Advice requested, recording guitar amp line out

[WNichols]

Hey guys,

Ive been playing around with recording the line out from my Marshall to sonar and using Nebula and Impulses for the cab simulation.
For the line out, Ive been using a regular guitar lead from the amp straight to one of the inputs on my mackie VLZ, and then out of that to my Lynx Two soundcard.

Is there a better way to be doing this to maintain optimal signal quality, perhaps running a dedicated di box like radial or countryman make?

Ive also got a groove tubes brick tube preamp with instrument line input that I run straight into my soundcard, but find the sound to lack a bit of high end and results in the guitars sounding kinda thin and far away when run through impulses. Not sure if im doing something wrong or its just the inherent quality of the preamp to give the signal a kind of vintage quality. Thinking I should just sell this and buy something like the waves/prs guitar interface

Any advice welcome. Thanks.

 

[aortizjr]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-pass_filter

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-pass_filter

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/filcap.html

Little bit of math will get you there at what frequencies you want. If it is variable... well then it will probably need to be active and require a bit more circuitry at the expense of transparency:

http://www.circuit-projects.com/miscellaneous/20hz-to-200hz-variable-high-pass-filter.html

http://sound.westhost.com/project99.htm

http://www.discovercircuits.com/PDF-FILES/hipass.pdf

Honestly I am a little surprised how complicated they are to build.

 

[shred101]

I would try it without the tube preamp. Ultimately thats what tubes are good at - Distorting Treble. I use an Art Tube MP sometimes and if you dont use the E-Gtr preset then you basically lose loads of treble. I would never use a tube preamp by default unless I specifically wanted that sort of sound.

 

[shred101]

Think that was meant for my post dude lmao... thanks though lol.

 

[WNichols]

Yeah, definitely think the brick preamp being tube is coloring the direct guitar sound in a bad way, I just want clean transparent sound.

Any recommendations on a good clean preamp/di? What do most folks around here use?

 

[shred101]

Well I like the sound of Focusrite preamps, trouble is theyre expensive haha. I always prefer use bog standard shitty stock preamps than risk losing treble by resorting to a valve in the wrong scenario to be honest. Got my eye on the focusrite octopre LE as a future purchase because I really could use with a decent set of non-valve preamps for my desk and the octopre LE is a bargain considering you get 8 top notch preamps for your money.

 

[WNichols]

I find clean sounds are pretty decent when mic'd and running into the brick but the chuggy distorted stuff sounds really bad. Reckon something like the Focusrite would be a good option. At least better than the stock pre's on my mackie...

 

[shred101]

To be honest you might want to try a wet/dry mix if the brick is overpowering. The ART Studio V3 I sometimes use has a variable voice control that compensates for high roll off on guitar so I dont really mind using that and I think the lower model Tube MP has a variable mix control. Try splitting the signal into 2x mono before it gets to the desk and put the preamp on one side only using a short patch lead and this way you can adjust the amount of "tube" you add to your sound. Just watch out for phasing if you try it like this. Theres probably other ways to do it as well.

 

[WNichols]

Im going to buy an API 512c. Will see how much of a difference that makes

 

[006]

You need a lunchbox or similar to power it, in case you didn't know.

 

[WNichols]

Ahh shite. No, didnt know that, and im guessing theyll cost a fair bit extra.

Any recommendations for a similar quality preamp/di that wont need extra powering and costs around the same price?

 

[006]

FMR RNP:

http://www.mercenary.com/fmrrnmp.html

Absolutely cannot go wrong with that. And it's two channels!