cakes wrote: Wed Jan 10, 2024 6:19 pm Do you recommend a passive or active DI or hi-Z input for recording guitar signal before amp sims?

They all do the same thing. From when I was a live sound guy and traveled a lot, I got to where I very much preferred Passive DI's over active because a passive DI almost never fails, and do not need power to keep working. Simple is reliable. I've had a few Countrymen DI's break during shows and never thought they sounded better in any way that matters. THey just stop working and start going "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE". My go to DI is the Radial Pro Di if I want something a little spendy, but I also have a ton of Whirlwind IMPS which in like 20 years of using them, I have never had a single one break, and I toss them shits into road cases from across the room. They sound fine. I Own some expensive Radial JDI's and still have 2 Countrymen but to my ears, if they sound better, it's the kind of better that in the real world makes zero difference at the end of the day. 90% of the time I'm plugging into the front jack of a Warm Audio WA-412, or a ART Pro Channel 2 because I can reach the jack from where I'm sitting.

I also have a Rusty Box and Boxidizer sitting on my desk that get occasional work if I can find the adapter, and I have one of those TC Electronics Deluxe Reverb pedals that I usually keep plugged into the ZT Lunchbox next to the couch, and I wouldn't at all hesitate using that to direct record. It sounds pretty good.

"liked a post"

I have a passive DI, but I needed a second, so I picked up a Z Tone, since it does DI and Reamping, something I want to use with my Traynors. The input controls are pretty interesting.

cakes wrote: Wed Jan 10, 2024 8:15 pm I have a passive DI, but I needed a second, so I picked up a Z Tone, since it does DI and Reamping, something I want to use with my Traynors. The input controls are pretty interesting.

When I reamp I usually just adapt any passive di in reverse or I'll just use one of my TC electronics teleports and that seems to work fine. I will rout through my console so I get a little EQ for fine tuning from desk position. I can monitor the miced cab and adjust the volume and EQ to tune what I want. If I use a amp sim I'll turn off spkr sim and almost always just use the Peavey classic 60 power amp into my single 15 ampeg cab because it's right there. Seriously those Peavey tube power amps sound really good and are cheap as chips. The 60 and 60|60 sound better than the 120s but all of them are great. The 120 with a rusty was my bass rig for like a decade.

I played around with Amp room, but holy crap, Plugin Alliance has an Ampeg V4B! I am drooling over it. They have all the best Ampegs and a GK800. My heart is swooning.

Their guitar cabs are pretty good. Can't say I know enough about the brands, and I'm not really into Marshalls, but they got at least 3 amps that are up my alley.

While I really like the Softube Amp room suite, its hard to accept the price tag when I have the PA Mega subscription. The IRs seem good enough, but I also have Wall of Sound, which gives me the options the Amp Room has for miking.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that I can't believe there's a V4B sim. Now, if only there was an V2 sim on PA...

cakes wrote: Thu Jan 11, 2024 2:49 pm I played around with Amp room, but holy crap, Plugin Alliance has an Ampeg V4B!

I have it. its ok. I like the B15 better. the V4B is a little weird. maybe I just havent found the cab that works best for it. The B15 only has like 3 cabs I think sound like a B15 out of like 30 or something

Kniferide wrote: Wed Jan 10, 2024 7:27 pm

cakes wrote: Wed Jan 10, 2024 6:19 pm Do you recommend a passive or active DI or hi-Z input for recording guitar signal before amp sims?

They all do the same thing. From when I was a live sound guy and traveled a lot, I got to where I very much preferred Passive DI's over active because a passive DI almost never fails, and do not need power to keep working. Simple is reliable. I've had a few Countrymen DI's break during shows and never thought they sounded better in any way that matters. THey just stop working and start going "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE". My go to DI is the Radial Pro Di if I want something a little spendy, but I also have a ton of Whirlwind IMPS which in like 20 years of using them, I have never had a single one break, and I toss them shits into road cases from across the room. They sound fine. I Own some expensive Radial JDI's and still have 2 Countrymen but to my ears, if they sound better, it's the kind of better that in the real world makes zero difference at the end of the day. 90% of the time I'm plugging into the front jack of a Warm Audio WA-412, or a ART Pro Channel 2 because I can reach the jack from where I'm sitting.

Regarding DIs I generally agree w/ everything broken down above. I think when it comes to choosing one or the other, it has as much to do with the output of the instrument. I tend to use guitars/basses w/ weak output into the active di's and hot humbuckers or active basses in to passive DIs. I think of it in a similar way to a Cloudlifter where if you have kinda crap preamps that doing give you enough gain or when you bring up the gain enough to get a good signal it it adds too much unwanted noise, that's where you might want the stronger signal from an active DI. But for the price of an active DI, you could almost just get a better preamp to work with.

But yeah, I pretty much default to passive DIs first and have one active hanging around that rarely gets used. Unless there's an application I'm not thinking of, you can probably skip getting an active DI honestly as long as you're not DI'ing quiet sources & you have plenty of clean headroom out of your preamps.

Garth wrote: Fri Jan 12, 2024 7:43 amCloudlifter

Activate your passiveized DI!

Kniferide wrote:

Garth wrote: Fri Jan 12, 2024 7:43 amCloudlifter

Activate your passiveized DI!

Jesus, yes of course, that's brilliant. They do work nicely for any low gain source (well-documented & well-loved when used w/ SM-7), why not a separate unit for maximum flexibility. I know there are better units out there too that work as well or better than the cloudlifter. Would absolutely recommend going this route against an Active DI with waffles only if we're talking about something like a SansAmp Bass Driver or LR Baggs that has some built-in desirable tonal characteristics/niche usage.

I just added a new sub to my room. It's the third one I've tried. I first had a little Jbl from a home theater system and it was flubby and weird, I'm using that as a sub off the synths in the live room now and it is more suited to that. I replaced it with a even smaller passive Pioneer sub from a home 5.1 sound system. It, because it was less cable of being a sub, actually sounded better, but still I could never get it in the sweet spot. The Adam Sub 7 was the MF Stupid deal of the day about a week ago for like $200 so I bought that. I have Adam T7V speakers in there now so I thought it might go well. It does. Using Fuzz Measure I was able to find the lowest peak my Adams pitched and tuned the subs mound to be an octave below that. Funny thing is, to just fill in the octave and not he hyping anything the sub is literally 2 clicks higher than OFF! Just barely on at all, but it sounds really good. I gotta get a foot switch to bypass it but its the best sub so far. I fight with Low end in my tiny room almighty and to the end. There are traps. Lots.

Any luck with subs in a small room?