Never Underestimate the power of a DI track.
Never Underestimate the power of a DI track.
The title should say it all. The DI is you friend for all recording situations for a multitude of reasons. We’ll dive into those here in a bit but first let me back-track a little and do a brief explanation of what a DI track is.
A DI as we use it in audio (which stands for Direct Injection) is a pure clean unaffected audio signal (meaning not touched by an amplifier or any other form of audio processing outside of the instrument itself) from whatever source you are playing. You can take a DI signal from things like keyboards, samplers, guitars, and basses. Now, there is a lot more to a DI that branches beyond that brief explanation, but in its simplicity that is what a DI track is.
How exactly do you get a DI signal? Good question. The vast majority of your interfaces have some sort of DI input right on the interface itself. You just plug up your instrument and you are good to go. Another option is actually purchasing a DI box which is a device that you plug your instrument into and it turns that Instrument Level signal into a Mic Level signal that you can then plug into any pre-amp and then into your computer. The cool thing about DI boxes is that they also have a Thru option, so you can still take that clean DI signal but you also have the ability to continue that signal on through to an amplifier. It’s kind of like a 2 in 1 deal where you put in one audio signal from your instrument, and it gives you two separate outputs of that signal.
DI’s have a wide variety of uses for both live sound and in the recording world. For example in a live situation, DI’s are used for a bunch for things like keyboards and bass guitars. You can DI your audio signal directly from your instrument into the front of house mixing console without ever needing an amplifier to generate its sound.
You can do the exact same thing in the recording world as well. You can record a DI signal directly from the instrument without having to touch an amplifier for it’s sound. With things like keyboards, synths and samplers that’s all well and good because these instruments create every portion of their tone from the instrument itself. However, with instruments such as guitars and basses the tone for those are a direct correlation of the instrument itself and the amplifier that it is being played through. Well, if you get the sound you are after from combining the instrument and the amp, why record a DI signal? If you just do that you are leaving out the amplifier, which is a huge component in the instruments tone. Valid point. In the recording world we often utilize both, meaning we will take a DI signal from your guitar AND record your amplifier as well.
So why would we record both a DI signal along with the signal from the amplifier? Editing. For things like guitars and basses we edit our performances based on the transients, or when we play our notes. By having a pure DI track recorded with our amplified track we have a much more accurate representation of where transients are that are not clouded by amp distortion, reverb, or whatever other sort of crazy FX you want to throw on your guitar and bass signal. And with that clean DI track we can now edit to our little audio hearts content to create a perfect performance.
The other big reason for taking a DI is the ability to re-amp. Arguably the most popular form of re-amping is in-the-box re-amping. This is where you take a DI from your guitar or bass, record it to your computer, and use an amp simulator to artificially create what amp sound you are after. This is a practice I have found myself doing quite often when working with musicians who are working on a budget. By utilizing an amp simulator with your recording software, you don’t have to take the time to set up an actual amplifier, hook up microphones, get levels, set up head phone mixes, yada yada yada… Instead, you just plug up and go, and with a few clicks of a mouse you can dial in a pretty awesome guitar or bass tone. The other added bonus is that you are not limited to just one specific amp sound. As I just stated, with a few clicks of a mouse you can change your entire guitar set-up to a completely different sound. This is a pretty nice feature to have, and you can really take the time to dial in your guitar tone to fit specific songs.
The other form of re-amping is to take that DI signal recorded in your computer, play it back out your computer and through an actual amplifier, and re-record that amplifier back into your computer. To go into a little more detail on how this works, let’s take a DI guitar track that you recorded into your computer. You set the output of that track to come out an output in your interface not being used. Now remember, that signal coming out of your interface is Line Level, and we need to get that to instrument level. To do that you can pick up a little box called a Re-Amp box. This is designed to take Line Level signals, and change it back to Instrument level. You can also achieve the same thing using a DI box in reverse, but just be careful of your audio level coming out of your computer. So once the Line Level signal coming out of your computer hits the Re-Amp Box your signal is now at Instrument Level, and you can plug that signal into whatever amplifier you like to re-record your guitar part. Some practical applications this is useful for is, lets say you have your guitar or bass player in the studio, but you want them to play through an amp that you don’t have in the studio at that moment. You can record the DI signal to capture their performance. Then once you get the amp you want, you can re-amp the DI signal through the amplifier, and re-record the performance without the musician being there. Another example is taking that one performance, and re-amp it through multiple amplifiers to create some awesome sonic texture.
To make a long story short, taking a DI of your instruments is awesome. It can improve your recordings from both a technical and artistic stand points, which is going to make any project easier and more fun. I hope this was a good little bit of information, and hopefully gets you to think about DI’s in a new light.
Until the next time…
The Neumann U87
The Neumann U87
Ah yes, anyone who has even the slightest bit of microphone knowledge knows of the Neumann U87. It’s quite possibly one of the most widely used studio microphones world wide, and for good reason. For me, the U87 is one of four go-to vocal mics in my collection. I’ve used it from metal screamers to gospel singers. It just takes the vocal and puts it in its own place in the mix, cutting through whatever else is there. You remember the Mario Brothers games where when you got the star you had this force field around you and nothing could hurt you and you could go through anything and come out unharmed, alive and well? That’s what the U87 does for vocals. It just wraps the human voice in this U87 force field and cuts through the mix as clean and pristine as it can be made. Aside from vocals one of my new favorite uses for the U87 is for bass guitar. Yup, I said it… I like my U87 on bass cabs. The trick… throw it in omni. By throwing the mic (or any condenser mic for that matter) in omni you are eliminating any chance of proximity effect and low-end build up and thusly you get this amazing tone from your bass cab out of the U87. In conclusion the U87 is a pricy microphone and that I will never argue against, but what it can do in a studio is well worth the price of admission.
