Recording Electric Guitar with a DI Box 

Can this method work to silently record combo amps?

Glad this helped you out! Appreciate the feedback!

Awesome comment Michael! Thank you!!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you Das! I'm not a teacher by profession. However, I love passing on what little bit of knowledge I do have. Thanks again!

Glad you enjoyed it!

@@BobSell I exactly,,,,This is finally the best video about DI Box

Glad it was helpful!

Great! Thank you.

Thanks Johnny!

Thank you Michael!

Glad it was helpful! Thank you for the awesome comment!!

You are welcome!

Glad it was helpful! Thanks.

Glad it helped!

Glad it was helpful!

Glad you liked it!

Thank you kindly!

Thanks for watching!

Glad this helped!

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Paul.

Thank you Monika!

Thanks!

Thank you!

Glad you liked it

You are very welcome! Glad to hear this worked out for you. Thanks for the great comment!

Thanks

You're welcome!

welcome

Glad to hear it!

Thanks Tomasz!

Glad you enjoyed it

you’re welcome!

Just don’t clip. You can always bring the levels up. -10 should work great!

Joe, thanks for the great questions! Whenever I'm recording vocals, whether solo or playing an instrument like a guitar, I always monitor with closed back headphones. I'm using the Sony Professional SDR-7506. Here's the best deal on Amazon: amzn.to/2iT8t8i I want the guitar tone as close as possible while I'm tracking because it gets me the vibe I'm going for and will help me get a better vocal performance. If I monitor with the speakers I'm going to get bleed over from the guitar into the vocal mic. I want to keep the guitar and vocals isolated as much as possible so I can applying processing later. For example my reverb choice, compression, EQ, etc. for the vocal will not be the same settings for the guitar. So the isolation helps. Hope this answers your question...

Is there a sweet spot for db level when tracking ? I always hear something like -16 to -12db?

@@heythere6983 Well it kind of depends, the VU scale has been around quite a while, it was designed to give audio engineers an average target to aim for, with head room enough to avoid clipping. 0 VU is by definition unity gain. This is the standard for Pro Audio, domestic gear may or may not have as much headroom. There are several different dB scales, The following are all the same signal level. 0 VU or dB(unspecified) 4 dBu 4.782 dBv -18 dBfs 1.228 V (RMS) 3.427 V (p-p) Note that dBfs is the scale used for digital music. 0dBfs equates the the maximum possible sample bit value which is the actual hard clipping You don't want to ever see this happen. Clipping in analogue just begins as distortion & gets worse with even more gain, but in the beginning is not too bad, unlike digital clipping which is a more of a disaster if it happens at all. Now, not all gear is made the same, older audio gear, especially of English manufacture, is not likely to have as much head room as newer gear designed to interface with digital gear. So, lookup your specs so you know where your limits are with analogue. If it's designed to interface properly with digital audio, it shouldn't clip below +18VU +14dBu but a lot of gear will clip before that. Most gear has a clip light to indicate when you are close to clipping. So my advice is to aim to average around 0VU and not be alarmed if the clip indicator flickers sporadically, that is just normal in a pro audio setting that is pumping. Just avoid the clip indicator flickering or lighting constantly. You see a lot of RU-vid content that pushes right up to 0 dBfs +18VU This is done to be louder than anyone else. They use compression to get the average loudness way above 0VU so the whole track is as loud as possible. The problem is that it can break the pro audio standard 0 VU so things can be louder than expected. So you have people doing different things in regard to volume. Compression is a plus and a minus. On the one hand it reduces dynamic expression, just pumping out a narrow band of volume, fine for a party and fine for mobile listening in the car or street where ambient sound is competing. Not so good for music appreciation listening in a quiet space. So, we have 2 different product aims here. Of note, Classical music usually exploits a very wide dynamic range which has great audience impact in a consort hall, but travelling in a car, fails to get the quiet passages audible over the ambient noise floor in the car. So, these things need to be considered in setting that average gain 0 VU target. At times you just want to keep the highest spike below clipping & struggle to attain that 0VU target or struggle to get quite passages audible, without clipping. For these reason, I tend to think the lossy compressed formats such as MP3 should have more dynamic compression for the mobile music market where ambient noise is an issue, but Lossless, such as 44.1 and above should have far less compression for more dynamic expression in quieter environments. That's going further than answering your question, but something to think about. Gain structure to minimise accumulated noise. If you are doing mixing, try to get the source as close to unity as possible as early as possible. Generally mixing boards do not use the lowest noise gain controls to keep things affordable. For dynamic vocal mics, it is usually cleaner to use a mic booster at the stage (FetHead or cloud Lifter) so that you don't have to run the board input gains so high (depends on the vocalist). If this is not affordable, don't loose sleep over it, it's an icing on the cake thing. Anyway, my advice is set all the channel input gains to unity so the signal is as fat at unity through the input channel circuitry This will minimise the noise added by the input channels. Each channel then goes through a fader that controls that channels output to the next stage (group or main stage) Those channels are where you proportion the mix for the next stage but the combination of them also act together as the input gain for that next stage. So, while you are mixing, you want to be aware of keeping the input level for the next stage, close to unit level. So think about the dB addition & compensate faders to average out a rough compensating attenuation. If you mix 2 channels, you want attenuation to average -3dB, 4 channels average -6dB, 8 channels average -9dB etc. It's not critical you can over compensate a little to be safe. Just be aware of the dB sum & compensate so the the next stage gets close to unity gain input without clipping. The main thing is the artistry of the mix though. If the board has groups, then you do the same with the group faders and so on. For the PA I managed, I set the amplifier gains the produce the desired maximum dB SPL at unity input for the mixer. I set this up as a somewhat lower volume and input gain to preserve hearing of course. The point of doing this though is that I could use the mixer output meters to limit the loudness of the whole system to unity signal of the mixer. So, now I have been through the principles gain structure for you to minimise the noise floor that a systems electronics adds to the mix. That is, how to get the greatest possible clarity out of an audio chain. It doesn't have to be a pro PA like described here, whatever the audio system, the same principles apply. Minimise the amount of amplification required at each and every stage by maintaining unity signal throughout the entire audio path.

