Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fall 2018 Gas
quote: | Originally posted by SynthNinja
Here's what a Nick said, over at Sweetwater.
In general, you will not be wrong to put a DI after a synth. It may not always be necessary. If you have a line level input on your converters/interface and the keyboard is truly outputting line level, you should be fine. That said, you may want to verify the output levels, as manufacturers sometimes allow more variance to specs than one might assume.
If you just want to be safe and KNOW that your levels are always going to be correct, then you could get in the habit of using DIs. So long as the DI is 'worthy', you won't hurt the signal by doing it that way, and you probably will improve things.
I hope this clears it up. Your friend is giving you solid advice, but it's not quite as cut and dry as he's presenting it. At a certain point in this field, it's less about 'right or wrong' and more about whether it sounds good.
Thank you,
Nick Schenkel
I just realized there are virtual Pre Amps, ima try those out first on my hardware see if like the color and saturation it brings with demo
Anyhow, the Mopho arrived and my next purchase will be UAD PCie Duo or Quad used on Reverb. |
Few things. He says "if you have line level inputs on your interface".
Aside from some niche Mic only interfaces, I've never come across an interface that DOESN'T have line level inputs. It's kinda the point.
Secondly, variance in line level outputs can vary between manufacturers but IME, it's minimal and that's why we have gain staging and it's nothing you can't compensate for in either the synth's output or the software for the interface or the DAW.
And thirdly, my argument for not using a DI is that you're adding another link in the signal path and unless use fairly expensive DI's for every single input, they're going to add noise of some form. It would cost several hundred if not thousands to have all pristine DI boxes for all the I/O on an Ensemble.
Now my argument is that adding the noise and/pr spending all this money to compensate for what might be a tiny variance (if there's actually any at all) in line level isn't a good decision or use of money.
Sure if you're using a mix of original 70's vintage synths, some cheap Korg chaos boxes and then current Roland Synths say, you have more possible variance between line levels but using normal digital synths and drum machines, there's really no point introducing an extra signal path step, nor the extra expense of DI boxes.
DI boxes are definitely needed in a live situation or in a studio where you have tons of lines going simultaneously and an endless possibility of combinations of kit from all different eras, manufacturers, etc, but in a home studio where you're using maybe 5-8 synths tops, there's really not much benefit vs the cost and the downside of introducing signal path noise.
As to your question about virtual DIs. I really think Juan, you should go enroll at Audio Engineering school, like Full Sail in Miami. You'll answer so many of your own questions.
For instance, most synths are unbalanced and a DI box balances, and attenuates the level.
How would a virtual DI box balance a physically unbalanced cable connection? Answer: it can't.
So it's basically a gain plugin that adds a bit of distortion and coloration. That's fine if you want that specific effect, but the original question you posted was do I need it to get the best sound quality/signal path and the answer is NO, and a virtual DI box obviously has nothing to do with that original question.
Last edited by DJ RANN on Oct-08-2018 at 21:05
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