| Author |
Topic: Sho-Bud DI signal chain advice |
Ben Standefer
From:
San Francisco, CA
|
Posted 16 Aug 2018 1:29 am |
|
I'm sorting out my signal chain and looking for opinions on what you would do in my situation. I live in an apartment and practice with a Zoom R8 recorder. I record my pedal steel direct into decent preamps (Presonus Quantum 2, not the Zoom R . I'm looking for a good setup for recording quality, not playing on the road.
Current Setup
Sho-Bud Pro III > Lawrence 705 pickups > Goodrich 120 > Zoom R8
Proposed Setups
Sho-Bud Pro III > Lawrence 705 pickups > Goodrich 7A Matchbox > Goodrich 120 > Zoom R8
Sho-Bud Pro III > Lawrence 705 pickups > Sarno Steel Guitar Black Box > Goodrich 120 > Zoom R8
Sho-Bud Pro III > Lawrence 705 pickups > Hilton > Zoom R8
Bonus Question: While recording your proposed setup direct (no amp/mic, Logic Pro X) would you use a high quality amp modeling plugin (Scuffham S-Gear 2) or just the leave the raw signalnon the track with a little delay or rever? For reverb, would you use an IR for a spring reverb, plate reverb, or modeled space (i.e. large room).
I know all of this is subjective, that's why I'm asking it on an internet forum.  Thanks, I'm curious to hear what people think.
_________________
Sho-Bud Pro III Custom, Lawrence 705s, Roland JC-55 |
|
|
 |
Brad Sarno
From:
St. Louis, MO USA
|
Posted 16 Aug 2018 5:07 am
|
|
Take it with a grain of salt because I make the Black Box, but many have found that having a vacuum tube in the signal path before you capture the DI signal can really make a huge difference/improvement with respect to the midrange and treble quality.
I think an ideal DI setup for your situation could look like:
Steel-Pickup-BlackBox-VolPedal-Zoom
Then once in the computer (Logic, etc) you could experiment with some of the more clean tube amp models such as Fender Twin, Fender Bassman, etc. Or you may find that just some EQ tweaks are all you need. Often times a DI'd steel likes a bit of low-pass filter or attenuation of the highest frequencies, those above 8kHz or so. This helps to emulate a real guitar speaker that can't reproduce those glassy highs and will make for a more warm and authentic tone.
Then for reverbs, try various Plate or Hall algorithms with some subtle, analog/warm delays too. (Delay first, then Reverb)
Best of luck,
Brad
www.sarnomusicsolutions.com |
|
|
|
Bob Hoffnar
From:
Austin, Tx
|
Posted 16 Aug 2018 7:58 am
|
|
Ben,
Out of those three options I would also go with:
Steel-Pickup-BlackBox-VolPedal-Zoom
What I do for direct recording is
Steel-Pickup-VolPedal(Goodrich 120)-Sarno V8- pre amp
I haven't used any amp sims that I liked yet. But that V8 is astonishing for direct.
In my experience those Zoom pre amps sound pretty great. To get anything better sends you crazy expensive land.
_________________
Bob |
|
|
|
Ben Standefer
From:
San Francisco, CA
|
Posted 16 Aug 2018 11:35 am
|
|
Thank you both for your replies. I think I'll go with that setup. I've owned a cheapish tube preamp before (PreSonus BlueTube) and loved it, so was leaning toward the Black Box anyways (probably will also use it with bass/Tele).
I've found that in the past 5 years amp sims have gotten amazingly good because of impulse response (IR) technology, specifically with cabinet simulation and reverbs/room sounds. After digging around a ton, I fell in love it with Scuffham S-Gear (I use it with my Tele).
* The 5 amp models limit the number of options
* Each of the 5 amps has a sane amount of 10-15 presets for "click-and-try" amp settings
* The the S-Gear manual reads like the manual for 5 real amps. They explain how the amp compresses, they talk about how hard you should hit the amp from the input, etc.
* It doesn't model every last effect or signal path under the sun, mainly just focused on amp+speaker+reverb/delay. This makes it pretty good if you like natural sounding rock/country music!
I'll also look at the V8, it looks great.
Thanks!
_________________
Sho-Bud Pro III Custom, Lawrence 705s, Roland JC-55 |
|
|
|