Thanks! This is one of the best DI boxes you can buy. It handle anything. If you are playing live I'm sure your sound guy would prefer a balanced mic level signal for the house board. You could use the thru port if you wanted to monitor through your amp. Works great to have a balanced signal in the studio as well. I would think all guitar players that are plugging in would want one of these. You can buy other models cheaper but not better. Country Man is another industry standard professional DI box. Thanks again for the comment!

great! thanks

If your Marshall JMP1 unit offers a thru port, that's how it's done. Otherwise, you'll need a DI Box.

Great question Stephen. I’m going to make some assumptions based on your comment. You don’t want to mic your amp’s speaker cabinet. You’re plugging into your amp first for the distortion/overdrive (preamp) Effect. You’re coming out of your amp’s “Send” to your pedals (modulation, delay, etc). If this is the signal chain you want to record then from your last pedal go to the J48 DI Box. From the J48 you’ll get a balanced XLR out for your audio interface. The only thing you are missing in this setup is any sonic quality that you may be getting from your amplified cabinet and speakers. The JDX gives you the cab/speaker simulation but I don’t have any experience with it. I would go with the J48 so you still have an excellent DI box if you ever need a clean DI like for recording bass or re-amping guitars purposes. goo.gl/TRb6YS Hope this helps...

The balance signal coming from the Direct Box uses a mic cable that goes directly to your converters.

Thank you Daniel!

You're welcome

Not sure but I'd be careful with cheap alternatives.

Jan, I would highly recommend using a DI box for recording direct to your L6 Pod! The whole idea is to give you a clean mic level balanced output to go to your interface. I'm not familiar with the L6 Pod but does it have phantom power and mic inputs? If so, yes this is your best option. My only other recommendation is spend the money and get a good one. They will last a lifetime. If you get a quality active direct box it can handle both active and passive guitar pickups. Here's an Amazon link for more information: goo.gl/TRb6YS If you are on a budget, you'll need to get a passive DI to be able to handle your active guitar. Hope this helps! All the best.

