and plugged a jack into the phones to kill the power amp. Just a thought.
 
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