DI levels for guitar leads

[Ericlingus]

I'm tracking guitar solos and leads and was wondering what you set the DI level at? For rhythm I usually have it just about as high as I can without clipping on the hardest hits. For solos its harder because the levels are all over the place and mostly much lower in volume. Sometimes It'll be okay and then all of a sudden a note is hit much harder than everything before it and it clips. How do you guys go about it? Right now I have the levels way lower on average than my rhythm guitars.

 

[deLuther]

I`m just using the same level for all, set to unity gain for reamping, so I`m have the same level on output of my interface. As for software, I`m just playing with input level of particular plugin.

 

[He's Dead, Jim]

Yeah, I would just set it to -18db RMS for chugs and leave the same volume for the leads, then play with the input if it needs more oomph. Just empirically I would think you could add a solid 5-7db to make it sing for leads without having that squishyness that happens when the input is lower.

 

[deLuther]

For passive pickups -18 db RMS can be too much, because of high dynamics (crest factor, i.e. relation of peak level to RMS level, of 20 db, or even more, is not uncommon), clipping can be in such case. I`m think that for DI better to rely on peak levels, just have some headroom (3 db or so at high peaks on riffs, occasionally less is OK).