The Thru port only goes to your DAW to record the clean signal. The pedals are linked together with the output of one to the input of the next pedal. So you are recording 2 tracks simultaneously. A clean signal from the J48 thru port and you effects signal from the end of you pedal chain. Hope this helps!

Yes, the Eleven Rack serves as a DI. When I record with the Eleven Rack I recorded the amp and the dry signal simultaneously. Never tried EZMix. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Are you playing live and feeding the the house engineer a signal for the PA? If so, you may want to check out the X model. The JDX captures the guitar amp before the cabinet and has a speaker emulation that may eliminate the need to mic your cabinet. Similar to placing an SM57 in front of a 4x12 half stack. This gives you a more manageable sound onstage where feedback is an issue, or if mic'ing your amp isn't an option.

This box is only capable of safely getting rid of ground loop noise

The clean signal generated by at XLR (DI signal) should be unaffected by anything going on with the Thru port. The only suggestion I have is a defective J48. Return it and go from there. Good luck.

Thanks for the question! The idea here is to record a dry signal from the guitar in addition to the effects. The DI box is first in the chain, before the pedals. The DI box creates a balanced signal for recording a clean track through an XLR cable that go to you recording interface. Also the DI Box provides a thru port which passes the guitar signal unaffected to your pedalboard

That’s a great question Larry. Yes you can do that. However, it would defeat the whole purpose of having a Direct Box. Which is converting your unbalanced 1/4 line out of your guitar into a balanced XLR mic level signal. If you used the 1/4 thru port from the DI Box it would be the same as plugging the guitar directly into your Clarette interface. Hope the helps.

Yes! Using a di box for live application is commonly done for the exact reasons you described. Thanks for the question Robert!

The Pro48 is basically a trimmed down version of the premium DI J48. The Pro48 eliminates the stereo to mono merge function, polarity flip, and high pass filter while reducing the overall size. The Pro48 is more affordable by eliminating these features. Hope this helps.

As far as the sound, they should be the same as they use the same transformer. However, I have not used the Pro48 so I can't speak first hand.

@@BobSell This helped a lot! Thank you very much!

Thanks for the excellent question! The idea here is to record a dry signal from the guitar. The DI box is first in the chain, before the pedals. The DI box creates a balanced signal for recording a clean track through an XLR cable and also provides a thru port which passes the guitar signal unaffected to go to your amp or pedalboard. This keeps any stereo imaging created by you effects pedals intact. Normally you record 2 mono tracks simultaneously but in your setup it would be 1 mono and 1 stereo track. Hope this helps.

@@BobSell yeah it does, thanks

The J48 is the best. will serve you well with either passive or active pickups. Spend the extra money to buy one box that works for all situations. My 2 cents. Hope this helps.

I'm not familiar with the Steinberg RU44... but can you turn the input anymore more? Is 0 unity gain on the unit? Do you have fantom power engaged?

@@BobSell i have phantom power engaged and the knob is all the way down but it still clips on palm mutes. im not sure what 0 unity gain is but the only thing i can turn down is the guitar at this point and im not sure why i would have to. if i plug the guitar straight into the interface it doesnt clip nearly as easily so i know its the di box making the signal hot

No and no! A guitar is a mono instrument. I can come up with a hundred different ways to create a stereo spread with production techniques but it’s still a mono instrument. Here one such idea I had: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-V9al2uFz7L0.html

This companion video will explain the re-amping process I use: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dtaOHj1-kG8.html Hope this helps!

The quick answer is yes! The whole point of the DI Box is to create a balanced mic signal that can be used to record a clean guitar sound or provide the Front-of-house engineer with a clean balanced signal. And still have the unaffected high impedance signal for your amp or amp simulator. If you don’t need a clean signal for mixing, reamping, or playing live, maybe you don’t need one. I’m not familiar with your amp sim but maybe it does this for you. Mine has this feature built in. Every serious recording studio will need one at some point. If you record bass, you have to have one. Hope this helps!

Thank you!

I’m using the 11 rack as well. The short answer is no don’t use the DI box. no advantage if you don’t want a dry (unprocessed) signal.

Isn’t that what you normally do? Maybe I don’t understand the question.

