Is this DI good enough to reamp / am i going nuts?

[CreptorStatus]

Hey guys,

Recently started tracking some guitar DI's to reamp later. I use EZmix guitars tones when tracking and they don't sound the best but work for my demo purposes. I stumbled upon this website where you can reamp your DI's through a kemper online and tested it out. BUT i cannot for the life of me get a good tone.

So this has me worried that something is up with my DI. I sent it to a friend who dialed a tone using the Fortin Nameless plugin and while he thought it was fine, he also noticed a lack of punch and definition. And this is probably the best way to describe what i THINK i am hearing. Doing some research, a few people said the pickup combo (EMG 81/85) will always sound bad using amp sims / kemper as it was designed to be used on tube amps?

Anyway, i am hoping someone here with experience in reamping or guitar sims can tell me if something is wrong with this DI or I just suck at dialing in tones. A link to a 2 minute section of the DI is below:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ofrlzlbitke50bs/DI_TEST_GUITAR_RIGHT.wav?dl=0

Here is what i am using to record it.
ESP LTD Evertune / Emg 81/85 (new strings and battery) > Focusrite Forte (instrument input) > Protools Session (24 bit, 44.1khz).

Thanks a ton in advance.

 

[deLuther]

IMHO, you should, at least, record your DI without clipping from your interface if it is possible (i.e. you can reduce gain on interface).
Basically wide range pickups like EMGs sound in a way of passive pickup through tube screamer, cutting lows and without resonance peak.
For DI with EMGs it sound fine enough (just clipping in 4 places with strong palm-muting).
Personally I`m prefer little harder picking. My DIs with active pickups almost always ending in clipping from internal pickup preamplifier

But recently I`m used active EMG 85 with single volume of 250k, which gives you more low end and more output so you can lower your pickup keeping average volume as standard 25k pots, but increasing dynamics.
Still prefer passive pickups.

 

[CreptorStatus]

IMHO, you should, at least, record your DI without clipping from your interface if it is possible (i.e. you can reduce gain on interface).
Basically wide range pickups like EMGs sound in a way of passive pickup through tube screamer, cutting lows and without resonance peak.
For DI with EMGs it sound fine enough (just clipping in 4 places with strong palm-muting).
Personally I`m prefer little harder picking. My DIs with active pickups almost always ending in clipping from internal pickup preamplifier

But recently I`m used active EMG 85 with single volume of 250k, which gives you more low end and more output so you can lower your pickup keeping average volume as standard 25k pots, but increasing dynamics.
Still prefer passive pickups.

Thanks for the tip. I'll go back and look but i was trying to be careful not to let it clip when recording. Though I do have the level set as close to the red as possible.

Most people ive talked to say i should try picking harder, so I'm going to try that out as well. I think the ampsim is fooling me into lightening up on my palming muting and picking in an effort to get all the notes out? I dunno, but ive got a few things to try.

 

[deLuther]

Virtual signal level can fool you sometimes. In one case, with particular ampsim, you can have virtual level lower than reference level in actual amp (which is modelled), sometimes higher.
With active pickups (actually with any pickups) you should start with minimal gain, pick as hard as you can, and adjust level. With actives maybe good practice is to have at least 1 db (according to software meters) headroom (if you hit internal pickup clipping level), with passives headroom should be larger, 2-3, even 6 db.

 

[Ngoc]

I agree with the statement that you should pick harder, especially the palm muted parts. Listening to the DI I can already hear the "weak" picking. You have to really dig into the strings. The sound really comes from your hands! Please record the same lines as the DI but try to pick really hard and upload it here so that we can compare it too.

 

[CreptorStatus]

I agree with the statement that you should pick harder, especially the palm muted parts. Listening to the DI I can already hear the "weak" picking. You have to really dig into the strings. The sound really comes from your hands! Please record the same lines as the DI but try to pick really hard and upload it here so that we can compare it too.

Will do. Again, i feel like i pick pretty damn hard normally but who knows, maybe not. I also use a fairly light pick gauge. Might get out my sharp thick picks.

 

[Ngoc]

It is just a suggestion, but additionally to picking harder, maybe try to angle the pick? This way the pick "scrapes" a little bit over the string, giving it a more percussive note. I got this from Devin Townsend at 03:24. Here you can also see how hard he digs in as soon as he angles the pick at 05:00.

 

[CreptorStatus]

It is just a suggestion, but additionally to picking harder, maybe try to angle the pick? This way the pick "scrapes" a little bit over the string, giving it a more percussive note. I got this from Devin Townsend at 03:24. Here you can also see how hard he digs in as soon as he angles the pick at 05:00.

The angling of the pick might be a hard change for me.. i pick pretty odd using my thumb and middle finger. But ill add it to my list of things to test out.

 

[CreptorStatus]

Hey guys, just want to thank everyone for the tips and input. I'm strapped for time but got home and quickly replayed the verse riff after:
A) raising my pickups
B) using a harder sharper pick and..
C) palm muting alot more and ignoring how the ampsim sounded

And not only can i hear a difference in tone but i can see a big difference on the DI track. I still got some stuff i want to try out but here is a picture of the old riff DI vs the new one.

 

[deLuther]

What was pickup height before, how far from strings?

By the way I`m did some reamping testing one amp simulation on some hardware. First tone matched fragment (one of my favourite tones by Sneap), then just throw in some my DIs with D-Sonic and following by EMG 85 (with 250k volume) on the same guitar, finally DI from first post.

ps. Simulation was running on development version of firmware on this unit:
https://www.st-rock.com/React-IR/
Only tube screamer before device (hardware).

 

[CreptorStatus]

What was pickup height before, how far from strings?

It was pretty damn low. Again, i pick pretty weird and I believe i dig in pretty good - so i was hitting the pick ups quite a bit when we played live and that's when i lowered them substantially. I should have remembered to raise them back up before recording because i feel like that made a world of difference. The DI / ampsim tone has a lot more definition and punch now. I want to say they are about 5 or 6cm from the strings now. A little bit higher then level with the fretboard.

Thanks for taking the time to reamp it. I appreciate you checking it out. Learned alot from people after posting about this issue.

 

[deLuther]

I`m also used 5-6 mm last time with EMG 85. But 250k single volume gives more output (closer to SD AHB-1), so it`s not a problem.