Help, my DIs sound shit no matter what

dr3amer

dr3amer

Member
Oct 31, 2009
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Alright, I know it's a matter of strings, tuning, playing, pups and whatnot, but still... I've a Line6 UX1 and whatever I record with it sounds really really nasty (in an unpleasant way). My DIs always seem to have that hissing, radio-type noise blended with the sound, I can never to get my own recordings to sound even half as good as most of the tracks in "Rate my mix". I've attached two examples to show you what I mean. Quite sloppy, but still descriptive. Both are quad-tracked (2 guitars hard left, 2 hard right)




Chain is TSE808 > Nick Crow 8505 > "rectifier sm_57_impact" impulse > HP @ 120, LP @ 6000, cuts around 400 (2 db) and 1600 (2.5 db)

one of my guitars is a cheap Jackson JS30 with EMG 81/85, the other is an Aria LP copy with stock pups - both sound almost the same. I tried changing cables, different impulses, rewired the pickups etc but I still hate my DIs. Halp?
 
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To be quite honest you need to start with tightening up your playing. Your guitars will have zero impact if played sloppy.
 
Around a year or so ago I made a post on the guitarampmodeling forum where I would periodically post up dry DI samples of my guitar. I was basically running in circles as you related too as well (Rewiring pickups, switching between single coil/humbuckers, trying different capacitors, different pots, parallel vs wiring in series - all the while taking samples of each step and inquiring people to critique the tone of my guitar) All the while doing nothing but lamenting over my guitar tone, often referencing and usually never bringing out the best of my particular instrument.

Fast forward to today, and I feel like I've made considerable progress - and none of it really had anything to do with anything I did (in terms of rewiring and clamoring over people's DI to get an idea)

Once you've gotten your hi-z input ago and slapping a new set on the guitar, in the end it just boils down to how well the takes were tracked (source is everything) and even more so with your mixing skill when it comes to other elements in your mix. You gain much more focus in understanding where your guitars must sit if you're aware of the boundaries placed by the drums or bass when you've spent the time to mix them over and over again.

I'm still not happy with any of my mixes, and there's that definite finesse that I haven't been able to achieve like others on the forum - but I've definitely come farther when I wasn't so much concerned with my guitar tone... Just realizing I'm wasting my time chasing after one particular tone from a reference when I have none of the same equipment used during the process, when really I should be more focused on understanding what makes a good tone in the first place and better utilizing what I do have.

Tighten up your playing. I'd steer clear of quad tracking (for now) because it's doing you (and you're doing it) no justice. Double track and attempt to get your playing tighter. Your Dry tone shouldn't be hissing either... Look into whatever may possibly be causing the interference.
 
I know my playing is far from perfect and I fully realize how important it is to DI quality, but I was thinking "come on, what could go wrong with 3 power chords" :) I'm quite busy lately so I hardly have time to play, and it definitely shows. Here are some screenshots, first is the above-mentioned chain and the second one shows the noise level when I'm not playing - about -22 db (with the track and master faders to the default 0 db).

v4zSZ.jpg

NpuWf.png


What do you guys think? If that's normal noise then the entire problem lies in my shitty playing, but I just wanted to know for sure.
 
Yes and I took on the same mentality at one point too a few chord progressions shouldn't be that tasking (I guess I failed to mention it)
Which just leaves your source signal and mixing skills in question. (The recordings above however are still not tracked tight? if you have to - cut and align the damned things if all you're doing are chords for just a simple project to mix on! :p )

Those SS tell us (me at least, because I'm a noob) little to nothing about the quality of your Dry DI signal (Meaning no fx, in a wav format or similar - available to download, so that we may take em for a spin ).
If you're kicking yourself over too much on the sound of your DI, also consider downloading some of the available mutlitracks and take a listen to their DI's. It's reassuring at least.

Link to the thread simply because I had mentioned before http://www.guitarampmodeling.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13403
 
Yeah, power chord kiddies :) Well if the shots don't help, what's a good way to check the dry DIs? Maybe I should upload them as well?
 
If you don't meet all those requirements, you won't have a good sound. So check all of them, if any of them is not 100% true, correct it, and try again.

- Good guitar
- Good pickups (can't go wrong with EMG81 for rythm, at least)
- NEW strings. When I mean new, I mean you just installed them and played max an hour with them.
- Perfectly tuned instrument. Perfectly.
- Decent cables (a real brand, not a 2$ cable you got with your first guitar/amp pack, or something like that)
- Tight playing
- GOOD playing, in the sense of "good taste"
- Good amp sound (with well known plugins and normal settings, or a well known real amp with correct placement of mics)
- A real soundcard. Just get rid of that line6, you can have great sounds with a line6 interface, but they aren't as great as if you use a pro one.
- A dedicated DIbox. I understood the difference it makes the day when I A/B mine against my profire 2626. The profire is already a decent interface with more than usable HiZ inputs, but my Dibox just killed it.
- Correct mixing in relationship with drums and bass. Namely : meet all the same requirement to record your bass, cause you can't have a good tone without a good bass tone, they go together.

If you fix all those items, you'll have a great sound. If you don't, then there might be something wrong in at least one of them (unless I'm forgetting something else) and you have to work on it/change it because there is no real shortcut to any of them.
 
My guitars used to sound like that about 4 years ago. I used pretty much exactly the same plugins as you do.
Then I realised that I sucked at playing guitar, and by just practicing and recording a lot of shit (for fun) I got really tight at recording guitars, and it instantly sounded better.
I was at the time using an M-Audio 410 for DI's. It's a decent interface. I dare say a lot better than your Line 6, but it's not that expensive. You can buy a decent interface for $300 imo (for recording at home for fun, and getting good tones).
Then, I got a new guitar. Instantly much better. New string help, and I never record something serious without having new strings, but changing your string won't make what you posted sound amazing. So focus on getting better at guitar, getting a new interface, and getting a new guitar (with good pickups) instead :)

Cheers,
Carl.
 
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