Look up the Radial Prodigy. This allows you to go from your amp’s speaker out to a Focusrite or Apollo and into your computer.

+Alessandro Arzilli what are the conditions for your test and what are you testing for?

As far as I know, with such a cheap DI box you probably won't hear a big difference.

@@LordVlader I'm going ng a review video and will publish it soon. There are some differences in clarity and low end

The clean signal output from the Direct Box is through a mic cable so you’ll need an audio interface to plug in to.

I wasn’t quite through the video when I hit “send”. I just ordered one... wish me luck!

Yes, this unit has a ground lift feature. However, if your interface is already allowing you record clean then I have a cheaper option. Get the HumX. It will safely lift the ground for about 75% less than this DI Box. Here's a link for more information: amzn.to/29Dn58s Hope this helps!

Good luck!

Hey I'm back! If someone could answer my question that'd be great!

not totally understanding your question but the main thing is if you’re using the J48 you don’t need to use a passive DI box. You only need one DI. j48 will work well for both types of instruments.

Glad this helped!

Regular guitar cable from guitar to DI Box. Balanced XLR cable to you audio interface. AE is connected to computer. Optional...another guitar cable out of DI thru port to guitar amp. Hope this helps.

@@BobSell ok i understand now... Thanks for your time sir.. it really helps!!

When you plug in your guitar to a DI Box it passes your guitar Instrument signal unaffected so you can keep that signal and send it to your amp. Secondly, it creates a Mic Level signal for a mixer or your audio interface. Hope this helps.

@@BobSellthanks for answering! So on my case it will be Guitar → D.I → Audio Interface? is there a XLR to TRS Cable? my audio interface needs TRS for input. also would like to ask how to get the 2 signal coming from your guitar and the one on the amp if the D.I will go through on a one input on my audio interface to DAW. I'm kinda confused because I can't see more deep videos.

Look at it this way; when you plug your guitar into a DI box it provides to outputs. 1. a clean balanced signal for your recording desk or audio interface. 2. A pass thru signal for you amp. It does not provide any color. You can use plugins or amps to alter the tone. Hope this helps.

Run your GT100 into your interface. Think about using a DI Box if you want to record a clean guitar signal simultaneously with you GT100. The clean guitar signal is great to have for reamping purposes. Hope this helps.

@@BobSell Thanks!

Glad you liked it!

When you plug in your guitar to a DI Box it passes thru your guitar Instrument signal unaffected so you can keep that signal and send to your amp. Secondly, it creates a Mic Level signal for a mixer or your recording desk. Speaker is not an option...

Yep, no different than connecting your guitar to the pedalboard.

@@BobSell Much appreciated, thank you.😎👍

Only use the pad if you signal is too hot. No, you don’t need to use it.

@@BobSell thank you!

You seem to be good at replying so I'll try to explain better: My guitar goes into my amp, but comes out through the "Phones" port via a 1/8 inch adapter to the 1/4 instrument line, which is directly plugged into my interface. I KNOW. I am unhappy with the quality of sound (no duh) but I do like my amp, and hoped a DI box would help me balance the direct amp to laptop headphone sound that passes the sleeping roomate test. However it seems that is not the purpose of DI boxes? They are only for the unprocessed, unamplified, clean signal of a direct-in guitar line, and will literally bypass balancing my amp to only balance the base DI signal?

Yes, the signal that is sent to your amp in unaffected. Yes, call it an upgraded (mic level, unprocessed, dry, low noise) signal sent to your interface! You got it!!

Yes it sound like you have a good understanding. The DI box will NOT help you get a clean sound out of your amp to your computer...

Thank you!! Yes I am understanding, and glad I did my research before blindly buying

A Direct Box converts your unbalanced line level signal to a clean balanced mic level signal. This gives you a very clean unprocessed signal to record that can be used later for reamping or mixing. An active DI requires phantom power for the preamp and boost the signal for recording a clean sound. As a general rule, active DIs are used on passive instrument. And passive DIs are used on active instruments. An active instrument is one that uses a battery pack to boost the signal and therefore only needs a passive DI. A passive instrument does not have a preamp (no battery) and uses an active DI. Hope this helps.

