Is the best DI sound the best?

A

Atte

Inspired
I'm recording an album with my band and I will record the DI tracks at home. I got the best DI sound by going to the AX8, a straight virtual cable to the output and from main XLR to mic pre input on my Audient iD4.

What I'm thinking now is that is the best DI the best thing? Or would it sound more "realistic" if I went line in? I can't really re-amp at home so I can't test which sounds better with an amp, but the mic pre definitely makes the DI sound fuller. Will that make it fluffy when re-amping?

Thoughts? Experiences?
 
Line in would be the 'correct' thing to do. When you go thru the mic pre, you are boosting the signal (that will also make it 'fuller'). When you get to the re-amping stage, you will have to pad the signal back down before hitting the amp. That is not necessary if you go to line in.
 
Smittefar said:
Line in would be the 'correct' thing to do. When you go thru the mic pre, you are boosting the signal (that will also make it 'fuller'). When you get to the re-amping stage, you will have to pad the signal back down before hitting the amp. That is not necessary if you go to line in.
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It's not just the boost, I matched it to the same level and it was much better sounding. But then again the mic pre's on that iD4 are supposed to sound great.

But yeah, I'll go line in in the future. Too bad I already recorded two songs, but it's not such a big deal to re-do those.
I don't want to take a risk of it sounding like garbage so I'll just do it right.
 
When I was with Supernal Endgame, I recorded the album "Touch the Sky Volume II". I used an Ultra. I recorded all of the electric guitar tracks going line in direct to the board. I dialed in my presets before going into the studio to record. I also built and named the presets in such a way that could recall them and use them for live performance. My goal was to sound like the album.

You can check out Supernal Endgame on the web. There are lots of song samples posted. I suggest you check out the songs Eden Song, White Flag, or The Endgame. Our album was honored as one of the top 15 prog albums of the year (2014) by Prog Magazine.
 
Geezerjohn said:
When I was with Supernal Endgame, I recorded the album "Touch the Sky Volume II". I used an Ultra. I recorded all of the electric guitar tracks going line in direct to the board. I dialed in my presets before going into the studio to record. I also built and named the presets in such a way that could recall them and use them for live performance. My goal was to sound like the album.

You can check out Supernal Endgame on the web. There are lots of song samples posted. I suggest you check out the songs Eden Song, White Flag, or The Endgame. Our album was honored as one of the top 15 prog albums of the year (2014) by Prog Magazine.
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Cool sounds. I'm recording _before_ I dial in the presets. We're going to re-amp later so I'm trying to capture the DI as clean and 'pure' as possible.
 
Best DI I've gotten is to simply use AX8 Out 2 set to Mirror Input. Set Out 2 all the way up (Out 1 / XLRs out should be all the way up too for best S/N in your overall gain staging) and use Line In on your interface. The tracked DI signal will optimally be about -20db in the DAW (-20 or -18 db = 0 on a VU meter) I get an exact match to the original signal when reamping just by matching the gain from the DAW send (line out) to the original input level to the amp model (using AX8 return). This way you can also track the full amp & effects AX8 signal via SPDIF or the XLRs out when tracking the DI.
 
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artzeal said:
Best DI I've gotten is to simply use AX8 Out 2 set to Mirror Input. Set Out 2 all the way up (Out 1 / XLRs out should be all the way up too for best S/N in your overall gain staging) and use Line In on your interface. The tracked DI signal will optimally be about -20db in the DAW (-20 or -18 db = 0 on a VU meter) I get an exact match to the original signal when reamping just by matching the gain from the DAW send (line out) to the original input level to the amp model (using AX8 return). This way you can also track the full amp & effects AX8 signal via SPDIF or the XLRs out when tracking the DI.
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Thank you! Just the answer I was looking for. I had monitoring as well, just took it out of the fx loop. Doesn't really matter I suppose.
 
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