Recording guitar direct to later run into amp and mic?

mushmouth · Post by **mushmouth** » Sun May 04, 2008 12:42 am

I have a couple of questions about recording guitar dry and direct into Logic (or any DAW) for the purpose of later running it out, into an amp, and then miking and recording the amped sound...

My reason for this is I'm about to switch the caps in my 12 series to mustards and I want to record before and after with the exact same played guitar part. It is not a process I want to use for recording tracks...

My chain: Les Paul direct into Mackie 24x8 channel, levels set at nominal zero, into Presonus Firestudio interface, into Logic on the Mac. Then routing the recorded channel to one of the outputs on the firestudio back into the Mackie, then that channel's direct out into the amplifier.

Here's what I noticed:

When playing the track back into the amp, I use the fader on the mackie channel the track is coming into from the computer to bring the signal up or down to control how hot the signal is going into the amp from the track. I have to bring the fader down about a 1/4" to get it to where it sounds closest to the guitar being plugged directly into the amp.

The sound is not the same as plugging straight into the amp obviously. I noticed a bit of a low end hump, it's more compressed sounding, and I'm also now (heard from the amp) getting a subtle high pitched electrical noise whine that goes away my computer is turned off.

My question is, is there any way to do this so it sounds almost totally identical to plugging in directly? I know a lot of people do this on major records, so what's the secret?

In terms of my capacitor testing, it'll still work as is for comparing the differences to some extent, but the played live samples will be the only real indicator of the level of quality of the sound differences, albeit not the exact same performance.

45auto · Post by **45auto** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:18 pm

i've been thinking about doing this at times too. i was looking at this:

http://reamp.com/ kind of pricey though...

philth · Post by **philth** » Wed May 07, 2008 8:17 pm

I do this quite a bit . The key is the direct box you use . Di boxes
can color your sound a lot so what you are reamping is different then plugging strait in.
I like passive Di

JimiJames · Post by **JimiJames** » Wed May 07, 2008 10:42 pm

Perhaps rockstah or VG can elaborate just a little...
This result is when rockstah sent a dry recorded clip that George put thru his "Billy Badass" '68 12 Series 100 watt monster...
Listen & watch here.

Jude · Post by **Jude** » Wed May 28, 2008 6:52 pm

If at all possible, I would try to get my hands on a top quality DI into somthing like a Neve and go to 2 inch tape!