Optimizing Direct Recording Chain

[PianoOfDoom]

I am working on getting the best direct sound I can (ignoring my amp for the moment - I'll come back to that later), and want to make sure I understand a few things. Mainly, my microphone preamp, a Golden Age Project Pre 73, has an instrument input, which sounds pretty good, but not as good as the preamp in my old Teac 4 track reel machine, to which I am recording. The drawback of the Teac is that I cannot put anything, like a rack compressor or eq, after it.

So, I'm concluding from that that the DI input on my GAP 73 is not as good as it could be. My question is, if I got a nice DI box, like a REDDI, Radial, or the new Neve one, would running that before the MIC input of the GAP improve the sound, or would the limitation in the DI portion of the GAP be present also in the MIC section? Fundamentally, I guess I'm asking where is the crucial point in the chain for DI - in the actual "DI" part, or the amplification afterwards?

Am I making any sense at all?

 

[Nephilymbass]

I don't have any problems with any of my sans AMps. I think the trick to any DI setup for bass is they have to have volume controls so you can optimize the signal to noise ratio.

 

[DD_BigBottom]

I am working on getting the best direct sound I can (ignoring my amp for the moment - I'll come back to that later), and want to make sure I understand a few things. Mainly, my microphone preamp, a Golden Age Project Pre 73, has an instrument input, which sounds pretty good, but not as good as the preamp in my old Teac 4 track reel machine, to which I am recording. The drawback of the Teac is that I cannot put anything, like a rack compressor or eq, after it.

So, I'm concluding from that that the DI input on my GAP 73 is not as good as it could be. My question is, if I got a nice DI box, like a REDDI, Radial, or the new Neve one, would running that before the MIC input of the GAP improve the sound, or would the limitation in the DI portion of the GAP be present also in the MIC section? Fundamentally, I guess I'm asking where is the crucial point in the chain for DI - in the actual "DI" part, or the amplification afterwards?

Am I making any sense at all?

Your GAP Pre-73 for arguments sake is already a DI with the added bonus of having a built-in high quality
mic pre as well. Using an extra DI before or after the Pre-73 is not going to improve the sound quality of
your instrument, it's just going to cost you more money.

As per the Golden Age User manual, plug your instrument into the instrument input. Connect the line
output of the Pre-73 into a line input on your recording setup. Set the Pre-73 output level control all the
way up and then adjust your output level with the Mic/Line gain control. You didn't say what you're
plugging into the mic pre. If it's a bass or guitar turn up instrument volume controls to max and play
the loudest part of the track you're going to track. Then increase the Pre-73 gain level until your
output LED's are lighting up the "0" dB LED. Adjust the input level of your recording setup to match
the output level of the Pre-73. What you hear should be the accurate sound of your instrument.

Hope the simple guideline helps.

 

[And I]

I think a DI box into your recorder or DI box into compression / effects into the recorded is the way to go. if you don't like the way the golden age pre sounds on your bass, don't use it. from what i've heard it's a purposefully colored sounding unit. anything that is colored, no matter the price point, is going to be right for some things and not right for others.