Triamp Mk3 recording

Hey everyone. Having a bit of a conundrum. I have a Triamp Mk3 obviously, and I really like the idea of using the Redbox D.I out on the back of the amp for recording. Where I live, and my daily schedule, I have most of my guitar time in the late evenings, and being able to have a D.I out into my computer and headphones sounded like a great thing. But, alas, the recordings of it, and the sound coming through my headphones doesn't sound very pleasing to the ear.

So, I loaded up my gear and went over to a buddies house, who is really becoming quite good at recording.

We plugged directly into his audio interface, went right to chanel 3 on the amp, and it sounded great!!!! sounded just like the amp! My friend was fairly impressed. He normally uses a D.I signal and then uses a series of amp simulators. For me, that is just too much of a headache. I am really rather computer illiterate.

Now, What do you suppose would cause the difference in sound quality in the recordings? I have just a little Focusrite Scarlett 2i2, and he has a big fancy 600 dollar interface, so at first I thought that may have been the cause. But, when I sent a recording I made over to him, it sounded great again. Just like my amp!

So.... what makes it sound bad on my end? Bad headphones? I am just using the ones that come with the focusrite interface. I am running it into my laptop, which isn't anything special, but is only a year or so old, so it isn't exactly a terribly outdated piece of gear either. Both my friend and I record using Reaper, so I don't think the DAW makes a huge difference?

My guesses are as follows-
speakers- he has some studio monitors
Headphones- I don't think the ones that come with the interface are that stellar?
sound card on the computer? Is that a thing?

help!!!

thanks in advance!

Two things here and the first has to be the headphones. If you have bought your Scarlett as a bundle then the headphones will be the cheapest they can get away with to make the bundle look attractive. The Scarlett itself is £125ish on Amazon (cheaper if you dig around). The bundle with headphones, condenser mic and cable is £196. That's not a lot for a decent mic and headphones so what sort of quality would you expect them to be?

If headphones have a trendy "name" attached to them because they were "designed" by some rap artist or DJ you can virtually guarantee they will not suit what you are trying to do. Use them as a perch for your parrot. I would borrow a set of headphones which you know are good, your friend's seem to be a good starting point because you can hear them working well in his setup, and try your system with them. That will give you an idea of the amount the headphones affect the sound.

Secondly, are you monitoring with your headphones plugged into your Scarlett or into the laptop sound socket? If it is the laptop, default computer inbuilt sound is never very good, particularly on a laptop. My advice is to get yourself a really cheap USB DAC sound card adapter and convert the sound from digital outside of the laptop. I have a few of these things that I bought for about £2 each and they really make a staggering difference. They aren't fantastic top quality hifi of course, you don't need that for monitoring guitar in the way you are doing, but they are so far ahead of the internal sound system it is not true and things improve as soon as you take the analogue signal completely outisde of the machine away from all of the digital interference.

USB DAC

This is actually the one I bought and still use but there are loads of others out there and you can pick them up locally on ebay. Your headphones just plug straight into the adapter and you have a number of controls for different functions on it too if they help but you don't have to use them. But that said I would have thought you could monitor direct from the Scarlett, is that not so?

Some other thoughts to throw in the mix....

Recording level of the interface. Too high and there could be clipping, too low and the recording sounds noisy/muffled and lifeless.

But agree with you and last poster, compare the quality of headphones and speakers you are using with your friend's.

What does the "Cabinet Mode 2" Switch do for the DI out?

The simple answer is that it maybe just emulates a different cabinet, closed or open back for example, which would make a subtle difference in the sound, but H&K describe it as a "2nd Cabinet Mode" in the manual which is a little odd.  It may be that it somehow emulates the sound of having a second cabinet connected as in a "stack" mode or something similar.  There are subtle effects like beaming which are due to the number of drivers spread over a greater area, it may emulate something like that. Does it actually sound any different to you?  With most foggy features like that I usually just let my ears do the selection, (marketing men and their hyped up jargon have a habit of complicating even the simplest of units ).

From what I gather, and Redboxes have always done this I think as well as countless other DI units, Cab Mode 2 simulates a 4x12 where Cab Mode 1 simulates a 2x12. Every "Cabinet" setting I've ever used on any unit has a 1x12 or a 2x12 setting that is brighter than the 4x12 setting.

That's a simple enough explanation for even me. Go to the top of the class Mmagoon!