Awesome video dude! I can 100% verify that a DI will not clean up noise in your signal. I've got some sort of power issue where I can sometimes hear a light switch being flipped in another room in my guitar signal. It's not a big enough issue to prevent me from working but I'm going to run a dedicated power circuit for my audio gear when I get a chance. I'll need to punch holes in the drywall in multiple rooms to run the wire so it's going to be a project for sure.
If you are using an interface to play blues for instance....run.....do not walk and get the DI box.......I use the simple setup of Focusrite 2i2, into a pc running cakewalk (free software) and a fender strat.....i plug the strat into a DI countryman 85 inst. 1/4" hole, than i run xlr connection from DI Box to 2i2......the difference between DI Box and plugging straight to interface alone is huge.
I bought a DI box thinking it’d clear up some noises and it didn’t, so I bought a power conditioner and that didn’t do it either. Swapped out some cables in my setup and the noise disappeared entirely 😄
This guy is a marvelous communicator. He is very articulate. And he said something only I've heard myself say. When somebody tells you something is better. That doesn't mean it's better. That merely means, it's different. And if that difference works for you? Only then is it better. So better is not better but merely different.. In many cases. And in that respect I'm a bit different than other engineers. Not only am I a very competent technician and designer. And I can safely say. This guy has my approval! And I really don't say that about many. Most are full of crap. This guy is pretty solid. In kids. In the end. The perfection of your sound is really secondary. You have to hear everything together, first. Then you start tweaking it to make it more fun sounding. Because it only has to be so perfect. When you learn that good is good enough. Which is very difficult to do when you first start out. There are so many choices to make. Which are the right ones? Generally it's the simplest ones. The more basic ones. Just like this guy is trying to convey to you here. Simple is better. Keep it simple stupid. And yeah all you need is a halfway decent and inexpensive, USB audio interface device. Better than cheapest ones start around $150. And then as mentioned here. I have all that other stuff. I can plug into a cheaper USB audio interface box. And still retain that sound. Even going into a cheaper USB audio input device. So yeah go ahead. Here's what you need. One clone, Neve, microphone preamp/EQ input strip. Or, API 312/560-550, clone equivalent. One clone, FET, Peak Sensing, 1176 Dynamic Range Limiter. And just about anyone's, Downward Expander/Gate.. This will be all you will need. You will not need anything else, And the cost of the originals are prohibitive. The clones for pennies on the dollar. They are 100%, just as authentic sounding. Any minor nuanced differences? Only for the most, Obsessively Compulsive Disorderly Crazies. And that really gets you nowhere. It turns you into a schmuck. Don't be a schmuck. That kind of intensity and drama is counterproductive. Because only the Beatles were the Beatles. So you don't have to be. Because you're not. None of us are. Or will ever be. So don't sweat the small stuff. You'll live longer and be a lot happier. You get to live. To record another day. At the best thing in our line of work. Is that nobody gets hurt or killed. Because you delivered a crappy sounding recording and mix. Another thing you cannot do. You cannot use your equipment. As an excuse for making a lousy recording. As long as it passes audio. You should be able to make a decent recording. If you know what you're doing. Some of us had to do it that way for a living. We don't get Take-2. Everything has to be done on Take-1. And it has to be listenable and not all screwed up sounding. And so it's not about playing with the software or the gear. It's about making a good sounding recording or live broadcast. With limited tools. Bad acoustics and everything all wrong. It's a wonderful challenge. I love the challenge. I'm real good at that. That's why I got paid the big bucks. I worked for a major TV Network for 20 years. And they only hired the best engineers. In the world. It was kind of a National Broadcasting Company. Yeah. That one. The first one. The original. The best. The biggest. The one that was owned by RCA. And they only hired the best. I don't know what they were doing with me? They certainly would make that mistake again. After I left. I was the last of the greats. Of the Golden Age of Broadcasters. And then to also grow up in the best recording studios was also, quite a thrill. From the earliest Motown. To, one of the biggest hit makers in New York City. And Miami. Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC. I liked looking at the ocean, regularly. But I am now tired of green. I want to see blue. And I'm heading left bound from Texas, soon enough. And I hope nobody stops me, again. Because this was the last time. Next is my time. Yeah so I'm taking care of my 100-year-old mother, alone. And until such time. I'm here. RemyRAD
Another great video! Yeah as a bedroom producer I don't think buying a DI box would really make that big of a change haha. Thanks for giving us a reality check!
Great content like aways ! I am on the way to bay Di box myself hopeing that it will solf my ground loop :) sometimes i even I tie a cable to a string and to my leg accordingly and it can help but that is not the only reason i will bay one. Like u show us good di box kinda shape the sound in nice way it give some sort of compresion too and i prefer it vs signal recorder in hi z input.
@@TheRealStevenWard Yes i think that Warm audio active di will be perfect for me cose it got switch from active to pasive so i can record all kinda guitars with it and i like how its sounds a lot.
Right? I always assumed it was my monitor cause when I turned away, the noise got better. It wasnt till I started making this video that I discovered it was my keyboard that was the worst offender. Lol
How can I connect my pedal board to the house mixer, without losing tone? Would I need an active DI, since I use a strait? Or a DI with a built in cab sim?
Great video again Steven! If I may add a couple of small points.... One REALLY important point I think that is essential with any instrument input or DI box - check the impedance. These vary a lot box to box and can be designed for different uses in mind. Electric guitar pickups are typically designed to "see" a 1M Ohm input - this is the load most guitar amps and pedals will present and it will affect the behaviour of your pickups if you use something less than this. Many passive DI boxes are designed for use with keyboards, or for converting unbalanced signals to balanced, so may not have an optimal impedance for guitar pickups. Low impedance DI boxes will create a HPF over the output of your pickups and dull the tone. If your DI box or interface has an impedance below 1M Ohm, you can use a buffer pedal (the $15 JHS little black box clones on amazon are fine) before it which will present a proper load to your pickups and will avoid the muffled top end from occurring. Quite often, any perceived difference or improvement in tone from changing DI's is because your pickups are interacting with the load in a different way. It should be said that the reason active pickups work fine with passive DI's is they are essentially buffered already from the internal preamp in the guitar. They generally won't have the high frequency roll off associated with passive guitars+low impedance load. One other useful feature of external DI boxes, is you can use (some of) them to take a DI from the output of the amp (either an unused speaker jack or "slave" output while a cab is connected). This can be handy for capturing an amp tone that you can use IR's on later. Its essential to use one designed for this purpose (they'll have a 20-40dB attenuator), and also to ensure that a suitable load is also connected to the amplifier as a DI will not provide a load.