@@BobSell your video covered that. I am asking about Reamp boxes now, not DI boxes. Does it follow the same principle?

Use the thru port

One of the great features of a DI box is the input (from the guitar) is converted to a balanced output for a clean/unprocessed recording of the guitar. So, having the DI box first in the chain will accomplish this. Then use the "Thru" output, from the DI, to start your pedal chain. The thru output is the same signal coming out of the guitar passed "Thru" the box. Hope this helps!

Great question! Input channel needs to be Mic level. The output from the DI box is through an XLR or Mic cable… makes since.

@@BobSell ha ha - You might have just solved a mystery of why my reamps don't ever sound as good as the original take. Ill give it a try later today! Thanks!

Not normally but the J48 has built in electronics that can handle a range of voltage. So in this case, with the J48, you can use your active guitar as well as your passive ones. I like this unit because I only need one box. Hope this helps.

@@BobSell thanks.. by the way, the j48 include cabinet simulator or not?

@@deadlytone1012 No cabinet sim

This one is excellent for both live and studio work: goo.gl/TRb6YS

Yes, you can do that. The revamping process is really around physical amps. If you are using an amp simulator and you've recorded a dry signal, you are all set.

You don’t really need a DI unless you want the option to reamp your sound. This video will shed some light on the process for you. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dtaOHj1-kG8.html If you play bass, I definitely recommend getting a DI box.

Thanks Bob for reply 🌻

Bob Sell I also have a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, and don’t love the tone of a guitar or bass through the 2i2’s 1/4 inch inputs. Do you think inserting a D.I. between the guitar/bass and the 2i2 (via XLR) would improve the sound? I was concerned by one comment above (about the Clarett interface) where you mention you would recommend bypassing the interfaces’s preamp and going directly to the converters. I think the setup I’m mentioning would still go through my 2i2’s preamps? Thanks for a great video!!

Sure can!

No preamp. Plug guitar directly into the DI Box.

@@BobSell I get that , I’m asking do I need to apply gain to the preamp that the di is plugged into ? My signal would then be bass , di , preamp . Thank you .

@@MurdaMetz No preamp...

@@BobSell if a di converts instrument level to mic level then wouldn’t I need a way to bring the mic level from the di up to line level ? Now I’m confused .

You can mute the DI track while recording and it will still record your signal. You just won't hear it! Good luck!

@@BobSell where can i mute

I would say this is not a good application for a DI box. But without more information and hearing the audio its hard for me to advise you. Can you post an audio or video clip of what you are experiencing?

Bob Sell uploaded something just there for you

I took a listen. Yes, it’s pretty noisy. How did you record this, with a mic or guitar cable directly to you interface? Sounds like the gain is turned up too high or you are recording at a low bit depth rate. Noise floor will be much lower if you can record at 24 bit if not doing so already. If you are getting this same noise with a mic, then a DI box won’t help as its already a mic level signal. Rememer, the main advantage of using a DI box is to convert your guitar (instrument level) signal into a mic level signal for a cleaner signal. Hope this helps.

Bob Sell i normally plug it straight into the audio interface, its recording at 16bit, only lets me record at either 8bit or 16bit, and i always have the gain quite low to try and get the noise away but that also means everything else goes quieter too, i had asked a producer how i could stop this and he told me to DI the guitar and isolate the vox

he told me it will probably be due to the fan or drive from the computer and that getting a di for guitar should fix it

Yes, the Tony Amp 2 audio was with a mic (SM57) on the guitar cabinet. And yes the DI box was used. The signal from the guitar goes into the DI box. Out of the DI box is 2 signals, one line level and one mic level. The line level goes to the guitar amp which was recorded with a mic. The mic level goes directly to the audio interface for recording the DI signal. Make sense?

Thanks for the question! I go straight to my audio interface.

Do you go in on a ”Line in” or an input with preamp?

The DI Box creates a “Mic Level” signal to input into the interface using an XLR cable.

Great question! I’m not familiar with electric violins but since the DI box handles a wide range of input signals, I think it would work.

@@BobSell thank u. I have orderd one. Let me try first. I will inform u.