I love guitar amplifiers. I feel most connected to my electric guitar playing with an amp in the room. Together with effect pedals, I can create a sound that is my own. But there are situations where an amp-less approach is more practical, like late-night home recording. Unfortunately, playing without an amp often sounds and feels so different that it becomes a compromise, both sonically and performance-wise. Enter the Direct In, a “direct box for electric guitar that emulates a mic’d clean, pedal friendly amp’s sound.”
Recently, I planned some demo recording at home with the goal that the direct tracks be faithful to the sounds and textures I had developed working in my rehearsal space with my amp and pedal rig. I learned about the Direct In around this time, and being a Skreddy Pedals fan already, my curiosity was piqued! Skreddy Pedals was founded in 2004 by Marc Ahlfs. Marc and his wife, Cynthia, operate the company, and all products are made-to-order. I talked with Marc, and he explained that his company began as a personal quest. “I started making things to get sounds I wanted without the obstacles of cost, availability, and condition [of vintage pedals].” He also explained his designs. “When you hear artists’ recordings, processing [in mixing] changes the sound, so I make things to achieve a more finished sound rather than replicate specific pieces of gear.” This aligns with my experience playing Skreddy Pedals (especially my fave, the Lunar Module fuzz). The Direct In is a first for Skreddy Pedals, being an amp emulator instead of a guitar effect. It is a simple-to-use, all-analog device; Volume is the only control on the unit, so once you’ve balanced the level with the input gain on your interface, you are ready to play!
Direct In emulates a late-1970s Hiwatt model DR 103 with bridged Normal and Brilliant channels, a power amp with Presence calibration, and a speaker cab designed to sound like a Fane. It delivers a balanced signal via XLR directly into your interface (no line isolator or DI box necessary). The 1/4-inch Thru jack doubles as a second input if that orientation suits your setup better (it sounded the same in my test).
The primary purpose of the Direct In is to serve as a clean pedal platform, and it does this brilliantly. 18V power is recommended, but it will run on 9V. I tested both ways, and 18V sounds noticeably more open. I auditioned it with a Fender Jazzmaster (single coils), a Gibson ES-335-style guitar (humbucking), and an assortment of drive, fuzz, modulation, delay, and reverb pedals. Since the Direct In EQ is fixed, I made EQ tweaks on my drive pedals (another option would be post-input via the interface).
The feel was natural, and the sound was utterly convincing of a guitar and pedals run into a clean amp with a mic’d speaker. I got lost playing for hours! Once recording, I decided to try out bass (sans effects) and got the satisfying tone of a bass recorded from a mic’d amp – bassists, take notice! Lastly, I decided to give it a try with my vintage Farfisa combo organ. I recorded a DI'd signal to compare it to, and the Direct In track sounded just the way I play the organ (into a clean guitar amp). One side note if your interface gain is not on the “clean” side: I tested using an inline mic preamp to boost the signal to the interface, and it worked well! I highly recommend the Direct In for amp-less recording!