DI Troubleshooting

[Ollie_H]

My DIs sound shit. I thought it could be something to do with my mixing but having played with stem and DI tracks from this forum it definitely isn't. Here is a segment of a song by Nerve End (http://nerveend.com):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/Squidhis.wav
Here is the same song but my mix, but still his DIs:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/Squidhisdis.wav
Now here is that same mix with my DIs that I recorded:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/Squidmydis.wav

Obviously my mix is far worse, but my DIs through the exact same ampsim settings and chain sounds way, way worse. What could be the problem? I am using a RG7321 with a D-Activator bridge pickup through a 3ft planetwaves cable into a Focusrite Saffire (the original white faced one). Am I playing shit, is something wrong with my guitar, or is something wrong with my interface?

 

[deLuther]

Can you post just fragment of your DIs, not mix?

 

[Ollie_H]

Okay, I've found out the problem is with my guitar as my 6 string sounds great. It's a mahogany RG321 with EMGs. I recorded a short song on both the 6 string and the 7 string to compare:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/6string.mp3
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/7string.mp3
And here are the DIs:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/6stringDI.wav
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/7stringDI.wav

And here is my DI for the riff in my first post:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/SquidDI.wav
and the DI of the original recording:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/SquidDIhis.wav

That is just one of the DIs, in both recordings it was quadtracked, if you need the other DIs let me know.

 

[deLuther]

7stringDI.wav is distorted in a bad way, some sort of high-pass filtering (this can be due to many reasons) on top of pickup (or maybe interface preamp) internal clipping (specific shape of strong peaks). Also asymmetric clipping.

 

[Ollie_H]

Would it be something to do with pickup height or the electronics? The 6 string DI was recorded with the same interface so I doubt it is the interface.

Edit: lowered my pickup as far as it would go and this is the result: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3059614/SquidMyNewDI.wav It sounds better, is there still something wrong with it?

Edit 2: Taken my guitar to a guitar tech, he didn't seem to know what the problem was, he thought it was intonation, so I'm getting a full setup which I needed anyway. He was talking to me like I didn't know what clipping was and assumed that was why it sounded bad...

Edit 3: It's come back from the tech, I guess it's a little bit better due to having the right pickup height, but it's not fixed. I found out it's to do with impedance. I've been using the line input on my interface rather than the instrument input, because even on the lowest gain the instrument input clips. I thought the only difference between the two modes was the gain but I was wrong even with the clipping the instrument input sounds waaaay better. I guess I need to buy a DI box...