D.I. TRACKS
Recording clean signal tracks alongside your creatively distorted/delayed tracks is a fantastic safety net. There’s no use in sending one single heavily distorted guitar track to the mix engineer and asking them to reduce the distortion.
So, when setting up to record an instrument with an effect, such as electric guitar, it’s wise to plug the guitar into a D.I. box BEFORE the signal hits the pedal board or amp. Record that signal on a separate channel. I have a huge collection of fx and amps that I can use to salvage an otherwise less than perfect recording by re-amping your D.I. signals. (see his video of the process here) When I’m producing & engineering I often (for one guitar part) simultaneously records a mono D.I. track, a mono track (often submixed on the way in from multiple mics), a stereo room track and a stereo fx track. That’s a total of 6 tracks for one part. Often a bit OTT but it’s pure luxury when coming to mix the project.
