How you DI a distortion channel if your distortion came from your amp? Also there is no XLR output on the amp, nor a Line Out. Would you run the DI box last in the FX Loop? Or is there no real good way to do this, so just mic it?
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Future refrence DI question
- Thread starter Vic Winters
- Start date
bongomania
Commercial User
This comes up a lot. It seems like everybody has a pretty strong opinion about what "should" be sent to the PA via the DI. A lot of people insist that only your clean bass signal should go to the PA, and all fx/distortion should only go through your on-stage cabs. The justifications given for that (that I've read here on TB) are (a) soundmen don't like bass fx, and you don't want to irritate the soundman; and (b) the mix through the PA speakers gets too muddy if the bass signal isn't clean. Also some people don't understand unity gain, so when they stomp on a distortion their signal gets way louder, which is a real problem for the soundman.
If your distortion is an important part of your sound, and if the distortion comes from your amp with no line out available, then you would need to mic your cab and ask the soundman to take that mic channel in addition to the DI channel.
If your distortion is an important part of your sound, and if the distortion comes from your amp with no line out available, then you would need to mic your cab and ask the soundman to take that mic channel in addition to the DI channel.
I'm assuming you're using a combo of some sort. If your combo allows for an ext speaker, you can DI that signal provided the DI has an attenuation switch(s) of at least -20dB. If your amp has a tuner out or aux/effects send out you might want to try that and see if the signal is pre or post the onboard distortion fx. Hope that helps.
Crate GFX1200H guitar head. It's not the best FX Loop, 1 stereo plug for a cable that splits into 2 mono signals.
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It says it's before the power amp stage, but I doubt it's before the pre-amp.
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It says it's before the power amp stage, but I doubt it's before the pre-amp.
bongomania
Commercial User
Right, so take the output of that loop and connect it to a mixer, headphone amp, or external amp in order to hear whether it's the preamp giving you your distortion sound. If it sounds good, then you can take that loop out to your DI, and hook the "thru" jack of the DI back into the return of the amp fx loop.
As the guys have said, I would recommend sending the Soundman a clean DI line first, this will make him happy 
and give him a good "base" to work from...
Then in addition, either send him a mic'd line or a DI line from between your cab and head for the distortion, this will allow him to mix and match to his heart's desire or just completely drop the distortion if he really hates it...
and give him a good "base" to work from... Then in addition, either send him a mic'd line or a DI line from between your cab and head for the distortion, this will allow him to mix and match to his heart's desire or just completely drop the distortion if he really hates it...