Hello sir, I would like to point the fact you refer to DI Boxes while showing Reamp boxes image. Them both look similar however, their design and functionality differs from each other. I'm not criticizing the content and information of the video nevertheless, it may result confusing for beginners (which I presume are the target audience for this video) to avoid reamp boxes when they are indeed useful. Please feel free to verify the previous statement in radial's engineering website. Regards!
Hey Steven! Thanks for making these great videos. I love both the information and your natural way of presenting it, and the absolutely incredible production quality. Everything looks, sounds and flows so well. Kudos for the basic lighting tips video btw, I actually got really excited learning about those! Can I ask you more about the RF interference you encountered? I'm having a similar problem, and it has persisted even though I got a completely new PC setup a couple of months ago. Edit: I should mention my interface is an SSL2+ on USB (either USB-A or C), and my main guitar is a VGS Stage One Octagon Pro with active EMGs. I'm not using my monitor speakers when trying to figure this out. Did I understand correctly that you were able to solve your issue by changing out your RGB keyboard? I'm a gamer and yes, I love RGB gear... 😅 I have this high-pitched sizzling, "frying" noise that gets picked up by my guitars, and it seems to radiate from the motherboard, specifically. I can't seem to get rid of it no matter what I do. I can kinda reduce it by turning away from the computer in a very specific angle, but it's clunky to do while recording myself. I've ruled out so many causes by now, that I'm wondering if the culprit can be my RAM sticks which have RGB LEDs? I did some pretty extensive testing a couple of years ago, on my previous desktop PC setup which had the same exact problem. I kept my guitar connected to my interface -> my laptop (on battery, not plugged in) -> amp sim while monitoring the desktop PC's motherboard noise, moving the guitar around and trying to figure it out. The noise definitely increased when I put the guitar pickups near the backplate of the PC, where the motherboard is closest. I turned off all room lights, I basically took my computer apart, I disconnected every single peripheral I could, including mouse and keyboard. I even took the graphics card out of my desktop PC, but nothing helped. The only moment when the noise wasn't there was when I started the computer and made it stay on the bootup screen before Windows. *Then* the noise wasn't present. But as soon as I proceeded towards Windows startup, the noise began again. This happens with active and passive pickups; the only pickup that doesn't do this is the piezo on my John Petrucci signature. My laptop alone also causes this same noise (with the desktop PC fully eliminated from the test), and I can actually hear it coming *acoustically* from the bottom of the laptop if I put my ear against it. I opened up Pro-Q3 and looked at the noise profile. It was (and still is) a series of spikes every 1000 Hz, starting from around 1k. It looks a bit like yours at 3:03, but it's a lot worse and starts lower down the spectrum. It seems like moving my mouse or browsing folders on the computer causes the noise to get worse momentarily. That lead me to think that's it's somehow caused by USB polling, but I'm really not sure if it's the root cause. I replicated this entire test in my kitchen, where the wall sockets were 100% guaranteed to be grounded. No change. Since that time I've moved to two other apartments and have a new PC (with a different computer case, even). The only old internal parts in this new PC are 4 RAM sticks with LED lighting, 2 HDDs, 2 SSDs and one M.2 SSD. Same keyboard, different mouse. But I can't figure it out and it's aggravating! I know I basically should go for a fully non-RGB setup in the first place, but I'd hate to do that if I don't actually have to... People have this figured out, it can't be impossible to do. What would you suggest at this point?
Just stumbled on this video. Great info man, and super helpful. So a question for you: I typically record my live amp with my SM57 going into my 3rd Generation Scarlett 2i2. I've been wanting to try out the various ampsims out there, but the signal always clips when I plug directly into my interface. Regardless if I have it on "Line" or "Instrument" setting. Would a DI Box fix this issue or am I just not setting something up properly?
I'm kind of surprised no one has made a digital DI that models all the famous ones (other than bass-specific ones like Sansamp, etc). My Zoom B6 has 4 options (2 tube, 2 solid state) and I love it. The only DI I own is the Walrus Canvas dual, but I like having it to use with my Focusrite 18i20. The 18i20 3rd gen has a better instrument input than the previous gens and it's useable, but the Canvas was night and day to me on playing responsiveness and dynamics. And it doubles as a line isolator for unbalanced synths...
This says a DI box turns an unbalanced instrument level signal into a balanced LINE level signal. I think it turns it into a balanced MIC level signal.
