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USB 7 - DI signal - digital/artificial layer?


Mattidon
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Hello,

 

I've had a chat with someone off late and I said I usually record 2 tracks with helix.
A processed track and a DI track through USB.

 

The question arose if the USB DI track could have some digital/artificial feel to it, making it "unusable" for reamping with a real amp and cab.

 

BS? or could part of it be true?

 

Thanks for chiming in!

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BS. I do this all the time with plugins. It might be partly true with a ‘real’ amp but if so I expect that’s an issue with the particular amp rather than the signal.

 

My first question to “someone” would be: Have you ever experienced such an issue yourself, are are you just ideologically tied to the analog world?

 

Second question: Assuming that by ‘real’ amp you mean the recorded USB signal is being converted to analog and fed into the amp’s guitar input, what quality D/A converter is being used, and by what intermediate device? A low quality device/converter could introduce artifacts.

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On 2/15/2023 at 2:25 PM, silverhead said:

BS. I do this all the time with plugins. It might be partly true with a ‘real’ amp but if so I expect that’s an issue with the particular amp rather than the signal.

 

My first question to “someone” would be: Have you ever experienced such an issue yourself, are are you just ideologically tied to the analog world?

 

Second question: Assuming that by ‘real’ amp you mean the recorded USB signal is being converted to analog and fed into the amp’s guitar input, what quality D/A converter is being used, and by what intermediate device? A low quality device/converter could introduce artifacts.

Actually... we are going to record a new album before summer.
For the first time i'm doing some prerecording stuff where I try to record some of the guitars at home.
I normally record a processed and a DI signal.

So I suggested to the producer that maybe the DI tracks could be used for reamping if they had the right timing and were played tight.
The producer than suggested that the digitial DI track was not really usable for reamping with analog gear.
No idea which converters are being used...this is all early stages.

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On 2/15/2023 at 9:36 AM, Mattidon said:

Actually... we are going to record a new album before summer.
For the first time i'm doing some prerecording stuff where I try to record some of the guitars at home.
I normally record a processed and a DI signal.

So I suggested to the producer that maybe the DI tracks could be used for reamping if they had the right timing and were played tight.
The producer than suggested that the digitial DI track was not really usable for reamping with analog gear.
No idea which converters are being used...this is all early stages.

Did you ask him where he found the flux capacitor to get him all the way back to 1972 to buy his studio gear?? That 24 track tape machine must have cost him a fortune in order to avoid having tracks stored in digital format......

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On 2/15/2023 at 4:31 PM, silverhead said:

Nonetheless... if you're tied to him as producer, and he's not going to re-amp a DI track.... there's no point in producing one for him.

If we go in the studio and record our guitars (With a miced cab) a DI track will also be recorded.
Then, if needed, that di-track can be reamped.

And that was actually my question. Will a DI track like that differ from a USB DI track from the Helix?
Or should they be the same?

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On 2/15/2023 at 10:37 AM, Mattidon said:

If we go in the studio and record our guitars (With a miced cab) a DI track will also be recorded.
Then, if needed, that di-track can be reamped.

And that was actually my question. Will a DI track like that differ from a USB DI track from the Helix?
Or should they be the same?

Aaaah... OK, that's a bit different. The two DI tracks will differ according to the quality of the A/D and D/A converters being used, if any. Helix uses very good converters (not saying there aren't better!). If the studio's equipment is analog (mixer to tape) then there's no conversion at all and it's hard to compare the signals. If a digital audio interface is being used unless it is very old or very low quality the difference should be minimal to negligible.

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This thought occurs to me in your situation...

 

The producer does not want to use a digital signal for re-amping a dry track, yet it seems from your previous post that he/she is planning to record a DI track for later re-amping if needed. That implies that the DI track will be analog, no?  Otherwise, why record a DI track you won't use? So your Helix-generated DI track is irrelevant.

 

How would the two signals compare as the basis for re-amping? Probably very close but it's really apples to oranges. And sounds like the producer has little interest in finding out.

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On 2/15/2023 at 5:26 PM, silverhead said:

This thought occurs to me in your situation...

 

The producer does not want to use a digital signal for re-amping a dry track, yet it seems from your previous post that he/she is planning to record a DI track for later re-amping if needed. That implies that the DI track will be analog, no?  Otherwise, why record a DI track you won't use? So your Helix-generated DI track is irrelevant.

 

How would the two signals compare as the basis for re-amping? Probably very close but it's really apples to oranges. And sounds like the producer has little interest in finding out.


Thanks for the extra info.

My personal thought was that the producer wouldn't have the need for an analog DI track IF my Helix DI track was sufficient for reamping (And that would also save me studio time because the DI track at home would be sufficient).
That is where he brought up the matter of using a digital DI track to reamp analog amp and he wasn't very enthusiastic about that.
That lead to my question here.

Thanks for the reply!
The preproduction will still be handy to make sure all composition is right before going in the studio...
And the tracks might serve as ghosttracks...but that's it.

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