New Music Gear Monday: Creation Labs MW1 Studio Tool Guitar DI

Recording guitars in the control room has become standard procedure during overdubs these days, but there always a hassle to it. Ground loops, amp noise during tuning, and not having the amp head close by to change the tone or input gain are minor inconveniences, to be sure, but inconveniences none the less. That’s what makes the Creation Labs MW1 Studio Tool so cool; it eliminates all those hassles at once plus adds a few extra features.

The MW1 Studio Tool is basically a DI on steroids in that it goes way beyond what a normal direct box does. Developed in conjunction with the excellent producer/engineer Michael Wagner, the 1U rack space unit is at heart a transformerless direct box with a few twists. First of all, it has front panel  1/4″instrument input jack coupled with a variable input impedance control that really changes the tonal character of the guitar a lot more than you might think (see the video below to hear how much). There’s also a 1/4″ tuner output jack along with a mute switch that mutes the throughput through the box but keeps the tuner output active for silent tuning.

Then the cool stuff really starts. The next section provides a control for the amp output with up to 30dB of gain along with an output impedance control to further tailor the tone going to the amplifier. There’s also a front panel 1/4″ output jack for this section that’s intended to be plugged into an amp.

The next section is the balanced mic level output level complete with a polarity control and signal indicator LED.

Recording both a guitar DI and amp signal simultaneously makes it a lot easier to edit a distorted guitar, but what if you want to reamp the clean direct signal later? The next section of the MW1 is dedicated to reamping with a balanced line input control that provides up to 36dB of attenuation coupled with an another output impedance control and a front panel 1/4″ output jack.

The rear panel duplicates the front panel 1/4″ inputs and outputs and holds XLRs for the the DI out and reamp input. There are also ground switches on the input and output as well as for the MW1 to help rid you life of those nasty ground loops.

The Creation Labs MW1 Studio Tool is one of the most versatile boxes out there and something you’ll use on every guitar overdub or during tracking. It’s not cheap at $795, but if it’s something that you’ll use a lot and will save you some time and eliminate even a hassle a day, it’s worth every penny. Creation Labs also offers a two week free trial.

Check out the video below that demonstrates how the MW1 works.