What's your flavor for recording? Mic or Direct?

[jamminjohn]

Hi Guys,

I am getting things up and running to record some tunes.

For me, now, it seems like going direct is getting better results.

When you use mics, are you playing at loud levels to get 'THAT' sound?

So much to try to find what I like.

I have a new 4i4 and it seems to work pretty good. Going into garage band.

I do read all the mic threads, just wondering out loud.

Hmmm, so many questions...

[Ostinato Rubato]

Interesting that going direct is getting you better results. I think my best sounding clips are mic'd, even when I'm at less than ideal volumes.

Are you making this comparison in a mix context?

[ajaxlepinski]

Direct and mic'd both have their uses.

Of all the recordings I made, for myself and others, I always preferred a mic'd cabinet.
That being said, direct with guitar sims, can yield excellent results.
It all depends on the sound and feel that the song needs.

Reasons for recording loud:
- If the song requires speaker distortion and the feel of a cranked amp, ya gotta record loud because, it going to be impossible to recreate that feel and sound direct.... [although, I never owned a Kemper].
- If you need responsive feedback without latency.
- If you're recording live, with a band, you need some amp volume to prevent the drums from overwhelming the guitar and bass mics.

Recording at low levels:
- Less amp noise
- One of the best guitar tones I recorded came from a portable Mouse amp, at bedroom levels.
- I also got some excellent results recording at bedroom levels with a clean amp and a fuzz that was able to generate some nice feedback (at low volume).
- Even a SM57 can distort if the amp is really loud and an overloaded mic does not sound good.

Hope this helps!

[EndTime]

For me, always mic’d FEELS better and more alive to me. I’ve been self recording and for a little while doing a bunch of local recordings since 1998. That doesn’t make me a pro but I’ve recorded with mics easily thousands of takes, tracks, songs, what have u. So I’ve learned and learned how to get the best out of my gear. It is NOT an easy or quick process but I feel it’s definitely the more rewarding. DI thry good IRs has become pretty good as well and with expert mixing can be stellar. It every time I find I’m kinda feeling the Direct route, I simply take a bit more time and really dial in my rig thru mics and once I put tin the effort, my mics thru my gear OF my gear, always wins. No question

[Devin]

I feel like overall i've gotten my favorite results by using a mic (even at low volumes) but I've also gotten decent results from DI+impulses

[GuitarBilly]

In an ideal scenario, micd is better. But it's hard for me because I usually like to record during late night/early morning hours, that's when I'm most inspired. So I've been going direct for the most part and slowly learning how to get better results. I also like the consistency of it since I can rarely finish a project in a day so the ability to go back to it and get consistent results is important.
That said, I use analog DIs (Palmers) for the most part, I just started to work with IRs recently.

[TurboPablo]

Both. With my Palmer PDI-03, PDI-09 and Fryette PS100, I can record however I like. I am moving away from IR's and staying with analog load boxes as I think they sound a lot better. The PS100 allows me to record mic'd tones at a low level with great results. Yes, I have to use more preamp gain on my interface for that. But that's what they are there for. I also use my Warm WA12 as a gain boost for the mic.

[Marc G]

Interesting that going direct is getting you better results. I think my best sounding clips are mic'd, even when I'm at less than ideal volumes.

Are you making this comparison in a mix context?

I'm not surprised since direct removes lots of variables that someone isn't use to using a mic would encounter...... room makes a massive difference as well as mic, mic position, preamp, etc.. all of those are baked in to IRs etc.. at the same time IRs limit you to its settings, where as if you have the time to experiment with the variables you could end up with a superior result IMO

[Steinmetzify]

Man I’m doing both. I know I haven’t posted here for a minute but my Dual Dark/Suhr RLIR gives me basically the same shit I’d get when I mic a cab with a 57 and I don’t have to worry about position.

I’ll do both but usually end up going with the IR.

[madkeithv]

DI, always. I don't have my amp/cab set up near my DAW, and back in the day when I recorded with microphones I was never very happy with the results. These days it's all straight into (usually) Neural DSP Archetype Abasi. Note though that I'm not tone-chasing anymore, I use what works and focus on getting the song/riff done.
If I was to complete a song and really want to polish it, I'd probably do a few days worth of experiments with micing.