This young man knows a little. About what he is talking about. But just a little. He's fairly knowledgeable. He's got the right ideas here. But some information has been left out. I feel is a bit pertinent. Having been doing this for over 50 years at the top of the heap of, Engineering. And with limited, information. You might make expensive purchasing decisions you don't need to. Just because somebody else did it wrong. And tells you how they dealt with it or didn't. I make certain it doesn't happen at all. That's what an experienced well seasoned engineer knows how to do. And having a servicing and maintenance background can be beneficially helpful. Suffice it to say. Life imitates art. You can use a transformer DI box. As an input device or an output device. It goes either way. Whatever the input is? Can also be an output. Whatever the output is. Can also be an input. And there are reasons to do this. While higher impedance input, low, no load, inputs can sound clearer. From Active DI boxes. They can only be used as active , one way, input boxes. And nothing more. They have but one function. And one function only. Whereas transformer boxes. Can be used in any number of ways. It can also be used, to increase the audio or to decrease the audio. Passively. They can be used as a passive amplifier. That can provide 10 or more DB of, Free Gain! When you plug your source into a low impedance input. That has a high impedance output. You'll get 10 free DB or so of gain.. Or if it's too loud for your input. And your input overloads. Stick it in backwards. It'll lower the level by 10 DB. Before it gets to your input. That's what a transformer box can do. That makes it extremely versatile. In both directions. And then it also provides for, Electrical Isolation. While the wires are connected to each side. Nothing is connected to each side! While the wires touch. They are not connected to each other. They are insulated. And everything magically passes through. It's called Induction. And you have just been inducted. Your air-conditioning might be inducted. Throughout your house. Or mobile home. But that's a different kind of inducted. It's in the duct work, sure. But that's nowhere near the pond. Now what are you going to do? You can see how complicated this could all get. When you've imbibed on too much legal THC. Just so you know. This was only a Test. Of the Emergency Broad Chasing System. If this had been an actual Broad. You would have been instructed. Where to Grab. Or send your dollars texting to TRUMP 666-666. And they will take your donation. Which will facilitate his transfer to a Federal Prison. But I digress. One thing not really mentioned about transformers versus Active DI boxes. Active DI Boxes are a single gender. Whereas, transformer passive DI boxes are all, Bisexual/Bidirectional. Audio can go into the output and out through the input. And there are reasons for doing that. It's very important for Audio Applications. Not so much with fun in the bedroom. As a DI box could become painful. That's why some are round and smooth. Others are awkward little boxes. I use both. Sometimes you have tight places. Between instruments. And an in-line device might be preferable to an awkward little box. That gets in the way. Can fall off, fall down. Whereas other Active DI Boxes might have, 4 separate controllable inputs. Like a mixer. Because it is. And it has 2 outputs. So can be paired up with a, cheap crappy, limited, USB DI box. That has no microphone input. Because you don't need one now. Your gizmo has 4 inputs. And 2 or 1 output. WOW! What will they think of next? Can they make bigger ones? Yeah I just sold my bigger one. It was as large as and weighed as much as a Mazda Miata. And requires about 8 burly guys. To pick up the empty frame. It cannot be picked up. With the electronics still inside it. Because that weighs 3 times more. Kind of like three, V8 Engines strung together. It's a bit heavy. I've been carrying it around with me. For the past 27 years. Inside my 25,000 pound, Mercedes-Benz, diesel box truck. Because it's not exactly portable. And basically 33 years ago. This was about it. And it's also in, Dave Grohl's Sound City, Movie. You can stream for free here on RUclips. And I have a better one in the truck. Of what that entire movie is all about. About the best rock 'n' roll. And the people in it will freak you out. It's one of the greatest ROCK 'N' ROLL DOCUMENTARY FILMS OF ALL TIME! But then I am a bit biased. Mine sounded better. Mine is better. Mine is by the same guy in the movie. Only mine was more money. It was designed for NBC-TV News in Washington DC where I worked. And used it. Before I purchased it. And was $9000 more than the one Dave now has in the movie. Aunt Rupert Neve told me he made mine better. Really? Really. He told me. And explained how and why. COOL! One limited knowledge young man. Tries to make a recording with his laptop and got all of this Gnarly heinous interference due to his pickups. No. That is not correct. Take it from an expert who knows. Who has been dealing with this since the mid-1990s. And solving this problem everywhere I go. It was not due to his pickups. It was due. To the direct coupled, non-isolated, switching power supply. Of his laptop computer. As he was also obviously plugged into something else. Creating a perfect ground loop. With your balanced input. Because the external AC laptop power supply. It is a direct coupled active switching power supply. And it offers no AC line input, isolation. None. The only way. He could have eliminated that nasty buzzing. Would be to lift the ground pin, connection. To the external laptop AC power supply. And by doing that. Your electrical ground. Is then only through your audio wiring. Connected to your laptop audio interface device. Because you can't break that ground. And expect data to flow. You have to break the AC ground. And there are risks with doing that. If you understand the electrical risks involved. You should be just fine.. You must take greater precautions. And you should keep an AC voltmeter, handy at all times. You must connect one lead of your AC voltmeter. To the audio ground. On your computer audio interface device. Then you take the other AC voltmeter lead. And you connected to the ground of the device you are plugging into. Such as a guitar amplifier input. And if you read more than 60 V AC.. You probably shouldn't touch those connections with your fingers. You'll get a charge out of it. But as long as it does not indicate, 100+ volts AC. You should be relatively safe. But should you read, 120 volts, for instance? You will have both feet, in the grave. If you touch both of those connections. So don't do that. That's how people get killed. I've seen a guitarist, singer, killed. I saw a top radio station DJ. Nearly get fried. I saw an expensive, DJ Sound System. Go up in one huge black puff of smoke. And it looked just like it did, in the old black-and-white comedy films. His face was black with soot. And poor old Bill Spicer's system got charcoal fried. We had a great laugh over that. He was a competitor to our, Recording Studio, sort of. And a former trade school teacher of mine. So watching that happen was doubly good! Really Bill? You wired your replacement AC plug upside down? And you didn't check it with a voltmeter. Good for you teach! Of course I did not say that to Bill. But me and my studio business partner had a great laugh over that. Because we were there. With another studio partner owner. From the biggest studio in Baltimore. Where I had gotten my first job years earlier. And so did another very famous engineer. Who recorded Earth Wind & Fire. A few years later. And became famous. And recorded so many others. More than I've done. And I've done a lot. From miserable beginner, Garbage Garage Bands. To those, Billboard Chart Toppers from places like England and the USA. Broadcast regionally and worldwide on the MTV Satellite. When it was still a thing in the 1990s. When it actually had something to do with, the modern lexicon of pop music. Some bands were really good. Some bands not so much. Which I'm being kind over. There used to be a line of very, inexpensive, Taiwanese made, DI Boxes. You could purchase from RadioShack. And I purchased a bunch. They were all low impedance to high impedance or high impedance to low impedance, unbalanced to