Obviously, we can not always (especially at night) mic an amp. So I want to share my personal experience for recording DI guitars, or your amp output into the interface.

First, when I started DI recording I could not get a tight record, and most of the time, despite very low buffer setting, the guitar track was offtime and not in sync with the Drums. I did not know why during the record I perceive that I am in sync with the music, but when I played back the record it was not my desired result. So I usually used to postpone my guitar recording to mic an amp later.

Finally, I found a solution for that When recording just put off your headphones (the left one) and play with the actual sound you hear from the strings. Surprisingly, recording this way results tight guitar takes.

 

Last edited: Jun 3, 2018

hi. or you can use track delay for the recorded take.

 

Yes but how much?

 

I am not sure, but simply use an interface with direct monitoring? And record clean?
If the latency is to big for tight playing?
The distance from your strings to your ear is roughly about what 40cm? 343 meter per second ÷ 1000 = 0,343 meter per milli second = 34,3 cm per milli second. So the true sound you listen with 1 ear has a latecy of ~1 - 2 ms. So you have to deal with 2 different latencies if you are tracking ?

I think i dont get your tip right.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jun 3, 2018

@metaller, have you got any kind of mixer available?
The reason I ask is I wanted to share my solution for this problem.
I record everything DI, even if it's to be miced later on by reamping (which I'll share as well if you like) This gives me great flexibility to shape the guitar tone to suit the mix rather than the sound I need when I'm playing.
I run guitar into either a pedal or effect which has two outputs. For example a stereo flanger. This pedal stays bypassed! One output of this pedal goes to the recording interface or through whatever chain I record DI's through. The other side goes through whichever effects I'd like to have while playing. Usually my rack or an amp that has a line out. I run this into a mixer along with the output of the sound interface , and monitor through the headphone output of the mixer.
When I record this way, I have never had issue with the track syncing to my playing.

 

The latency of string sound reaching your ear is not important, as you have practiced all of your life with this latency available so you are accustomed to it.
Maybe my reason for this method is not logical, but it works! As I said, surprisingly. Maybe just the feeling of hearing the guitar sound in the headphones is weird for me!

 

Last edited: Jun 4, 2018

Unfortunately, I do not have any pedal, reampbox, and splitter.
Splitter is not useful for me because when recording my amp output, the sound only goes through output and the cabinet gets silent.
I tried reamping the line output of my audio interface, but I can't get a good metal sound, I think the Z of these signals is different, and because I don't have a reamp box, the result is not that much good.

 

Sounds like the headphone trick is the best you can manage at the moment.
And yes, most audio interfaces don't have correct output impedance for an amp input. I use an ART MPA Pro II tube preamp for these duties. Very nice preamp that handles the splitting (has an instrument level input as well as line in and XLR in) and has output to XLR (to go to the recording interface) and line (to go to your guitar monitoring chain/amp. My guitarist bought one because he liked the sound of his guitar through it so much when he had it hooked to his amp. Kind of like an extra gain section.

 

Try recording short one note staccato notes dead-on the beat. Zoom into that note and measure how many "ticks/samples/milliseconds" the note is "off" of the grid line. Notice your latency. Setup hotkeys to move audio/midi objects 1ms to the right and 1 ms to the left. Adjust your track appropriately.

I like experimenting moving tracks left or right by milliseconds. It can give you different textures and feels. For example, the snare drum is a good one to move. Push it forward or lay it back. I like to do it w/ vox too! Moving vox a bit early really gives the impression of more pseudo-energy (same w/ anything with a slower attack). Pushing trap vox way back (late) can create ambient uncomfortable type of thing - I guess that's better for rhythmic vox.

Pads and strings can use lots of move to the left too.

Those hotkeys have always come in handy for me!

Recording guitars can be a headache

 

Last edited: Jun 4, 2018

Thanks for your explanation. I should check out that

 

Very interesting Thanks for this idea. I will try to see if I can move the track to appropriate time.