# Guitar direct to board, suggestions wanted



## old crow (Aug 17, 2006)

I really like the idea of recording direct to the board and am having pretty good results using pedals and a Brick pre amp.
Lately there has been a few raves about modeling type devices i.e. Tech 21 Blonde, London etc... Fractal ax....so I'd like to expand my arsenal.
I'd like to hear from any of you who are recording direct and what you're using.


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## Guest (Oct 22, 2009)

I've been recording direct for many years. Really any of my solo material you hear here (edit: seems I need to find a new hosting service...I'll get page together with clips if you want) was recorded direct. The nature of being a condo dweller for so long. Most of that was using dummy loads. Some of those tracks used the Palmer unit, some used the built-in dummy load on the Koch I used to own.

Now I own an Axe-Fx and (man this has got be getting old, hearing this from me) now that I'm well past the learning curve I'm pulling tones out of it that keep me grinning for days. And the really excellent part is: I disconnect it from my DAW, pack it up, pull it out at rehearsal, connect it to the mains and...it all sounds the same as at home. It just freaking works perfectly every time.

I've heard very good things about the Tech21 Blonde running direct. Been considering putting together a small pedalboard that ends with a Blonde to bring along as a backup.


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## Thames (Oct 19, 2009)

I know a man, Jimmy Page, who was an excellent guitar2board user.. you should email him....


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## old crow (Aug 17, 2006)

Thames said:


> I know a man, Jimmy Page, who was an excellent guitar2board user.. you should email him....


I did not know that.. what's his email address ?


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## shoretyus (Jan 6, 2007)

old crow said:


> I did not know that.. what's his email address ?


[email protected]

I have had a Peavey EDI for years and have just started to use it recording. Does a nice job. The unit goes in between your amp and speaker. 

Here is an article about it 

http://www.harpl.com/199956474.html

There are some here for $65 
http://www.steelguitarcanada.com/amps.htm


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## old crow (Aug 17, 2006)

shoretyus said:


> [email protected]
> 
> I have had a Peavey EDI for years and have just started to use it recording. Does a nice job. The unit goes in between your amp and speaker.
> 
> ...


And that's a fac. 9kkhhd


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## old crow (Aug 17, 2006)

Ended up getting a Blonde and a Liverpool. Like em both. Blonde with single coils and the Liver w/ buckers, but I also really like it w/ a Tele.
This stuff has progressed alot...and it's almost as good as the real thing for a fraction of the cost.
For recording it's fast and quiet and to my ears , as good as my vintage tube amps mik'd up, considering it's just a room, not a real studio and I'm using a Tascam 2488, so I'll never produce a marketable cd anyway.


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## Guest (Dec 4, 2009)

old crow said:


> Ended up getting a Blonde and a Liverpool. Like em both. Blonde with single coils and the Liver w/ buckers, but I also really like it w/ a Tele.
> This stuff has progressed alot...and it's almost as good as the real thing for a fraction of the cost.
> For recording it's fast and quiet and to my ears , as good as my vintage tube amps mik'd up, considering it's just a room, not a real studio and I'm using a Tascam 2488, so I'll never produce a marketable cd anyway.


The funny thing is: the Blonde and the Liverpool actually haven't changed a whole lot. The building blocks of those two pedals are from the original SansAmp pedal that was released in what? 1983 or so? Crazy, eh? It's just taken that long for people to _accept_ that it _works_. IMO of course. :smile:


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## david henman (Feb 3, 2006)

...i get great results with the tech 21 liverpool.

-dh


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## zurn (Oct 21, 2009)

I've heard a lot of good things about using those multi-effects modeling pedals with pre-amps like the Vox Tonelab, some reviewers says they actually sound better direct in a PA than in a guitar amp.


