Ever used an Acousitc DI for recording something NOT acoustic?

[Tommy Evans]

This acoustic DI box in particular... http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/lr-baggs-para-acoustic-di/307160000000000

I've had this little guy sittin around and actually forgot that I had it. In my never ending quest of gear acquisition, this might save me the trouble of having to buy different DI down the road. Assuming it works how I want it to.

My goal is to record a live tone while simultaneously recording a dry track for reamping. Will this get me there? If so, how exactly would I set everything up?

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

Looks like a regular DI box with some EQ and other processing features. I'd say try recording a DI with all the processing disabled and see what it sounds like. If possible record a DI directly through your interface and compare. Otherwise sell that sucka :Smokedev:

 

[Tommy Evans]

That's where I turn into (cue theme song) Newb-Boy! I want to dive in but I just don't know where to start.

I'm guessing my chain should look like Guitar > DI Box > Interface (POD UX1)? that's for recording wet/dry singals?

Then comes with reamping part later on, I know I need to plug something into FX return jack...

 

[Tommy Evans]

^^^wait that doesn't even sound right.

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

Judging by the picture I would plug the guitar into the input, and plug the DI out into your interface. I wouldn't worry about outputting to a real amp for a simple test. Once you record the DI with the box and plugged straight into your interface, compare both DI's by running them through the same amp sim chain. You could also compare the raw DI's but it might be harder to distinguish which one sounds better.

 

[Tommy Evans]

Nice! I'll you with it tonight when I get home and see where I get. Thanks Mr. Beerbaby

 

[Tommy Evans]

So I'm home now and trying to get this thing working how I want it but it's not going smoothly. I've got my dry tracks, which I just borrowed from an older song.

This is my set up:
I sacrificed an "output" from my interface since I only have two. I've got a cord running from that same "output" into my DI box, which has another cord plugged into to the DI box's "output" which is plugged into my head, which is plugged into my cab. I'm hearing the clean track come out of the cab but its acting like a speaker I guess you could say. When I bypass the POD fx in my DAW I hear the dry guitar, and When I enable the POD fx I hear the POD fx come on. Obviously. I feel like I forgot to bypass something else though. I put a Tube Screamer in my chain and it doesn't do anything but make it louder. What am I not doing here?

 

[FarBeyondMetal]

OK what I think you are doing is trying to use a DI box as a reamp box. When you send out from your interface, it is a balanced signal(XLR,TRS). The "input" on a DI box is meant to input an unbalanced signal(Guitar cable). So in other words, you are sending balanced signal to an input that is expecting unbalanced signal, and then it's trying to convert that signal into balanced when it already is balanced. So unless i read this completely wrong which is very possible, I think you need a reamp box.

The intended use for the unit you have is to plug a guitar into the input, then the "DI out" can be sent to your interface as your DI signal, and optionally you can use the "output" to still send signal to your amp while recording a DI.

 

[Tommy Evans]

YEP! damn I just figued that out too. Shucks. Thanks man for your help in all this. I appreciate it

 

[Sloan]

dude, i had some acoustic performers use some of that lr baggs stuff when i was doing sound and i was pretty impressed with some of it. JUST TRY IT!!!

 

[Tommy Evans]

Oh I'll definately keep it. I'll be having some acoustic guys come in soon so it'll get used for sure!

 

[DanLights]

You should check the manual though, cause there's an invert button which suggests it could be used as a reamp box as well, but I'm not sure how you would connect it. And try it out! Beer baby told you how to try out the DI and you went and tried the opposite

 

[Tommy Evans]

haha i know. I suck at taking direction even when i want to. I saw the invert button and tried every imaginable plug in/out variation with the invert on and off. at best i got some un-useable guitar farts. actually, i got some okay tones but not without a shit ton of noise along with it. I'm sure its an impedance thing.

However, I did a seperate test with it. I put it in between my guitar and my UX1 to see if it cleaned anything up. Didn't notice any difference with it or without it but will car check the two versions tomorrow.

 

[vespiz]

You should check the manual though, cause there's an invert button which suggests it could be used as a reamp box as well, but I'm not sure how you would connect it. And try it out! Beer baby told you how to try out the DI and you went and tried the opposite

Maybe it's a polarity flip? It sometimes gets labeled like that.

 

[DanLights]

Maybe it's a polarity flip? It sometimes gets labeled like that.

Yeah I thought so, but what would you want a polarity flip (or phase invert, although I think that term is wrongly used) on a DI box? Excuse my ignorance if it's useful, I have no idea

 

[if6was9]

You have a polarity switch on the DI in case you want to use it with a mic too. Flipping the phase would be very useful in this scenario as the DI track will arrive before the mic track. By flipping the phase you may get less cancellations and in a live situation thats as far as you can go with fixing the phase with analogue equipment