State of the Music Industry
State of the Music Industry
** This blog was written mid way through 2009 and so it doesn’t include any 2009 sales numbers. I will be sure to add them later. Even though it is not 100% up to date, the trends talked about are more true now in 2010 then they are in 2009, so I feel its just as powerful of a blog now as it was in 2009. Enjoy. **
The music industry is dying! !! What are we as producers, engineers, and musicians to do?!? For one, we can’t buy into the hype behind the claims of the music industry dying. In fact, quite the opposite is true. The music industry is thriving, but in ways that it hasn’t previously thrived before, but more on that in another blog to come later. So why then all of these claims of a dying music industry? Well, because a big aspect of the music industry is in fact, for lack of a better term, dying and is on its way out. CD sales over the past 10ish years have reached an all-time incredible high followed by a blood curdling low with the sales numbers continuing to plummet yearly. And so, according to major record labels who’s success is primarily dependent on record sales, yes indeed the music industry is failing, or rather the business of selling physical shinny disks with audio imprinted business is on its way out. Let’s take a look at these numbers, because to be honest it is pretty astounding.
In 2007 physical album sales fell around 19%. Ouch. In 2008, physical albums fell an additional 20%, equating to just 362 million albums sold. Even bigger ouch. Ok, I know what you are thinking; 362 million albums sold sounds like a lot. Let me throw this tasty little fact your way then. The most dominate year in physical album sales was in 2000, cranking out well over 940 million albums sold. Since then, album sales have dropped a staggering 54% to the 362 million in 2008. Lets bring this even more in perspective. In 2000, ‘N Sync dropped their “No Strings Attached” album which was certified double-platinum after just one week on the sales shelves. For those of you who are a stranger to what platinum means numbers wise, it’s the equivalents to 1 million copies sold, thus being double platinum certified means over 2 million copies sold for ‘N Sync in their albums debut week. In 2008, the highest selling albums were Lil Wayne’s “The Carter III” with 2.87 million copies sold, Coldplay’s “Viva la Vida or Dean and All His Friends” with 2.14 million copies sold, and Taylor Swift with 2.11 million copies sold. Lets ponder this for a moment. It took Taylor Swift 365 days to accumulate just over two million album sales. It took ‘N Sync only 7 do accomplish almost the same thing in 2000. Crazy.
The proof is in the numbers ladies and gentlemen. CD sales are on their way out, thus making the life spans of what major labels we have left shorter and shorter with each passing year. But let’s be honest, CD’s won’t ever die out. There are plenty of die-hards like myself who love going to the record store and perusing though the rows of CD and getting in your car and cursing out loud as you try to get the damn wrapper off and throw the brand new shinny disk into you car stereo and pulling out the CD inserts to read the lyrics and check out the photos. So yes, CD sales won’t ever completely die out, but will they ever reach the volumes they once had 10 years ago. Not likely. Let’s just say you have a better chance of hitting 21 in blackjack when you already have two kings in the hole.
“But I thought you said in the beginning that the music industry is thriving? You are a lying douche bag!” I did indeed say the music industry was thriving, and I stand by my word. Yes, CD sales have drastically dropped, but times are changing my friend. We are in a digital era and it’s beginning to take the lead roll. In 2003 it was reported that 19 million songs were purchased as downloads. In 2007, internet sales tapped in at over 1.4 billion songs downloaded. 19 million to over 1.4 billion in 4 years time. Incredible. 2008’s top selling digital artist was break-out star Rihanna with 9.94 million tracks sold. Let’s do a little math here. There were 15 tracks on the album, divide that by the 9.94 million singles sold, and her digital single sales equivalents to roughly 662,000 albums sold. Not bad at all. In an even stranger twist of events, vinyl sales rang in at 1.88 million units sold. “Vinyl you say? I didn’t even know they still made them!” Yes indeed they are still cranking out the vinyl. In fact, the 1.88 million sold in 2008 was the highest recorded vinyl sale since 1991. The ring leaders being Radiohead with 26,000 vinyl sales of their album “In Rainbows,” The Beatles “Abbey Road” counting 16,500 in vinyl sales, and Guns ‘N Roses “Chinese Democracy” rounding up the top three with 13,600 vinyl sales. It’s time to dust off the old Victrola
Feeling a little better now about the continued forward march of the music industry? Maybe this little bit of info will help. In the last 7 years the amount of titles released per year has almost tripled in numbers. So where is all of this new music coming from? Where is it going? What is it being used for? Is it making money? Amazing questions to be asking… which I will be happy to answer in blogs to come. I think I’ve given you enough food for thought for now. If nothing else, I hope I’ve given you some fun facts and ultimately a renewed faith in the prosperity that can indeed be found in the world of music.
Until the next time…
Chad Helmonds
Owner/Producer/Engineer
Black Apple Studios/Productions
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