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## 4345567 (Jun 26, 2008)

__________


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

hope im not derailing in any way- but ive got a question-
ive been using a pod 2.0 for a couple years as a di-
one annoyance ive found is, that when switching between guitars, even say, between different strats, ive got to tweak the settings a bit in line6edit- one guitar will sound great, but another very similar guitar will need some tweaking- and a dissimilar guitar needs much more tweaking- you get my meaning?
so ive had to make seperate patches/ folders for each guitar. this just adds to the confusion, and im really into simplifying things.

now lately, i set up a few pedals and play through my amps- but this way, i dont need to tweak anything- all the guitars have theyre own voice for sure, but i dont have to touch anything, they all sound good. all of them. maybe its just the amps, but i dunno.

im guessing its an impedance thing- but do you guys using the tech 21 stuff have an opinion on this?

if i could use the same set of pedals to di, as well as into an amp, that would simplify matters for me, providing it eliminated much of the tweaking within my daw-
thanks for any input you guys can share!


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## Guest (Dec 5, 2009)

fraser: could be the ultra high impedence on the Pod is making the subtle differences in the high end content between guitars really show.

I know switching guitars and even pickups on the Axe-Fx yields some seriously huge changes in sound. Enough for me to make different patches? Nah. I've learned to really love the radical changes in sound as I move through pickup positions or change guitars.

Have you tried running your guitar into your pedals than into your Pod with the Pod set to do a clean amp sim like a Twin? That works quite well some times.


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## fraser (Feb 24, 2007)

iaresee said:


> fraser: could be the ultra high impedence on the Pod is making the subtle differences in the high end content between guitars really show.
> 
> I know switching guitars and even pickups on the Axe-Fx yields some seriously huge changes in sound. Enough for me to make different patches? Nah. I've learned to really love the radical changes in sound as I move through pickup positions or change guitars.
> 
> Have you tried running your guitar into your pedals than into your Pod with the Pod set to do a clean amp sim like a Twin? That works quite well some times.


ian- maybe im too picky. the differences in the guitars i like when played through the amp. and i like the sounds i get with the pod, but only if ive tweaked things for each guitar. perhaps its in my head, and im overthinking it.
i only actually started mucking about with pedals recently- ill have to try them into the pod- good idea-
thanks


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## seanmj (May 9, 2009)

Have to admit... I was always really pessimistic about recording direct. Then recently, I found new optimism out of necessity... so I tried out a bunch of stuff.

I went to L&M and bought all 4 sansamp stuff.... blonde, liverpool, california, british. The liverpool and british were ok... not great... but ok. Ultimately I returned all of them.

I tried a couple of different pieces of software... softube, and overloud th1. I didn't care for either of them.

The tone of the sansamp stuff was alright... but what was lacking for me was how it responds dynamically. It all seemed somewhat monophonic... compressed. Lacking in punch. I just find my amp is much more responsive for what I do... and it would be hard to play without it.

The softube and overloud stuff... the tone was just shrill and thin. I would have to eq the heck out of it to make it useable.

I should also say, that I have really good a/d/a converters and monitors. Zero latency... so it wasn't a monitoring problem.

I would love to try the fractal stuff sometime. I'm not saying these other products are bad... just that I couldn't make them work for my tastes. I'll still keep looking though.

Sean Meredith-Jones
http://www.seanmeredithjones.com


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## sysexguy (Mar 5, 2006)

*Introducing the Torpedo*

Perhaps you might want to consider a Two Notes Torpedo VB-101:
http://www.themomozone.com/torpedo/ yes I'm wearing my pimp hat right now but any discussion of recording direct should include it.

The advantage is that you use your own head(s), with your pedals and retain all the character of the interaction between these components without disturbing your surroundings. :rockon2:kksjur

Andy www.diffusion-audio.com


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## Guest (Dec 23, 2009)

seanmj said:


> I would love to try the fractal stuff sometime.


They'll change your opinion on the whole direct-to-board stuff. Really astounding products. I've been recording direct for far too long now and the Fractal unit pretty much eliminated all the need for mixing tricks. The only thing I'm missing is the ability to do a nice feedback without waking the neighbours. :smile:


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