Di's for electric guitars and basses

[johnlewitt]

Who uses a DI, either active or passive, to record their guitars? If so, which one are you happily using?

John

[lesmac]

Hi John,
I'm happily using a Radial passive Di. Their stuff is pretty solid except for their monitor controller which I have but would not recommend.
Les

[mojobone]

I often record guitars direct, but 'direct' can be a relative term; when I use my POD X3L, there's often a virtual room and virtual mic, amp and cabinet involved. +1 on Radial both for their passive and active DI hardware. In most cases you can record direct in parallel with your stompboxes amp, cab and mic(s) which gets you a ton of flexibility at mixdown.

[andygabrys]

I use the DI in the Universal Audio 610 Solo tube preamp. For bass and electric guitar. It works.

I am not sure the DI you use makes a HUGE difference if you are using a lot of Amp Sims in your DAW. As long as it is quiet (i.e. no extra noise) and provides a decent strong signal.

It will make a BIG difference if you are using the DI pretty straight in the mix though - I often record a Fender bass with flat wound strings DI and only add compression and some Pultec Low end if I am looking for a retro bass sound that really works in Oceans 11 type tracks. You can hear peeps like Tim LeFevre playing on those soundtracks on a P bass with flats. When I was interning he often used to be laying down tracks using a similar setup going straight into a Neve 1073 module.

Compared to the DI in my Apogee Duet 2 (which by contrast is noisy like crazy) using the Solo 610 makes a world of difference.

[Telefunkin]

For those on a budget, Behringer do a box that I thought was OK when I tried it.
Probably only about $30 new, yet includes basic drive, amp/cab/mic sims.
- Behringer GDI21 V-Tone Guitar Driver DI -

For bass I've managed with nothing more than a bass guitar compressor pedal.

Who screwed up their face in horror?
I'm sure there's better gear out there for really pro results, but sometimes you just need to find a way.

Cheers,
Graham.

[Cwadroon]

+1 on 1073 or clone , I have a Bae 1073 with di , and it's beautiful on pretty much anything. They aren't cheap though!

A less expensive alternative I also use, is a presonus studio channel.

Both options are great multi use tools for me personally.

[mojobone]

If money's no object the Avalon U5 is amazing, and especially on bass.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9EjtNoVzt8