This DI sounds like shit. Why?

T

topsoul182

Member
Dec 18, 2009
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I recorded this band about 6 months ago and they wanted me to remix this song and do some new songs. Whatever I put the DI through (amp sim or real amp) it sounds like its clipping but it hasnt even come close to clipping when we tracked it.

I dont remember what kind of guitar was used but i know it had EMG pickups, tracked through my presonus firestudio.

Clean Di
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1950013/Ricky Di.wav

Di through x30/pres5 impulse
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1950013/Dix30.wav
 
be sure when you're tracking that you monitor your input volume. Make sure you're only peaking at about -16db. Yes it will be quiet, but that gives you room to work with in the mastering stage... at that point you can make da shit louder. :)
 
Just make sure that your DI signal is peaking close to 0dB when it hits your amp sim(you can also adjust the input of the amp sim plugin), otherwise it will sound like crap. You can set the output level from the amp sim to peak at -18dB, but it's crucial that you get the input level to the amp sim right.
 
How exactly does one tell what the signal hitting the amp sim is? I've had pretty good results just throwing a TS sim, LE456, and LeCab and HP/LP.....with some minor tweaking to the tone on the LE456.
 
It's not the volume of the amp aim cuz when i try reamping through my 5150 it sounds the same way, I uploaded the Di as a wav file if you want to download it and see/hear for yourself, I wanna say the Di peaks around -5 db
 
I'm not talking about the volume of the amp sim. When you're tracking (recording) your guitars, make sure the physical input volume on your interface is turned down to the point where you are only peaking at -16db in your DAW. We just had an identical thread created about this yesterday or the day before. EMG's track really hot, so you need to make sure you're peaking VERY low to avoid clipping. Again, you can always turn up the volume in the daw later while mixing and mastering. If you record too hot, you're shit out of luck and stuck with clipping. Turn your volume down.
 
bryan_kilco said:
How exactly does one tell what the signal hitting the amp sim is? I've had pretty good results just throwing a TS sim, LE456, and LeCab and HP/LP.....with some minor tweaking to the tone on the LE456.
Click to expand...

You should be able see it in your interface's control panel. If it's hitting red while you're playing that means you're clipping the signal going into preamp. The ideal signal should be not too hot, but not too weak either cause you need all the signal you can get to make it a usable tone.
 
I'm pretty sure your output from either the amp or the cab sim is clipping, since the DI works perfectly fine with whatever I throw it on.
 
Dam, I dont get it. I used the exact same settings on the other guitar players track and it sounded fine. I'll try it some more tomorrow

thanks for the help everyone
 
Two guitars made of different wood can end up having different settings to get similar tones. If the two guitars have different pickups it can be even more pronounced.

I have some di tracks I recorded with a basswood guitars with an emg81 in it and some other tracks with a maple/mahogany guitar with emg85. If I use the amp sim and settings for guitar A on guitar B it sounds like ass and same thing for the inverse.
 
It's not the greatest thing since sliced bread but if you listen to the mp3 from when I ran it through x30 compared to the original poster running it through the same software it sounds alot better.
 
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