Electric Guitar Direct To PA System...

[digsy]

Hi Guys,

Hoping to get some advice from all the you kind folks here.. so here's the situation:

my church just invested in the MyMix system (http://www.mymixaudio.com/) and have basically gone ampless for aesthetic reasons... so using an amp is out of the question... i'm now plugging my electric guitar direct to the PA system via a Samson DI Box... as u can imagine, the sound was quite sterile and thus i just bought a Joyo AC Tone (supposed to replicate the voicing of a VOX AC 30 and Tech 21 Liverpool clone) from another softie... well i do understand it'll never replicate a real amp, that was what my current budget allowed me...

well my questions are as followed:
- Any DI Box recommendations? We're using a Samson DI now and are looking to get something more clear & transparent... budget-wise we're quite flexible as this will be for church purposes..

- Any monitoring headphones/IEMs that you can recommend? My budget is not more than $200... using a cheap sennheiser and the sound's really muddy.. with your recommendations, i can go down to try them at Stereo...

thanks in advance!

 

[loldude333]

What i can suggest is you invest in a good amp simulator like a Tech21 Sansamp GT2. It goes a looooooooong way to giving your tone some real flavour although its not so cheap. Alternatively, a rack-mounted Pod would work.

 

[zesn]

DI Box won't help you sound much better but it's to solve some signal level issues.
Like the post above, invest in a good amp simulator like Tech 21 or a Line6 Pod.

From my experiences though, it'll sound good for awhile then you'll hear that it's still sterile.

For IEMs,
there is the Shure SE215 and it's counterpart Westone UM1, both goes for less than $200 and i'm using the latter.
Don't expect powerful low end response when using IEMs, floor-powered monitors would still be way to go. And if there's feedback.... it's all gonna be shot into your ears. So be careful.

I don't see how for aesthetic reasons there shouldn't be any amps though, care to explain?

 

[digsy]

thanks zesn for your help!

well it' been decided that there'll not be any monitors or amps at the band area so as to make the place neater... it's been decided by the church leadership so will not want to argue...

As for the amp simulator, I got the Joyo AC Tone as mentioned... it does a decent job and was what my budget permitted... will see if i can get a good deal on those Tech 21 Character pedals...

 

[carboxymoron]

Yeah the DI alone doesn't handle the tone. You can look for one with a cab sim. Pedals wise, the Moen Buffalo http://moeneffects.com/4.html surprisingly decent cleans, if you want something other than the Tech 21s.

Shure SE215's are great. Jaben often has bundles that price it way below $200 (I got mine for effectively under $120).

 

[simplecomplexity]

What i can suggest is you invest in a good amp simulator like a Tech21 Sansamp GT2. It goes a looooooooong way to giving your tone some real flavour although its not so cheap. Alternatively, a rack-mounted Pod would work.

agreed!!!!

 

[tubescreamer]

Hi Guys,

Hoping to get some advice from all the you kind folks here.. so here's the situation:

my church just invested in the MyMix system (http://www.mymixaudio.com/) and have basically gone ampless for aesthetic reasons... so using an amp is out of the question... i'm now plugging my electric guitar direct to the PA system via a Samson DI Box... as u can imagine, the sound was quite sterile and thus i just bought a Joyo AC Tone (supposed to replicate the voicing of a VOX AC 30 and Tech 21 Liverpool clone) from another softie... well i do understand it'll never replicate a real amp, that was what my current budget allowed me...

well my questions are as followed:
- Any DI Box recommendations? We're using a Samson DI now and are looking to get something more clear & transparent... budget-wise we're quite flexible as this will be for church purposes..

- Any monitoring headphones/IEMs that you can recommend? My budget is not more than $200... using a cheap sennheiser and the sound's really muddy.. with your recommendations, i can go down to try them at Stereo...

thanks in advance!

I'd highly recommend the Carl Martin Rock Bug (http://www.carlmartin.com/product_rock_bug.htm) for such direct applications. It's essentially an amp/cabinet simulator with a balanced XLR output (something that many similar products lack) and has a headphone output for late night practice sessions and the like. If my memory serves me right, I bought it for about $165 at Davis GMC a few years back. When used in conjunction with my Barber Barb EQ, which simulates the EQ curves of 3 different styles of amps, (http://www.barberelectronics.com/barb_eq.html), my ears (albeit slightly untrained) can hardly hear the absence of a "real" amp.

As for your question about monitoring IEMs, I'd suggest the Westone UM1s. The cables are much thinner and lighter (while still durable) than those used on Shures, and I've read numerous complaints online about how the Shure SE215s suffer from some QC issues with the connectors (the one's that connect the cables to the drivers). The Westone UM series is fairly hardy as well - I've been using my UM1s for jogging for some time now and haven't experience any issues whatsoever (although some maintenance is required - cleaning them occasionally and storing them in an airtight container with Thirsty Hippo).

Hope you found my spiel above useful! My apologies if it sounds a little too much like a sales pitch.