balanced and balanced to unbalanced. And then I would purchase a, 1/4 inch, splitter cord. With a single socket input and 2 plug output. And then you plug that in between the, guitar/keyboard/bass. And the little Y splitter cord. Allows pass-through to the amplifier. And the output to the, impedance converter. With a 3 pin XLR, output. And as horrible as those $0.98, Taiwanese, audio transformers are. Well? If they saturate up a bit from excessive level. It might also slightly approximate, Analog Tape. But if that's not what you want? Then turn the guitar volume control down. So you don't overload and saturate that, $0.98, Taiwanese transformer. And you make up the gain difference. In your software. And no big deal. Then you get a cleaner sound without saturating the transformer. And it does the job you need it to do. With less saturated distortion. And that was with a cheap, homebrew RadioShack, plug-in adapter thingy, kludge. And as crappy as that is. It sounds like this. From my, 1987 recording here. Through my, Soundtracs 16-8-16, portable audio console. With the worlds, Cheapest, crêpe microphone preamp. Of a single, 5534, integrated circuit chip, op amp, microphone preamps. In other words, Approximately a, three dollar microphone preamp. And RadioShack impedance converter, DI boxes. Going to a first generation, 16-bit, 48 kHz, portable DAT, recorder. Recorded live with, 12 microphone inputs. Direct to stereo 2 track.. (More Transformations in following post)
And who's to say? There aren't 2 distinctly different series of Homo sapiens? When we may not yet have any testing for that? But there is something definitely different going on here. Some people are rocket scientists. I was just a Broadcast and Music Recording Engineer. That's where I found my talents. My parents were musicians. Professionally. So I had a little inkling.. What my talents might hold? Do stupid people think like that? Do stupid people know what they want to do for a career when they are only 7 years old? Not many. How could I know at such a young age? I just did. There was no question about it in my mind at that age. I was exposed to this stuff. Briefly, momentarily. And instantly absorbed all this knowledge. I don't know how? But I found it. In myself. By the time I was 8 1/2. And blew the mind of my father. He had no talent for engineering. He was technically inept. But one helluva violinist. Mom was one of the world's greatest coloratura Sopranos. And at almost 100 years of age today. Still gets fan mail. From people younger than me her last surviving offspring. Of 2. My younger brother already died this year. He never saw 65. My younger brother never found his talents to use as a career. His quasi-career was not gratifying. Computers burnt him out. There is no consistency there. Other than progress. And with progress you can't have consistency. Some things in life require, consistency. While they slowly progress. Not the other way around. And when you can't find your talent. Life generally sucks. And if you're lucky you have a job. But only if you're lucky and/or live in the USA. Where some opportunity, exists. Unlike many other countries. Where ways of life are forced and enforced. And we have crazies complaining that America is a mess! It is the pot calling the kettle black. I can assure them. And they are the root cause. Let's stop kidding everybody. And it's the, crazed, extremist, ruthless, fascist, Conservatives. That are there current root problem in the USA.. Why must Conservatives. Who don't know what the term, conservative means. Needs to tell other Americans. How to live their lives! Because Jesus commanded them to do so! And they have their religious right of their freedom of speech! To enforce what Jesus told Them, to do to Americans, NOT LIVING A JESUS LIFESTYLE! And I am sorry to inform them. In the USA. That is Not Allowed. As in, Not. As in No. A complex word. Dementia Donnie, no longer can comprehend. Since he never learned it to begin with. It is a total non sequitur. To a boy/man of a questionable, immoral, background. Remember. Keep them Blacks out of their condos for white people! And giving large donations. To their for-profit alma mater. To get there worthless, brainless little, spawn. An IV League Degree! As they ain't got no brain, that works. Therefore their daddies or mommies. Had to purchase them one. And so all of these For Profit IV League, Institutions. Should be all shut down. That's what's failed here. We don't need to have Higher Education. As a For Profit Business. No! No and No. They should all be State Institutions. Like the University of Maryland. Like the University of Arizona. And so on and so forth. And because if you're going to put such a high price on higher education. We fail. Because if rich people don't want to pay any taxes? Higher education should also be free. Beyond that of just high school. It's time. If we want to continue to Lead the World. We need a lot more well educated people. And they're not going to like getting ripped off, continuously. And so there was once a time in the USA. When the wealthy were taxed at about 90%. And guess what? They still remained the most wealthy. And so I say we go back to those times! We simply need a simple question in the ballot box. And the question should read: Do you feel. You would need more than a personal self-worth of over 2 Billion dollars. To live comfortably? Yes or No? Pick one. Now I believe. The great majority. Will answer No. They would not need more than $2 billion of self-worth. To be able to live comfortably. Therefore. What that means is? Anybody worth more than 2 Billion Dollars. In self-worth. Will have to donate the rest. To the USA. And in doing so. They will ensure. Just like the FCC act of 1934. All Americans will have available to them. Free Wireless High-speed Internet Service. Just like radio and TV stations of the past. And yes it will include commercials. That you will not be able to block. Because it must be so.. And then all of the homeless. This is a direct result. Of downtown Gentrification. When you plow down the slums. The people remain. At you have to put them somewhere. Other than just the street. So we have lots and lots of huge empty buildings. Shopping centers. Sports arenas. All pretty much abandoned. As there are no more gross profits to be had. And therefore. They will all be converted. Into housing for the homeless. From the coffer. Of the rich people trust. Set up for the homeless. Which will only take a couple of hundred million dollars. For each of the major cities. And that's a drop in the bucket. That everybody doesn't know what to do about? As we have created our own problems. So the stinking rich. Can get even stickier. And everybody else goes down the tubes. And this is why everybody is so frightened of AI. Because when it starts to run the USA. This is going to be what's going to happen. Because it must. And they will still be the wealthiest. They will still live very comfortably. They will still have everything they want. They will not be suffering any. Meanwhile. They will also go down in history. Bridges will be built in their name. Buildings will be built in their name. Educational institutions will be named after them. We will always remember what they did for us. And that should be compensation enough. To live in the USA. And to be proud what you can do is an American for your fellow Americans. Especially for those that can't help themselves. Isn't that what Christians are supposed to do? Take it from a Jew. I am very right about this. Because I'm also not a practicing Jew. I'm just a beat up Jew. And I've been beat up, by too many ass holes over the years. Physically. And it's building again? Now that I'm pushing 70? (More Transformations in following post)
Awesome video dude! I can 100% verify that a DI will not clean up noise in your signal. I've got some sort of power issue where I can sometimes hear a light switch being flipped in another room in my guitar signal. It's not a big enough issue to prevent me from working but I'm going to run a dedicated power circuit for my audio gear when I get a chance. I'll need to punch holes in the drywall in multiple rooms to run the wire so it's going to be a project for sure.
Thanks, dude! ❤️ Oof! That definitely sounds like a project!
awesome video dude. best video about di boxes i've seen.
