http://stabilitynetwork.blob.core.windows.net/g-tunes/20141010_Susan_08_SteveGuitar.mp3
 
I recorded a guy Friday night who had some kind of FX processor in his Amp. I think the Amp was Fender. I can't remember. And it had two 3pin plug outs for left and right. I took one and it sounded just awful. I did mic the amp directly, and in some cases for some sounds the wave form is normally distributed above and below zero but in others, it looks like this.
 
Is this a standard sort of effect of some kind, or ... I just can't remember seeing a wave form like this and it puzzles me. It doesn't sound bad, just looks funny. It does sound bad direct though.
 
It's like it was limited above 0 only. Why would you do that? It has to introduce limiting distortion.

I've never seen anything that extreme, but it looks like an exceptionally bad case of DC offset.
I'm not even going to throw out any guesses as to what would cause it. It's above my pay grade.

When you did the direct connection, did you have phantom power turned on (48v)?

Could also be clipping in his amp FX.

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You all are awesome! Thanks tons!

Btw this was Mic recorded with a guitar cube condenser using phantom power.

It is only now occurring to me to compare it with the direct wave. This might explain why the direct sounds so bad. It needs to be routed through an amp simulator.

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I have seen this before.  The problem I saw was from using a preamp and a microphone.  the preamp was a very cheap Audio Buddy M-audio preamp.  the preamp was clipping the signal on the top rail, my guess was that the opamps were dual power +/- 15V and that the top rail was likely geting less than 15V causing the signal to clip on the top side only.
 
It is likely that he has a problem either with input power or more likely with regulated power inside the FX box he is using.  I would suggest removing that FX box from the signal chain and use something else.

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