Direct Shootout...
Over the years, I’ve tried a number of solutions to find the right “direct” solution for plugging in my electric guitar at my church and for recording direct, which would give me the right kind of amp emulation. Often I have found that micing my amp just isn't a realistic option - often because we are trying to keep the stage volume under control, or I am recording in my house late at night while the kids are asleep... and I can't push the amp the way I'd like... So, I have gathered a number of well known pedals, DIs etc I've tried when recording/performing direct. Unfortunately I wasn't able to include a number of other reputable players, such as the Johnson J Station, Vox Tonelab, newer POD models, Axe FX etc… But I hope this can be a helpful resource for some out there who are wondering how these compare. I am sure there are a lot of other guitarists (especially in church worship bands) who have also been trying to find the right direct solution.
For the recordings, I would set the unit to emulate a clean amp and use the same overdrive (except where noted) to see how the unit responded to overdrive. I used a nice tube screamer type overdrive, the Visual Sound Route 808, with the drive and tone at 12:00. I just played the same simple progression for each take, switching between clean and overdrive a few times to help get a better comparison. Some of the samples sound quite similar.
I also included the Vox Pathfinder amp, which boasts a "filtered line out for direct recording." I thought I would see how it holds up to the other competition.
Guitar: Godin Exit 22
(with single coils: using neck and mid pickup position)
Recorded: Direct to computer via Mackie Satellite
To hear the sample click on the titles below:
Behringer G100 with cabinet modeling
Digitech Bad Monkey “mixer out” with CIT modeling, Route 808 overdrive
Digitech Bad Monkey “mixer out” with CIT modeling, BM overdrive
Hughes and Kettner Red Box classic “combo”
Hughes and Kettner Red Box classic “4X12”
Line 6 POD 2.0 Blackface (Fender Deluxe Reverb)
Webmaster: pete justine. Contact: laughing_sally@yahoo.com
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Brief Notes:
For what it's worth, here are a few of my observations...
The Sansamp Liverpool was able to dial in similar tones to the POD. The main noticeable difference for me was a little more compression and clarity in the Sansamp. These two have the added bonus of eq, which helped tailor the sound a little more than the competition. The Liverpool is analog modeling as opposed to the digital modeling of the Line 6 POD. It has a sweet "character" knob which sweeps through different tones and amp characteristics (such as Beatle-esque clean Vox all the way to Queen's Brian May thick Vox tone), as well as level, low, mid, high and drive knobs. The cabinet emulation is not able to be turned off, but I find it sounds very nice through my amps and the PA. I usually use this live right now - I like how it sounds, and it fits on my pedal board.
The POD has a ton to offer... you are probably familiar with all of the bells and whistles. This is just the old school 2.0 model, but it still offers lots of amp types, cabinets and effects. And the cabinet emulation can be turned off as well. I thought it sounded very nice - those Line 6 guys do some good work. I have used the POD when playing live for years, and on several CDs as well. When using this live I usually set it to the clean Blackface setting, and run my pedals through it.
The Bad Monkey is a great inexpensive overdrive pedal. It boasts Digitech’s CIT cabinet modeling through it's "mixer" output. When recording through the "mixer out" jack however, I found it seemed to lack some of the clarity and punch compared with the others. Just seemed a little darker, but could still work in a pinch if needed (especially with some eq at the mixer). But Digitech really had a great idea to include that jack on a pedal. For sample one I used the same overdrive as with the others: the Visual Sound Route 808. For the other sample I just engaged the Bad Monkey's own overdrive to see how it sounded.
Note: According to Digitech, the CIT modeling has been developing and changing some over the years. I have tried some of their other X Series pedals, and the CIT modeling sounded very different. So, depending on the pedal and when it was made, the processing may vary.
The Behringer Ultra G actually did better than I expected. It can work as just a straight ahead DI, or has a handy button to engage a 4X12 cabinet emulation. It seems well built, and has some good features for a very reasonable price. The only problem I have with it is reliability. At my church it has been known to pick up radio signals, or introduce a pretty loud hiss when the cabinet circuitry is engaged. But at my house for this recording, it held up quite nicely.
The Hughes and Kettner red box classic has gotten a lot of great reviews, and I thought it did a good job. It has the ability to switch between a combo (2X12) setting and a 4X12 setting. Very slight differences in this comparison. I believe it was designed to work from an amp's line out, which would help add a little of the amp's characteristics and eq - all without having to mic it up. Only bummer is that the cabinet emulation can not be turned off. But it is very well built, and nice and compact.
The Vox pathfinder is actually a sweet little amp that boasts a “filtered” line out for running direct. I thought it sounded really good when clean, with the nice Vox’y chime, but didn’t do as well for filtering out the high end fizziness of overdrives. Not bad for a line out on an inexpensive amp.