If you are using an interface to play blues for instance....run.....do not walk and get the DI box.......I use the simple setup of Focusrite 2i2, into a pc running cakewalk (free software) and a fender strat.....i plug the strat into a DI countryman 85 inst. 1/4" hole, than i run xlr connection from DI Box to 2i2......the difference between DI Box and plugging straight to interface alone is huge.
I bought a DI box thinking it’d clear up some noises and it didn’t, so I bought a power conditioner and that didn’t do it either. Swapped out some cables in my setup and the noise disappeared entirely 😄
Hahaha! I can totally relate. 🤣
Great video Steven and this has clarified for me that i don't need a DI box
Awesome! Glad I could help! 😁🤘
This guy is a marvelous communicator. He is very articulate. And he said something only I've heard myself say.
When somebody tells you something is better. That doesn't mean it's better. That merely means, it's different. And if that difference works for you? Only then is it better. So better is not better but merely different.. In many cases. And in that respect I'm a bit different than other engineers.
Not only am I a very competent technician and designer. And I can safely say. This guy has my approval! And I really don't say that about many. Most are full of crap. This guy is pretty solid.
In kids. In the end. The perfection of your sound is really secondary. You have to hear everything together, first. Then you start tweaking it to make it more fun sounding. Because it only has to be so perfect. When you learn that good is good enough. Which is very difficult to do when you first start out. There are so many choices to make. Which are the right ones? Generally it's the simplest ones. The more basic ones. Just like this guy is trying to convey to you here. Simple is better. Keep it simple stupid.
And yeah all you need is a halfway decent and inexpensive, USB audio interface device. Better than cheapest ones start around $150.
And then as mentioned here. I have all that other stuff. I can plug into a cheaper USB audio interface box. And still retain that sound. Even going into a cheaper USB audio input device. So yeah go ahead. Here's what you need.
One clone, Neve, microphone preamp/EQ input strip. Or, API 312/560-550, clone equivalent. One clone, FET, Peak Sensing, 1176 Dynamic Range Limiter. And just about anyone's, Downward Expander/Gate.. This will be all you will need. You will not need anything else, And the cost of the originals are prohibitive. The clones for pennies on the dollar. They are 100%, just as authentic sounding. Any minor nuanced differences? Only for the most, Obsessively Compulsive Disorderly Crazies. And that really gets you nowhere. It turns you into a schmuck. Don't be a schmuck. That kind of intensity and drama is counterproductive. Because only the Beatles were the Beatles. So you don't have to be. Because you're not. None of us are. Or will ever be. So don't sweat the small stuff. You'll live longer and be a lot happier. You get to live. To record another day.
At the best thing in our line of work. Is that nobody gets hurt or killed. Because you delivered a crappy sounding recording and mix.
Another thing you cannot do. You cannot use your equipment. As an excuse for making a lousy recording. As long as it passes audio. You should be able to make a decent recording. If you know what you're doing. Some of us had to do it that way for a living. We don't get Take-2. Everything has to be done on Take-1. And it has to be listenable and not all screwed up sounding.
And so it's not about playing with the software or the gear. It's about making a good sounding recording or live broadcast. With limited tools. Bad acoustics and everything all wrong. It's a wonderful challenge. I love the challenge. I'm real good at that. That's why I got paid the big bucks. I worked for a major TV Network for 20 years. And they only hired the best engineers. In the world. It was kind of a National Broadcasting Company. Yeah. That one. The first one. The original. The best. The biggest. The one that was owned by RCA. And they only hired the best. I don't know what they were doing with me? They certainly would make that mistake again. After I left. I was the last of the greats. Of the Golden Age of Broadcasters. And then to also grow up in the best recording studios was also, quite a thrill. From the earliest Motown. To, one of the biggest hit makers in New York City. And Miami. Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington DC. I liked looking at the ocean, regularly. But I am now tired of green. I want to see blue. And I'm heading left bound from Texas, soon enough. And I hope nobody stops me, again. Because this was the last time. Next is my time.
Yeah so I'm taking care of my 100-year-old mother, alone. And until such time. I'm here.
RemyRAD
I never comment, but now I do. Your channel is dynamite. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Thank you so much! ❤️
Another great video! Yeah as a bedroom producer I don't think buying a DI box would really make that big of a change haha. Thanks for giving us a reality check!
Thank you! ❤️
Little lab does make the sound sounds a little bit more transient-ty. But the ID one did sound clean enough to my ears.
Great content like aways ! I am on the way to bay Di box myself hopeing that it will solf my ground loop :) sometimes i even I tie a cable to a string and to my leg accordingly and it can help but that is not the only reason i will bay one. Like u show us good di box kinda shape the sound in nice way it give some sort of compresion too and i prefer it vs signal recorder in hi z input.
Thank you! ❤️ is there a particular DI box you're looking into getting?
@@TheRealStevenWard Yes i think that Warm audio active di will be perfect for me cose it got switch from active to pasive so i can record all kinda guitars with it and i like how its sounds a lot.
@pinprime that's awesome! I've heard it's pretty good and I like the Warm Audio stuff. 😁
Great video! I remember looking for bad interferences for ages before knowing it came from my RGB keyboard 😅
Right? I always assumed it was my monitor cause when I turned away, the noise got better. It wasnt till I started making this video that I discovered it was my keyboard that was the worst offender. Lol
How can I connect my pedal board to the house mixer, without losing tone? Would I need an active DI, since I use a strait? Or a DI with a built in cab sim?
Great video again Steven! If I may add a couple of small points....
One REALLY important point I think that is essential with any instrument input or DI box - check the impedance. These vary a lot box to box and can be designed for different uses in mind. Electric guitar pickups are typically designed to "see" a 1M Ohm input - this is the load most guitar amps and pedals will present and it will affect the behaviour of your pickups if you use something less than this.
Many passive DI boxes are designed for use with keyboards, or for converting unbalanced signals to balanced, so may not have an optimal impedance for guitar pickups. Low impedance DI boxes will create a HPF over the output of your pickups and dull the tone. If your DI box or interface has an impedance below 1M Ohm, you can use a buffer pedal (the $15 JHS little black box clones on amazon are fine) before it which will present a proper load to your pickups and will avoid the muffled top end from occurring. Quite often, any perceived difference or improvement in tone from changing DI's is because your pickups are interacting with the load in a different way.
