Countryman DI Users

Jul 15, 2006
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Kenton, OH
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Alright i just purchased a Countryman Type 85 . I'm looking to get some really great DI tracks to send off and get Reamped


I got it hooked up ------
Passive Les Paul Standard > Countryman > GT "the brick" > M-Audio Delta 44
Outputs are at +4
Phantom power is switched on the GT brick

The problem is its to HOT ... i have the Gain on the GT BRick turn off , all the way cranked left and im still getting clips on palm mutes and open chords.....Theres nothing else to turn down ....unless i pull down the input fader but that would be bad right?

Any help would be awesome, if anyone needs any more info to better understand my situation just ask.

thanks
 
Does it still clip if you plug your guitar directly into the instrument input on the Brick? You don't need a DI with the Brick because it has a built in instrument input anyways, unless you wanted to split the signal for monitoring or really wanted a marginally better DI signal. If it isn't clipping when you go straight to the Brick then I don't know what to tell you, it must be something to do with the DI, but if it IS clipping in your DAW then there is some sort of recording level fader that is too high in the software somewhere that is boosting the signal...
 
hey dude thanks for Responding

Alright I plugged it Straight into the Brick and everything is cool and fine . I have Ran bass DI through the brick before But i figured i would pick up the countryman with all the great talk about it...and its compact

Also i Figured that the Countryman would give me even better Results ...I havent really heard to much on ppl using the GT Brick for DI.....But im going have my guitar player go ahead and track some DI's with the brick to send to OZ to check out...and if its cool im gonna send back the countryman

Is the built in DI on GT Brick messing with the Countryman? i dont understand why its to hot ? i have read the OZ thread about preparing Reamping tracks and it sounds as though it should work .....

thanks for any info
 
From the start...

The reason you'd use a DI box would be to have something between a high-impedance source (like a guitar) and a low-impedance input. The Brick has a DI in it already, so it's not necessary at all.

The Countryman would be good to have around for use with preamps or other devices with low-impedance inputs, but it is unnecessary here.

Jeff
 
Unless he wants to split the signal for monitoring, in which case it might be handy to have a real DI instead of plugging straight into the instrument input.

You are plugging the Countryman into the XLR preamp input on the Brick correct? Not into the instrument input...? I can't understand why the Countryman is boosting your signal to all hell..
 
Could you do that, though? I thought the Countryman would need the gain boost of a mic preamp...

And Zombie, my sympathies dude - I'd vote returning the Countryman and picking up a Little Labs Redeye, cuz that way, you'll be able to re-amp and also have an independent DI box. I've not heard too much about its use as a DI, but if the Brick ends up being better (which might not even be the case), you can use the Redeye as just a re-amp box or as a DI if you need to split the signal between the DI and an amp.
 
Could you do that, though? I thought the Countryman would need the gain boost of a mic preamp...

And Zombie, my sympathies dude - I'd vote returning the Countryman and picking up a Little Labs Redeye, cuz that way, you'll be able to re-amp and also have an independent DI box. I've not heard too much about its use as a DI, but if the Brick ends up being better (which might not even be the case), you can use the Redeye as just a re-amp box or as a DI if you need to split the signal between the DI and an amp.

Yeah just I thought it would be interesting to see the level you get out of it considering that it is causing the preamp to clip even with the preamps gain set to zero...

I've got a Redeye and it works like a champ.
 
Yeh dude i hate returning stuff, its a pain.
As far as the Redeye, I'm not going to really be doing any Reamping right now. I dont have any great amps, a couple of my friends have some descent amps but im also not at the level i need to be to get that great tone, and im humble enough to admit it....So basically i just need a great clean DI with no Limitations for the Re-amper . So i can send it off to like OZ and i also have a few studio's in Ohio that have Reamping services. I'm not going to do this for all my projects , just for my personal projects and i will offer it to bands for another option. rather than the POD XT or Revalver.

So when you call the Redeye an Independent DI? that means i wouldnt need the brick (preamp), I could take the Redeye straight into my Delta 44?

My guitar player is coming over tomorrow and we are going to Track a 30second clip of DI using GT brick and i guess i will just post it and send it to a few people to check it out and make sure it's cool...If it is i guess I will just stick with the Brick...i read that it was up there with higher end DI's . but some people complain about it being dark and i think i hear that also....So i dont know how that is going to go as far as coloring the DI track.....I'll post soon

thanks dudes

Also i would just go out and get another Preamp to use with the countryman but the next Preamp I'm looking at is a Great River ME-1nv and its a grand , i dont have that kinda flow at this time....i could just go out and get another halfass preamp but i want to hold off for something really good.

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Could you do that, though? I thought the Countryman would need the gain boost of a mic preamp...

And Zombie, my sympathies dude - I'd vote returning the Countryman and picking up a Little Labs Redeye, cuz that way, you'll be able to re-amp and also have an independent DI box. I've not heard too much about its use as a DI, but if the Brick ends up being better (which might not even be the case), you can use the Redeye as just a re-amp box or as a DI if you need to split the signal between the DI and an amp.
 
well, minimum mic gain from the brick is + 25 dB - that's a lot and too much for a di signal from the countryman.

minimum instr. gain is 0, that's why you're not clipping with the built in di.

there's nothing wrong with the countryman - it's just a wrong combination of di and preamp for your application.

you have a instr. thru in your brick, so you could keep that and get something else for the countryman, but keep in mind that +25 dB will be (eventually)too hot for snares and loud percussive stuff, as well.

my advice, sell the brick and get a rnp instead, nice unit with two channels and most important 0 dB mic gain as minimum.


best,

alex
 
Whoa, good call Alex - the minimum gain The Brick can have is +25 db? Crikey, that might explain things...

And Zombie, no, unfortunately, since the Redeye is passive, it still needs to be plugged into a preamp. What I meant by "independent DI" was that it functions as a splitter, so that when you plug a guitar into it, you can still send the signal to an amp (via the "Through" output or equivalent all dedicated DI's have) as well as a DI signal to a mic preamp. But given what you said about not mic'ing up amps yourself too often, I guess that wouldn't be a big deal...
 
Yeah I thuoght maybe the Brick had a minimum gain boost but didn't find it at first glance so I didn't look further. That is definitely your problem. Just use the instrument in on the Brick until you can afford another preamp :\

I second the recommendation of the FMR RNP, that's like $500 for 2 channels that are supposed to be really nice. You could sell the Brick to help fund that and still be better off...
 
Yeah Alex dude that makes perfect sense. I use the Brick mainly for Vocals(SM7b) and to warm up the podxt .....I'm using slate drums through Kontakt 3....So no worries running hot drums through the brick for right now.....

Yeh when i first bought the brick, it was between that and the RNP
the dude at Humbuckermusic.com said that with my mic SM7b and the kind of vocals i would be doing the Brick would best suite me. So i picked it up

I think im going to hold off till i can get ahold of a Great River

thanks for everything dudes