Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

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scott.thomason
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Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by scott.thomason »

Hi all. I'm learning how to record stuff, and I have a question about the quality of a direct-in recording.

I have a Focusrite Scarlett I've been using to record my guitars. I have an electrified acoustic, which sounds great plugged in. But my Tele, not so good. To me it sounds awfully weak, kind of tinny, low-fi, quavery, I don't know... Is this what it's supposed to sound like? It's got Seymour Duncan STK pickups. When it was recorded, the Scarlett showed the signal to be "in the green", and it came into Qtractor around -20db to -10db, but then I "normalized" it. Other than that, it's totally "dry", no processing.

Here's the clip using the bridge pickup, it's 6MB: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cF_op_ ... sp=sharing

If you have any suggestions for improving the tone, I'm all ears.
---scott

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Basslint
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Re: Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by Basslint »

Sounds normal to me! Direct-in electric guitars are not supposed to sound good.
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Re: Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by tavasti »

To get normal electric guitar sounds, you need to feed that to some amp + cabinet simulator. Guitarix is one to test first.

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Loki Harfagr
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Re: Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by Loki Harfagr »

Sounds quite fine to me as a DI recorded guitar, though there's a bit of clipping (which is strange since you mention having it "normalized" !?)
Therafter you're on to have fun with the digital world equivalent of a pedalboard + amp + modulation + cabs/room + general ambiance (usually some delay or reverb).
I suppose since you use an electric guitar you're already quite used to the kind of chain of effects et al. you like to use and how so, then you'll have to find the digital equivalents of the ones you fav and when several are possible use the one which has the most directly understandable user interface for your habits.

As starters I'd recommend some basic ones among guitarix/airwindows/Kapitonov (which are already slightly under the zillion possibilities :D ) but there are many more ;)

PS: In the extreme dubious case you'd be a total newbie in the guitar pedalboard/amps/cabs/godzillaz's world some folks here (including I) might make (when having spare time) a few quick&dirty examples of what some very easy and standard plugins or setttings can do on your 32 seconds sample, like one example in the manner of BluesRock, one in the Hard or BigRock manner and one heavy, with a short description or snapshots of the settings used :)
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Re: Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by bhilmers »

Loki Harfagr wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 2:48 pmSounds quite fine to me ...
Agreed, this is a clean signal that is ripe for processing and tone sculpting with plugins.
Basslint wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 11:58 amDirect-in electric guitars are not supposed to sound good.
Heh, I disagree there. I have a strange aversion to distorted guitar now that I'm old and have a lot of hearing loss. Pretty much everything I write on guitar today is recorded via DI and processed with reverb when I want to be a little less intimate. Although admittedly I've become a real stickler about guitar tone these days, matching the right pickups for each guitar and even swapping out potentiometers and capacitors when necessary. IMO if it doesn't sound good through a DI then the guitar needs work. :)
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Re: Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by funkmuscle »

Depends on the music.. Lot's of old school funk and disco guitars were DI and even Jimi Hendrix layered some clean tracks DI.
Metal or rock especially the heavy stuff will need to be dressed up(amp-sims, IR cabs, etc)
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Re: Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by scott.thomason »

bhilmers wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 6:14 pm I have a strange aversion to distorted guitar now that I'm old and have a lot of hearing loss.
That's funny you should mention that, I'm in exactly the same boat...distortion just isn't as pleasing as it used to be, to my ears anyway, and that's definitely a change from years past.
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Re: Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by Basslint »

funkmuscle wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:08 pm Depends on the music.. Lot's of old school funk and disco guitars were DI and even Jimi Hendrix layered some clean tracks DI.
Metal or rock especially the heavy stuff will need to be dressed up(amp-sims, IR cabs, etc)
Yes, Nile Rodgers is known for recording DI.
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Re: Improve tone on direct-in guitar?

Post by funkmuscle »

Basslint wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 9:35 am
funkmuscle wrote: Tue Jun 07, 2022 7:08 pm Depends on the music.. Lot's of old school funk and disco guitars were DI and even Jimi Hendrix layered some clean tracks DI.
Metal or rock especially the heavy stuff will need to be dressed up(amp-sims, IR cabs, etc)
Yes, Nile Rodgers is known for recording DI.
and he gets great tones!!
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