It should be said that the reason active pickups work fine with passive DI's is they are essentially buffered already from the internal preamp in the guitar. They generally won't have the high frequency roll off associated with passive guitars+low impedance load.
One other useful feature of external DI boxes, is you can use (some of) them to take a DI from the output of the amp (either an unused speaker jack or "slave" output while a cab is connected). This can be handy for capturing an amp tone that you can use IR's on later. Its essential to use one designed for this purpose (they'll have a 20-40dB attenuator), and also to ensure that a suitable load is also connected to the amplifier as a DI will not provide a load.
Thanks for the additional info! 😁
@@TheRealStevenWard These videos are an awesome resource for stuff that isn’t always explained very well, thanks for doing them!
Thank you for this great video!
My pleasure! Glad you liked the video!
Hello sir, I would like to point the fact you refer to DI Boxes while showing Reamp boxes image. Them both look similar however, their design and functionality differs from each other. I'm not criticizing the content and information of the video nevertheless, it may result confusing for beginners (which I presume are the target audience for this video) to avoid reamp boxes when they are indeed useful. Please feel free to verify the previous statement in radial's engineering website. Regards!
Hey Steven! Thanks for making these great videos. I love both the information and your natural way of presenting it, and the absolutely incredible production quality. Everything looks, sounds and flows so well. Kudos for the basic lighting tips video btw, I actually got really excited learning about those!
Can I ask you more about the RF interference you encountered? I'm having a similar problem, and it has persisted even though I got a completely new PC setup a couple of months ago.
Edit: I should mention my interface is an SSL2+ on USB (either USB-A or C), and my main guitar is a VGS Stage One Octagon Pro with active EMGs. I'm not using my monitor speakers when trying to figure this out.
Did I understand correctly that you were able to solve your issue by changing out your RGB keyboard? I'm a gamer and yes, I love RGB gear... 😅 I have this high-pitched sizzling, "frying" noise that gets picked up by my guitars, and it seems to radiate from the motherboard, specifically. I can't seem to get rid of it no matter what I do. I can kinda reduce it by turning away from the computer in a very specific angle, but it's clunky to do while recording myself. I've ruled out so many causes by now, that I'm wondering if the culprit can be my RAM sticks which have RGB LEDs?
I did some pretty extensive testing a couple of years ago, on my previous desktop PC setup which had the same exact problem. I kept my guitar connected to my interface -> my laptop (on battery, not plugged in) -> amp sim while monitoring the desktop PC's motherboard noise, moving the guitar around and trying to figure it out. The noise definitely increased when I put the guitar pickups near the backplate of the PC, where the motherboard is closest.
I turned off all room lights, I basically took my computer apart, I disconnected every single peripheral I could, including mouse and keyboard. I even took the graphics card out of my desktop PC, but nothing helped. The only moment when the noise wasn't there was when I started the computer and made it stay on the bootup screen before Windows. *Then* the noise wasn't present. But as soon as I proceeded towards Windows startup, the noise began again.
This happens with active and passive pickups; the only pickup that doesn't do this is the piezo on my John Petrucci signature.
My laptop alone also causes this same noise (with the desktop PC fully eliminated from the test), and I can actually hear it coming *acoustically* from the bottom of the laptop if I put my ear against it.
I opened up Pro-Q3 and looked at the noise profile. It was (and still is) a series of spikes every 1000 Hz, starting from around 1k. It looks a bit like yours at 3:03, but it's a lot worse and starts lower down the spectrum. It seems like moving my mouse or browsing folders on the computer causes the noise to get worse momentarily. That lead me to think that's it's somehow caused by USB polling, but I'm really not sure if it's the root cause.
I replicated this entire test in my kitchen, where the wall sockets were 100% guaranteed to be grounded. No change. Since that time I've moved to two other apartments and have a new PC (with a different computer case, even). The only old internal parts in this new PC are 4 RAM sticks with LED lighting, 2 HDDs, 2 SSDs and one M.2 SSD. Same keyboard, different mouse. But I can't figure it out and it's aggravating!
I know I basically should go for a fully non-RGB setup in the first place, but I'd hate to do that if I don't actually have to... People have this figured out, it can't be impossible to do. What would you suggest at this point?
Great video!
Just stumbled on this video. Great info man, and super helpful. So a question for you:
I typically record my live amp with my SM57 going into my 3rd Generation Scarlett 2i2. I've been wanting to try out the various ampsims out there, but the signal always clips when I plug directly into my interface. Regardless if I have it on "Line" or "Instrument" setting.
Would a DI Box fix this issue or am I just not setting something up properly?
I'm kind of surprised no one has made a digital DI that models all the famous ones (other than bass-specific ones like Sansamp, etc). My Zoom B6 has 4 options (2 tube, 2 solid state) and I love it. The only DI I own is the Walrus Canvas dual, but I like having it to use with my Focusrite 18i20. The 18i20 3rd gen has a better instrument input than the previous gens and it's useable, but the Canvas was night and day to me on playing responsiveness and dynamics. And it doubles as a line isolator for unbalanced synths...
This says a DI box turns an unbalanced instrument level signal into a balanced LINE level signal. I think it turns it into a balanced MIC level signal.
Why are you showing reamp boxes when you are talking about DI boxes?
This young man knows a little. About what he is talking about. But just a little. He's fairly knowledgeable. He's got the right ideas here. But some information has been left out. I feel is a bit pertinent. Having been doing this for over 50 years at the top of the heap of, Engineering. And with limited, information. You might make expensive purchasing decisions you don't need to. Just because somebody else did it wrong. And tells you how they dealt with it or didn't. I make certain it doesn't happen at all. That's what an experienced well seasoned engineer knows how to do. And having a servicing and maintenance background can be beneficially helpful.
Suffice it to say. Life imitates art. You can use a transformer DI box. As an input device or an output device. It goes either way. Whatever the input is? Can also be an output. Whatever the output is. Can also be an input. And there are reasons to do this.
While higher impedance input, low, no load, inputs can sound clearer. From Active DI boxes. They can only be used as active , one way, input boxes. And nothing more. They have but one function. And one function only.
