How to lose the fizz?

[necrophonic]

Hi all,

I'm currently trying to record a DI from my amp (via THD Hotplate along the way as the amp has no direct DI) to harddisk.

The problem that I'm coming across (and have always had no matter what amp / guitar / pc I'm using is that the distorted sounds are coming through "fizzy".

What would be a good remedy? I've played around with EQ etc but to no avail. Am I needing a pre-amp (like the Behringer Mic200 sort of thing) between the amp and the desk to warm it back up or is there something else I can do?

Thanks!

[iaresee]

The THD Hotplate is a great power soak but it's a lousy direct recording solution. You need something that mimics the inductive part of the speaker cabinet and the whole speaker cone moving air part. If you have the means try one of these:

http://www.palmergear.com/pdi03.shtml

This is specifically designed to be used for silent recording and sounds fantastic straight into a mixing board.

[necrophonic]

Thanks for that.

So that one would work in the place of the hotplate providing load to the amp?

[berarduur]

Originally posted by necrophonic
Thanks for that.

So that one would work in the place of the hotplate providing load to the amp?

Yep

It sounds so bad because when recording you get all frequencies; speakers tend to be imperfect and lose bass and treble; when you remove those bands (see it as a mountain) you get a decent representation of a speaker, thus called a speaker simulator

[iaresee]

Originally posted by necrophonic
Thanks for that.

So that one would work in the place of the hotplate providing load to the amp?
First time I tried a PDI-03 in the studio it blew my mind. You don't need your cabinet to record, just your amp head. You go Speak Out on Amp -> PDI-03 -> XLR out on PDI-03 -> Mixing Console.

I am currently seeking a used PDI-03 and willing to put up to $400+shipping depending on it's condition if anyone out there is selling one...

[necrophonic]

I have to see if I can find one of those anywhere in the UK :)

[Moo]

You might just need to turn it down

[necrophonic]

I've tried that.

I've tried backing off the gain / distortion but then the sound just loses the crunch so there's no real point.

Ultimately it's losing the warmth. I've tried EQing down the upper end etc but it just ends up sounding flat and muddy (and still just as sterile, just not as sharp!)

I think some kind of speaker sim / valve preamp/di is probably the way to go.

This is only for a small scale home recording setup so I don't want to be shelling out a lot of money at this stage (but I still want at least a decent sound!)

[bad smell]

If your recording program has a good EQ or a lowpass filter, you can use that.

You can piggyback two cheaper EQ's and cut the highest freq all the way while boosting the mids and adjusting the rest to taste. I did this with a mxr10band and it worked great before I got my new digitech with a direct to mixer mode and speaker sims. (BTW, the digitech option only costs $99)

[necrophonic]

I may have to look into that one - thanks!

[necrophonic]

Thanks all.

I've pulled out my old Digitech RP20 and I'm running it's amp sim in the recording chain now.

Definitely sounding a whole lot better!

It's not ideal as obviously I'm having to run it through the entire unit (albeit with everything on bypass) so I'm probably losing something along the way but it's still a lot more "real" now :)