Guitars Into 16A Advice

[mercysakesalive]

I'm doing this music project where I have 10 electric guitars going into my DAW and I want to use the Motu 16A. Since the 16A only has Line Level inputs, I know that the electric guitars will need a piece of gear before they go into the Motu interface (and into the computer.) Do I need DIs, preamps, or both? Something else? Thank you.

[HCMarkus]

What you need will depend on how you are handling the guitar signals...

Miking Amp? Need Mic and Mic Pre.
Direct guitar and using amp sim in DAW? Need Instrument Input (which many Mic Pres have) or D.I. into Mic Pre.
Guitar into Outboard Amp Sim (Line 6 Helix, etc)? Need only proper cables to connect Amp Sim to Line Ins on 16a.

[mercysakesalive]

Cool, I'm going into the DAW and then out to the amps. Wasnt planning on using an amp simulator in the DAW but that might be fun to play around with. So you think I need a DI into Mic Pre's for that?

[HCMarkus]

Cool, I'm going into the DAW and then out to the amps. Wasnt planning on using an amp simulator in the DAW but that might be fun to play around with. So you think I need a DI into Mic Pre's for that?

Ideal would be to record both DI right from guitar and mic'd amp for each guitarist. That way you capture their preferred tone but leave the door open to change or augment the tone later.

Whenever possible, I record guitars that way.

And if you do end up using amp sims, you can easily add reverb in the DAW. Also, you could route direct sound via the 16a internal mixer but still send to reverb in the DAW. A little latency in reverb is called "pre-delay."