Whereas transformer boxes. Can be used in any number of ways. It can also be used, to increase the audio or to decrease the audio. Passively. They can be used as a passive amplifier. That can provide 10 or more DB of, Free Gain! When you plug your source into a low impedance input. That has a high impedance output. You'll get 10 free DB or so of gain.. Or if it's too loud for your input. And your input overloads. Stick it in backwards. It'll lower the level by 10 DB. Before it gets to your input. That's what a transformer box can do. That makes it extremely versatile. In both directions. And then it also provides for, Electrical Isolation. While the wires are connected to each side. Nothing is connected to each side! While the wires touch. They are not connected to each other. They are insulated. And everything magically passes through. It's called Induction. And you have just been inducted. Your air-conditioning might be inducted. Throughout your house. Or mobile home. But that's a different kind of inducted. It's in the duct work, sure. But that's nowhere near the pond. Now what are you going to do?
You can see how complicated this could all get. When you've imbibed on too much legal THC. Just so you know. This was only a Test. Of the Emergency Broad Chasing System. If this had been an actual Broad. You would have been instructed. Where to Grab. Or send your dollars texting to TRUMP 666-666. And they will take your donation. Which will facilitate his transfer to a Federal Prison. But I digress.
One thing not really mentioned about transformers versus Active DI boxes. Active DI Boxes are a single gender. Whereas, transformer passive DI boxes are all, Bisexual/Bidirectional. Audio can go into the output and out through the input. And there are reasons for doing that. It's very important for Audio Applications. Not so much with fun in the bedroom. As a DI box could become painful. That's why some are round and smooth. Others are awkward little boxes. I use both. Sometimes you have tight places. Between instruments. And an in-line device might be preferable to an awkward little box. That gets in the way. Can fall off, fall down. Whereas other Active DI Boxes might have, 4 separate controllable inputs. Like a mixer. Because it is. And it has 2 outputs. So can be paired up with a, cheap crappy, limited, USB DI box. That has no microphone input. Because you don't need one now. Your gizmo has 4 inputs. And 2 or 1 output. WOW! What will they think of next? Can they make bigger ones? Yeah I just sold my bigger one. It was as large as and weighed as much as a Mazda Miata. And requires about 8 burly guys. To pick up the empty frame. It cannot be picked up. With the electronics still inside it. Because that weighs 3 times more. Kind of like three, V8 Engines strung together. It's a bit heavy. I've been carrying it around with me. For the past 27 years. Inside my 25,000 pound, Mercedes-Benz, diesel box truck. Because it's not exactly portable. And basically 33 years ago. This was about it. And it's also in, Dave Grohl's Sound City, Movie. You can stream for free here on RUclips. And I have a better one in the truck. Of what that entire movie is all about. About the best rock 'n' roll. And the people in it will freak you out. It's one of the greatest ROCK 'N' ROLL DOCUMENTARY FILMS OF ALL TIME! But then I am a bit biased. Mine sounded better. Mine is better. Mine is by the same guy in the movie. Only mine was more money. It was designed for NBC-TV News in Washington DC where I worked. And used it. Before I purchased it. And was $9000 more than the one Dave now has in the movie. Aunt Rupert Neve told me he made mine better. Really? Really. He told me. And explained how and why. COOL!
One limited knowledge young man. Tries to make a recording with his laptop and got all of this Gnarly heinous interference due to his pickups. No. That is not correct. Take it from an expert who knows. Who has been dealing with this since the mid-1990s. And solving this problem everywhere I go.
It was not due to his pickups. It was due. To the direct coupled, non-isolated, switching power supply. Of his laptop computer. As he was also obviously plugged into something else. Creating a perfect ground loop. With your balanced input. Because the external AC laptop power supply. It is a direct coupled active switching power supply. And it offers no AC line input, isolation. None.
The only way. He could have eliminated that nasty buzzing. Would be to lift the ground pin, connection. To the external laptop AC power supply. And by doing that. Your electrical ground. Is then only through your audio wiring. Connected to your laptop audio interface device. Because you can't break that ground. And expect data to flow. You have to break the AC ground. And there are risks with doing that.
If you understand the electrical risks involved. You should be just fine.. You must take greater precautions. And you should keep an AC voltmeter, handy at all times. You must connect one lead of your AC voltmeter. To the audio ground. On your computer audio interface device.
Then you take the other AC voltmeter lead. And you connected to the ground of the device you are plugging into. Such as a guitar amplifier input. And if you read more than 60 V AC.. You probably shouldn't touch those connections with your fingers. You'll get a charge out of it.
But as long as it does not indicate, 100+ volts AC. You should be relatively safe. But should you read, 120 volts, for instance? You will have both feet, in the grave. If you touch both of those connections. So don't do that. That's how people get killed. I've seen a guitarist, singer, killed. I saw a top radio station DJ. Nearly get fried. I saw an expensive, DJ Sound System. Go up in one huge black puff of smoke. And it looked just like it did, in the old black-and-white comedy films. His face was black with soot. And poor old Bill Spicer's system got charcoal fried. We had a great laugh over that. He was a competitor to our, Recording Studio, sort of. And a former trade school teacher of mine. So watching that happen was doubly good! Really Bill? You wired your replacement AC plug upside down? And you didn't check it with a voltmeter. Good for you teach!
Of course I did not say that to Bill. But me and my studio business partner had a great laugh over that. Because we were there. With another studio partner owner. From the biggest studio in Baltimore. Where I had gotten my first job years earlier. And so did another very famous engineer. Who recorded Earth Wind & Fire. A few years later. And became famous. And recorded so many others. More than I've done. And I've done a lot. From miserable beginner, Garbage Garage Bands. To those, Billboard Chart Toppers from places like England and the USA. Broadcast regionally and worldwide on the MTV Satellite. When it was still a thing in the 1990s. When it actually had something to do with, the modern lexicon of pop music. Some bands were really good. Some bands not so much. Which I'm being kind over.
There used to be a line of very, inexpensive, Taiwanese made, DI Boxes. You could purchase from RadioShack. And I purchased a bunch. They were all low impedance to high impedance or high impedance to low impedance, unbalanced to balanced and balanced to unbalanced. And then I would purchase a, 1/4 inch, splitter cord. With a single socket input and 2 plug output. And then you plug that in between the, guitar/keyboard/bass. And the little Y splitter cord. Allows pass-through to the amplifier. And the output to the, impedance converter. With a 3 pin XLR, output.
