Giutar connection to Prime 4

Engine DJ Hardware Standalone Controllers
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1

DJ with Prime 4 looking to be able to connect electric guitar to my system at times for a buddy to play live. Would I need to setup a separate mixer for it, then to my Prime 4 or would a DI box to my Prime 4 work?

2

Yes - separate mixer only. Guitar signals are way higher than anything a DJ mixer would usually connect to. Also, if the guitar has fx units then that’s just raising the levels to a point that is asking for trouble.

Run the guitar into a separate mixer then feed that mixer record outputs into a spare channel on the prime 4

3

I disagree. The mic inputs on the Prime 4 are not that different to what you’d find on a typical PA/studio mixer, so you don’t need a separate one.

What you do need is a DI box, because you need to match the impedance (not level) of the guitar signal to that of the mic input.

4

So something like this?

5

  1. Playing guitar myself, I would suggest you try going directly from guitar to your mic input if it’s clean only. There will be an impedance mismatch, but all that does is change the tonality of your guitar pickup (less highs). a DI box will fix that mismatch. But level-wise, there is no big problem, so save your money if you’re sure about this solution… But that will only work for clean sounds (which may or may not be what you want, Nile Rodgers style funk rhythms are pure clean, but if you want to play lead over some house tracks, you’ll want distortion.)

  2. If you need distortion, it’s has to go through an amp, and then there are still a few options:

  • Mic the cab, and go through your mic input
  • Many modern tube (or solid state) amps have a DI out with speaker simulation, that goes into mic input too.
  • If you use a modeller, like Kemper, Axe FX, Quad Cortex, Line 6 helix and so one, these things have a line output and go into any line input. You may need a cable from 6.3mm jack to RCA.
  1. You may be tempted to go from a pedalboard directly to your mixer, but unless you have a speaker simulator on that pedalboard, don’t: distortion adds a lot of high frequency content to your signal, which is filtered out by a guitar speaker (which doesn’t have a tweeter). Without it your creamy JTM45 will be unbearable, a guitar speaker is part of the electric guitar sound. There are pedals however who simulate guitar speakers, and they tend to have mic or line outputs… (If you only need compression, flanger, chorus, delay, reverb and the likes, then you still can go direct, and you are doing essentially the same thing as option 1…)

Good luck!