Mic'd Amp or Direct Line

[Gibby]

Hey guys it's been awhile I hope all is well.

As guitarists...do you prefer to have your amp mic'd or would you rather have a direct line (coming from your pedal board or what have you) into the mixing board? 

I always had issues with this topic because I refuse to send a direct line to the mixing board because it is not a representation of what is coming from my amp.

[funkStrat_97]

Hey guys it's been awhile I hope all is well.

As guitarists...do you prefer to have your amp mic'd or would you rather have a direct line (coming from your pedal board or what have you) into the mixing board? 

I always had issues with this topic because I refuse to send a direct line to the mixing board because it is not a representation of what is coming from my amp.

I go direct.  To be honest, I have no idea what it sounds like out in the house, but it's a safe bet that the only person who is obsessed about the sound quality of my rig is me.  Having said that, though, I have gotten some positive feedback from one of the media guys.  He gets the direct feed from the stage and can hear everything....including my mistakes  .  I like the convenience of at least having the option to go direct; you can always put a mic in front of any amp but if you don't have a line out, you'll be out of luck if there's a shortage of microphones.

[SketchMan3]

Mic'd amp for me. Actually I've never mic'd my amp cuz I always end up having to just crank it and fill the room with my little 1x12 Peavey and a big boost of the mid knob, lol.

I have been in the situation where I had to run my digitech rp355 amp and effects modeler directly through the system and run my amp as a monitor for an outdoor blockparty concert thing and...

It seemed fine. I'd never done that before, but I liked the sound that was coming out of the system, at least from what I could hear.

But from a purely theoretical point of view, mic'd amp all the way, especially if I don't have my rp355, cuz my solid state amp does have a pretty relatively nice tone when run straight guitar-amp cranked up and with no boxes in between.

[trackman]

If I had to chose one (I usually rely on my cabinet straight to the audience), I would have to say mic it. I've used my DI to go to the house several times and I find that my tone is not quite the same. I've never heard any complaints from anyone, in fact the opposite. I just prefer the way it sounds to my own ears.

[Gibby]

I like my Hot Rod Deville's tone and that's what I want everyone to hear...not the pedalboard only.

I have a Boss GT-100 along with my Pod XT live (the Pod XT Live still is the front runner just because I like the sounds that I get). Maybe later on I will experiment with the four cable method with my GT-100 since I like my amp's tone.

[gtrdave]

If at all possible, mic an amp. Many amps have very poor quality direct out signals. Same goes for most stomp boxes, although the Digitech line have an okay speaker and cab emulation on their "mixer out" jack.

I now run a POD HD500 run direct to the board, but that is what those things are made for and the tone is pretty darn good, imho.