Quote:
Originally Posted by jonfields45
I subscribe to too many guitar newsletters. The latest Guitar World "The Pick" had several articles on digital amplification including a picture of Mike McCready of Pearl Jam using a mic'd ToneMaster Deluxe Reverb live. Why the microphone when his and my TMDR amp have two built-in IR cabinet emulation settings: Shure SM57 and Royer 121?
I plugged my TMDR into my QSC CP8. The CP8 was sitting on the floor with it's default EQ setting. Nothing sounded as good as the TMDR through its Jensen speaker. In decreasing goodness:
TMDR Jensen > Mustang Micro DR amp w/spring reverb CP8 > TMDR DI Royer CP8 > TMDR DI SM57 CP 8 > TMDR DI no IR CP8
Mostly what I felt I was losing was that Fender sparkle. Even the spring reverb sounded less good as you descend the above list. Possibly putting the CP8 up on a stand or using its floor monitor EQ setting would be better. I made no attempt to tweak the tone control settings on the TMDR (bass 5, treble 7, firmware that retains the bright cap) or Mustang Micro (tone on middle "white" setting).
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If I understand what you did, you're likely testing and hearing the QSC's electronics and speakers as much or (likely) more than the DI's qualities.
If I had your curiosity about this I'd consider using a SM57 mic and a recording interface. Those are "things I have around the house" for me.* I'd find a nice sounding position for the SM57** and record a passage of your style of playing. Next I'd do the same with the DI on it's SM57 emulation setting, taking care to match the recording levels. Listening to the two recordings would give you some more isolated/focused comparison of the two approaches.
For me the joy of amp DI out is that there's no leakage into the guitar track. when recording, and in the Tonemaster series I think it also allows silent playing or recording.
*Not every house I'm sure, but those'd be tools to answer your question, and they have a lot of other uses.
**Doing this will also demonstrate how much mic position (even with the same mic and amp/speaker) changes things. Even if the DI mic emulation was perfect and undetectable to any measurement or golden ear, it could only be so for one mic position. The cool way to do this for one person who wants to locate a mic sweet spot for their tastes, equipment, and playing is to use a looper pedal or function to set a repeating passage going and then to wear a set of closed headphones connected to the recording interface as you move the mic around.
If the above mic positioning sounds like too much trouble, then you've uncovered another reason why DI outs are a marketable feature.