I know the situation you're in. Most musicians who want to record themselves go through it. I've had to record living in an apartment and stuff. You just can't make too much noise. And I've recorded pretty good stuff that way using synths and drum pads. I used to use a little Tom Scholz fx box (you know, the guy from Boston). You clip it on your belt and plug into it and it gave you all kinds of fx to work with--nice distortion. It was actually very versatile. Ran on AC or DC. I still have it around somewhere. You could use it live too. I don't know if they still make them or not.
I'm not familiar with the equipment you're mentioning so I can't comment on them. You can make pretty good recordings going in direct. But it has that demo kind of sound. Anytime you see pros going into the studio, they do it the way I described above. They want that amp sound because your amp is part of your signature sound. We're proud of our amp sound and we want to capture it. For me, it's the same with bass. I have a nice bass amp sound and I want it on my recordings. But if you have to go in direct only, you can still make good recordings if you know what you're doing. Often, it's just hit and miss, trial and error.
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