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4. Especially for guitars – clean signals over distance

1

This is the transmit end of a buffered line driver system: a powered unit with a high-impedance instrument input. The first step is to plug the guitar into the input. If the guitarist is in the control room, a DI output can be taken direct from the transmit box to your DAW for later re-amping or processing through an amp sim plugin.

3

This is the receive unit, and it lives at the other end of the house, next to your amp. This particular unit also lets you take two amp feeds from a single signal and drive two amps at the same time without worrying about an earth loop between the two – a feat that can be difficult to achieve at the best of times.

2

A balanced XLR cable takes a clean, boosted and balanced instrument signal as far as you need it to go in order to reach the amplifier. You can even join XLR cables together without fear of interference creeping in. This particular system uses its own signal type; you couldn’t plug the other end of this cable into a mic input!

4

The Gig Rig Humdinger (£109, thegigrig.com) is a simpler and more economic solution for signal cleansing and dual-output operation. If, for example, your guitarist wants to be with the band rather than in the control room, the Humdinger enables you to feed and record an amp, and take a second feed for a DI or amp sim at the same time. Boring, maybe, but very useful for home recording.