Direct-In heavy guitar tone?

[JD80]

Hey Guys,

I've been searching through forums again, listening to demos, etc. I can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

Is there a viable option for doing some kind of direct-in guitar tracking that gets say, 95% close to using a tube amp, a cabinet and a mic? In fact, I'd settle for 90%. But seriously, its 2010, hasn't somebody got the $hlt figured out yet?

I have a PODXT, and a Line 6 vetta II. I find the heavy guitar sounds out of those to both be severely lacking.

I'm willing to spend some money, but my "recording" "studio" is essentially my apartment with neighbors on all sides, so getting tone via cranking a tube amp through a cab isn't possible. I have a damn uberschall, but I can't use that to record here.

Sorry if this is a n00b question but, I'm a recording newbie, so that's the only kind of questions I have so far.

[Antenna]

Fractal Audio and Atomic Amps - Axe-Fx Ultra and Standard - The Atomic Reactor Series - Axe-Edit Editor

You're welcome.

[Customisbetter]

Originally Posted by JD80

I have a PODXT, and a Line 6 vetta II. I find the heavy guitar sounds out of those to both be severely lacking.

I don't think you are doing it correctly. Those have produced the heaviest tones his forum have ever heard.

[JD80]

Originally Posted by Antenna

Fractal Audio and Atomic Amps - Axe-Fx Ultra and Standard - The Atomic Reactor Series - Axe-Edit Editor

You're welcome.

Thanks. Looks like what I was looking for. Although I might have to sell the Uberschall to afford it.

[JD80]

Originally Posted by Customisbetter

I don't think you are doing it correctly. Those have produced the heaviest tones his forum have ever heard.

Well, they can be quite heavy, but they still sound pretty digital IMO, especially when recording. The Vetta 2 sounds pretty decent with the speakers (its a 2x12 combo), but again, its DI really that I'm looking for.

[Antenna]

Haha it is expensive, but all in all, it actually sounds like its running tubes. It's not gonna be hard to work out a good tone like line 6 products and all and it's worth every penny!

[All_¥our_Bass]

+1 to AxeFX, it was basically made PRECISELY for what you're looking to do.

[JamesM]

And made to make me want it but be unable to afford it.

[Splees]

The POD HD is coming out shortly... maybe that is the answer you are looking for.

[jaretthale78]

wait. so you got a vetta II and a uberschall and u cant get a decent metal tone? woah...

[Splees]

You have an uberschall? Perhaps you could plug it into a dummy load then use impulses.
Weber 100 Watt MASS Lite Attenuator [att-web-mass-lite-100w] - $175.00 : The Vintage Sound, Your source for vintage tube amplifier and guitar parts!

[Slampop]

dude, if you got a POD and Vetta...i still have complete faith in those, and with some tender time put into the post eq, and a lil bit of love, you can make it sound tubey as hell. but if you want quick results that take little to no time to work on post recording...the Axe fx is your friend! the price however is not!

note: i have also heard that the engl e530 can yield some decent tubey direct in results as well btw...

[Andii]

Use your amp head connected to a cab or dummy load and use impulse responses.

If you use your cab as a load and record the signal from the send on your effects loop you won't have to buy anything.

[4Eyes]

Originally Posted by Slampop

note: i have also heard that the engl e530 can yield some decent tubey direct in results as well btw...

[JD80]

Originally Posted by Splees

You have an uberschall? Perhaps you could plug it into a dummy load then use impulses.
Weber 100 Watt MASS Lite Attenuator [att-web-mass-lite-100w] - $175.00 : The Vintage Sound, Your source for vintage tube amplifier and guitar parts!

Now that's the kind of shit I would never have thought of myself. Might keep the uberschall after all.

[Splees]

Yep. Just take the line out from the load and into your interface. slap on some impulses and booyah you got awesome tone and a gold record.
You could use the line out from the uberschall but you'd still need to plug into a cab. kind of defeats the purpose of silent recording though. Your best bet and investment would probably a dummy load. At least that's what I think.

[JD80]

Originally Posted by Splees

Yep. Just take the line out from the load and into your interface. slap on some impulses and booyah you got awesome tone and a gold record.
You could use the line out from the uberschall but you'd still need to plug into a cab. kind of defeats the purpose of silent recording though. Your best bet and investment would probably a dummy load. At least that's what I think.

I've been looking at these Weber attenuators. It states that the Lite version doesn't have the full "DI Tone Stack". Any idea what this is? Is that some sort of tone shaping function...something better left to impulses?"

[Andromalia]

Best attenuator + line out I got to try (and I tried quite a few of them, hotplates, spl cabulator, etc) is the Marshall SE100, provided you like marshall cabs. It's quite old gear now but it's very good.

[xCaptainx]

Originally Posted by Slampop

dude, if you got a POD and Vetta...i still have complete faith in those, and with some tender time put into the post eq, and a lil bit of love, you can make it sound tubey as hell. .

building up on this post.....I don't mean to appear condesending....apologies if I am, but maybe it would be best to detail how you are recording and what you are doing with the tracks? The only reason I ask is that I've heard some amazing recordings using pod xt's, vettas and amplitube 3 from a variety of people. Personally I don't see why you should spend any more money on gear, especially if you might end up having the same, or worse tone if it's an issue with production/eq/whatever, and not the gear itself.

my two cents anyway.

[Splees]

Originally Posted by JD80

I've been looking at these Weber attenuators. It states that the Lite version doesn't have the full "DI Tone Stack". Any idea what this is? Is that some sort of tone shaping function...something better left to impulses?"

Well the uberschall does have a line out, unless I'm mistaken. So you wouldn't have to worry about the line out of the dummy load too much. as long as the weber is accepting the load you can still record silently from the uber's line output and using an impulse on that.

the mass lite will be fine. although it would be nice to have the option for the tonestack later on.

[Revan132]

I actually have a 6505+ I really want to use with impulses, would you say the tone is relatively preserved as it is transferred into the digital world? I'd be running it through a Line 6 UX2.

[Splees]

through the UX2? it'll probably be alright.

[JD80]

Originally Posted by Splees

Well the uberschall does have a line out, unless I'm mistaken. So you wouldn't have to worry about the line out of the dummy load too much. as long as the weber is accepting the load you can still record silently from the uber's line output and using an impulse on that.

the mass lite will be fine. although it would be nice to have the option for the tonestack later on.

The line out would just be from the preamp, right? So in order to get the tone of the preamp + poweramp, wouldn't I need to use a lineout from the attenuator?

I've been trying to a do a little basic research on impulses. Are impulses mainly used to model a cabinet + mic? I think I read somewhere that they're used to model the poweramp as well...I'm a little confused.

Does anybody have a recommendation for a good solid set of impulses that would be suited for the kind of sound and setup I'm going for? Also, does it really make a difference which plugin I use to host them?

[Splees]

yeah if you use the line out or effects loop send you'll only be getting the preamp section and you'd still need to have the amp hooked up to some sort of load.

if you used the line out from the attenuator you'd be getting the powersection.

correct. there are quite a few out there to choose from. These will get you started.
catharsis-awesometime-fredman.zip - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download
Guitar Hacks Impulses.zip - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download
Fender.zip - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download
Poidaobi - Englv30CAB.zip - 4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download

[Splees]

I'll upload more later this week. I have a giant folder of impulses.