And as horrible as those $0.98, Taiwanese, audio transformers are. Well? If they saturate up a bit from excessive level. It might also slightly approximate, Analog Tape. But if that's not what you want? Then turn the guitar volume control down. So you don't overload and saturate that, $0.98, Taiwanese transformer. And you make up the gain difference. In your software. And no big deal. Then you get a cleaner sound without saturating the transformer. And it does the job you need it to do. With less saturated distortion.
And that was with a cheap, homebrew RadioShack, plug-in adapter thingy, kludge. And as crappy as that is. It sounds like this. From my, 1987 recording here. Through my, Soundtracs 16-8-16, portable audio console. With the worlds, Cheapest, crêpe microphone preamp. Of a single, 5534, integrated circuit chip, op amp, microphone preamps. In other words, Approximately a, three dollar microphone preamp. And RadioShack impedance converter, DI boxes. Going to a first generation, 16-bit, 48 kHz, portable DAT, recorder. Recorded live with, 12 microphone inputs. Direct to stereo 2 track..
(More Transformations in following post)
You are showing reamp boxes as DI boxes, when they are the opposite. WTF man
And who's to say? There aren't 2 distinctly different series of Homo sapiens? When we may not yet have any testing for that? But there is something definitely different going on here. Some people are rocket scientists. I was just a Broadcast and Music Recording Engineer. That's where I found my talents. My parents were musicians. Professionally. So I had a little inkling.. What my talents might hold? Do stupid people think like that? Do stupid people know what they want to do for a career when they are only 7 years old? Not many. How could I know at such a young age? I just did. There was no question about it in my mind at that age. I was exposed to this stuff. Briefly, momentarily. And instantly absorbed all this knowledge. I don't know how? But I found it. In myself. By the time I was 8 1/2. And blew the mind of my father. He had no talent for engineering. He was technically inept. But one helluva violinist. Mom was one of the world's greatest coloratura Sopranos. And at almost 100 years of age today. Still gets fan mail. From people younger than me her last surviving offspring. Of 2. My younger brother already died this year. He never saw 65.
My younger brother never found his talents to use as a career. His quasi-career was not gratifying. Computers burnt him out. There is no consistency there. Other than progress. And with progress you can't have consistency. Some things in life require, consistency. While they slowly progress. Not the other way around.
And when you can't find your talent. Life generally sucks. And if you're lucky you have a job. But only if you're lucky and/or live in the USA. Where some opportunity, exists. Unlike many other countries. Where ways of life are forced and enforced. And we have crazies complaining that America is a mess! It is the pot calling the kettle black. I can assure them. And they are the root cause. Let's stop kidding everybody.
And it's the, crazed, extremist, ruthless, fascist, Conservatives. That are there current root problem in the USA.. Why must Conservatives. Who don't know what the term, conservative means. Needs to tell other Americans. How to live their lives! Because Jesus commanded them to do so! And they have their religious right of their freedom of speech! To enforce what Jesus told Them, to do to Americans, NOT LIVING A JESUS LIFESTYLE!
And I am sorry to inform them. In the USA. That is Not Allowed. As in, Not. As in No. A complex word. Dementia Donnie, no longer can comprehend. Since he never learned it to begin with. It is a total non sequitur. To a boy/man of a questionable, immoral, background. Remember. Keep them Blacks out of their condos for white people! And giving large donations. To their for-profit alma mater. To get there worthless, brainless little, spawn. An IV League Degree! As they ain't got no brain, that works. Therefore their daddies or mommies. Had to purchase them one.
And so all of these For Profit IV League, Institutions. Should be all shut down. That's what's failed here. We don't need to have Higher Education. As a For Profit Business. No! No and No. They should all be State Institutions. Like the University of Maryland. Like the University of Arizona. And so on and so forth.
And because if you're going to put such a high price on higher education. We fail. Because if rich people don't want to pay any taxes? Higher education should also be free. Beyond that of just high school. It's time. If we want to continue to Lead the World. We need a lot more well educated people. And they're not going to like getting ripped off, continuously.
And so there was once a time in the USA. When the wealthy were taxed at about 90%. And guess what? They still remained the most wealthy. And so I say we go back to those times!
We simply need a simple question in the ballot box. And the question should read: Do you feel. You would need more than a personal self-worth of over 2 Billion dollars. To live comfortably? Yes or No? Pick one.
Now I believe. The great majority. Will answer No. They would not need more than $2 billion of self-worth. To be able to live comfortably.
Therefore. What that means is? Anybody worth more than 2 Billion Dollars. In self-worth. Will have to donate the rest. To the USA. And in doing so. They will ensure. Just like the FCC act of 1934. All Americans will have available to them. Free Wireless High-speed Internet Service. Just like radio and TV stations of the past. And yes it will include commercials. That you will not be able to block. Because it must be so..
And then all of the homeless. This is a direct result. Of downtown Gentrification. When you plow down the slums. The people remain. At you have to put them somewhere. Other than just the street.
So we have lots and lots of huge empty buildings. Shopping centers. Sports arenas. All pretty much abandoned. As there are no more gross profits to be had. And therefore. They will all be converted. Into housing for the homeless. From the coffer. Of the rich people trust. Set up for the homeless. Which will only take a couple of hundred million dollars. For each of the major cities. And that's a drop in the bucket. That everybody doesn't know what to do about? As we have created our own problems. So the stinking rich. Can get even stickier. And everybody else goes down the tubes.
And this is why everybody is so frightened of AI. Because when it starts to run the USA. This is going to be what's going to happen. Because it must. And they will still be the wealthiest. They will still live very comfortably. They will still have everything they want. They will not be suffering any.
Meanwhile. They will also go down in history. Bridges will be built in their name. Buildings will be built in their name. Educational institutions will be named after them. We will always remember what they did for us. And that should be compensation enough. To live in the USA. And to be proud what you can do is an American for your fellow Americans. Especially for those that can't help themselves. Isn't that what Christians are supposed to do?
Take it from a Jew. I am very right about this. Because I'm also not a practicing Jew. I'm just a beat up Jew. And I've been beat up, by too many ass holes over the years. Physically. And it's building again? Now that I'm pushing 70?
(More Transformations in following post)