Magic of DI

[mhs]

I'm not even sure I'm using it correctly, but this has made some much better sounding tones available at the input to my recorder.

Last week I got a) a Rode NT1a b) A cheap Behringer DI box and c) a bunch of XLR cables in the hopes of getting a decent sound while using an amplifier while recording. I didn't know which pieces I'd use, which not, or how any of it would sound although I'd had experience with all of this in studios without really paying much attention to any of it.

Right off the bat, I unplugged the speaker jack from a fender deluxe and plugged it into the DI (later I also tested using the XLR out from the Ultrasound the same way), and plugged that into an H4 recorder. This took care of every complaint I've had about playing "direct". The sound is just somehow "right", "balanced", and it took my using each of the 3 or 4 buttons on the DI, but that was surely simple. Lifted the ground, knocked 40db off the input, and supplied 48v phantom from the recorder.

No idea if that was the way you do this, but it works so well, I ran out of time to make any recordings that show this.

I did try the Rode nt1 and was very happy with that as well. I just plugged it into my Ultrasound and played guitar through it, and it sounded good but I was on overload by that time and needed to get away from the new toys.