How to set up DI box

[bobernaut]

Hello everyone and thanks once again for reading this!

My question involves a DI box and recording into an interface. I have researched this for awhile now and while I do get the concept, I can't seem to find any videos or other which actually show ALL aspects of setting up a DI box with amp and interface.  Here's what I have to work with to do this:

amp (Line 6)

interface (Toneport Line 6)

electric guitar (lots)

Sm57 mic, stand and cables

PC (windows 7 16 GB)

DI box  (Live Wire Solutions with in/out and output)

guitar cords

Does someone here use DI for recording guitars and could sort of draw me a quick map, so to speak, on how to connect everything, please? I would like to be able to record DI tracks (now that I understand their purpose) but can't figure this out unless, of course, I don't have the right equipment to accomplish this. All the "pros" just skip right past everything and say, "always record a DI track when recording guitars" but I can't figure out how they are doing this with either Sonar or the actual rig set up.

What I believe can happen is that you can record a clean sound through your amp while also recording a distorted guitar using an amp sim at the exact same time.  Is this correct?

I surely would appreciate any help here. I currently just record straight into the amp sim but I have always wanted to know how to also record the clean sound using the DI box method. I hope I have made my question clear and also hope someone can help me out here before I give up.

Thanks so much in advance,

bob

[John Bradley]

There are many things called a Line 6 Toneport, so I'm not certain which one you have. Some of them appear to be mono interfaces.

What you need is, at minimum, a stereo audio interface. On one channel you'd either hook a mic aimed at your amp, or the amp's "modeled out", if it has one.

On the other channel you'd record the dry guitar from your DI box. (Assuming your DI box has a pair of 1/4" jacks and an xlr. You plug the guitar into one of the jacks, run a cable from the second jack to the input of the amp, and connect the xlr output to your audio interface.)

Depending on what line 6 amp you have, you might not even need the di box. Some amps have a dry out for just this purpose.

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Personally, unless you love the sound of your amp, I'd forego the amp entirely. Just record dry guitar into the daw and do the amp/fx stuff in the box. Simplifies matters, lets you record silently through headphones at 4am, gives you the option to build more complicated patches than your amp can presumably do (e.g. dual-amp seups with different fx chains on each, etc.