Best way to record electric guitar?

MISTERQCUE

MISTERQCUE

Not Just Anutha Brutha
You basically have the tools required to do a pretty decent mix with. Try all 3 (experimentation is the key to success)Also,
try different mic placments to determine the sound you would like to capture. Good luck.
 
I've got a Strat and LP. I've got the following options (or combos) for recording:

1) Straight into my Roland VS-1680 hi-z instrument input. From there I have Roland guitar effects I can insert.

2) My Fender Blues Deluxe tube amp mic'd with an SM57.

3) Direct into my JoeMeek VC6Q mic pre with instrument input jack.

Guess I need to experiment, huh?
 
Over the years, in very pathetic low-fi, non-pro ways (to 4-track cassette or 8-track reel-to-reel tape), I've tried both direct recording and micing up amps... I could never get a really thrilling sound from the mic, but I didn't experiment very much; and with the direct approaches, I was always somewhat unhappy -- it was convenient as hell but sometimes too pristine and also not very thrilling. I've tried straight into a good board, through an Ibanez Tube Screamer into the same board, a Rockman and others of this ilk, to an ART SG100X (not sure about the model here) and an Alesis Quadraverb GT, and all of them left me somewhat dissatisfied in the end.

Lately I've made the step up into the world of digital recording with a Pentium III PC, a good sound card, and the Line 6 POD. Man, I love that thing. It sounds so great, and it is so convenient and easy to use... it responds to my playing very much like a real tube amp would, and some of its models are so accurate it's uncanny. It's got a fair bit of noise but no more than you would get micing up a cranked amp. And you can always clean it up a bit after the fact in the digital realm.

-AlChuck
 
That's great, man! Nice Fender amp!

... and you can use SansAmp GT2 (or Classic, if you can afford) direct into the tape machine or board. I don't wanna say "better" or "worse", but "good, too". Also gives much versatility. I'd say it's mostly for overdriven sounds, though.
 
Hi

I think you'd be better miking your guitar amp as this will allow to capture the sound you're probably used to.
Direct injection tends to produce a very bassy (and full) sound most guitarists don't like. the reason is that the frequency response of the speaker of a guitar amp is fairly limited, which makes that caracteristic guitar sound we're used to.

Why not try the three methods and post some mp3 recordings up on this site?

Good luck!
 
Yep, I totally agree... Of course there's "direct" solutions, like the SansAmps and others that are designed to sound like speakers, when recorded... I don't mean to contradict, if we all had the means (and I don't just mean money), we'd all have big tube amps and mics. Sometimes a little box is more practical w/o sacrificing quality too much, but it could save time. I'm just saying: don't reject w/o trying :)
 
There was once an Ernie Ball truck near Guitar Center - they were on tour promoting their guitars and basses. Out of curiousity I tried one of their guitars (NICE!). They had a bunch of headphones set up, so you could fiddle with clean and distorted sounds, also with effects. The whole thing worked through the POD. I never liked digital anything (for music), but I was amazed at the quality of sounds, effects, distortion through the headphones! This isn't necessarily indicative of recording results, but it's made for recording and I've never seen a negative review of the POD (just check out Harmony Central's reviews). If I didn't have all my analog pedals and needed just one unit for recording only, I'd get the POD. It's worth trying, anyway.
 
once you learn how to use the POD, it becomes the only way you'll ever record guitar and you'll wonder what you did before you had it. we out.
 
I just posted this same thing in the recording section:

Try to record in a "live-sounding" room rather than a dead one.
Use a close mike on the cab's speaker for definition, and a second "ambient" room mike for depth.

Where you place this ambient mike is a more of an art than a science. The sound will vary greatly as you move the mike. If possible, listen to the sounds in various differnt places. Have one person play the guitar, one person move the mike around, and a third listen to the sound being captured.

Try to catch sound bouncing off of hard wood floors or tile walls.

Once you have both sounds on tape, you can mix and blend them until they sound the way you want them.
 
It's like AlChuck said. It's so convenient to use a POD and not have to move mics and stuff around. I've done that, and before I get a satisfactory sound I'm too worn out from juggling gear to record.
 
I checked out my first POD and I must say it's starting to look very attractive. The one I looked at had S/PDIF out and the guy at the toy store says you can download new models as they become available. Basicly its an amp farm. I'm still investigating.
 
I agree with most that close miking the amp is the best way, but always the most efficient way. I've experimented with an old Fender Bassman amp on 10, close miked with a 57 and compared that to the same amp closed miked with the volume reduced to a whisper, using a Marshall Drivemaster in the front to simulate that full up sound. Which one sounded better? To my ears (and the engineer at this particular studio) it was the latter setup. For around the house, when miking an amp is impossible, I use a Morley JD-10 pedal that sounds fabulous straight into the recorder. I much prefer it to a POD, which I owned and returned after a week. The Morley works great into a guitar amp, bass amp, or straight into the PA as well. Unfortunately, Morley no longer makes this device. Too bad. I can't say that it sounds exactly like any particular amp, and it doesn't pretend to. It just sounds great. A sound that I couldn't duplicate with any setting on the POD. I also have a SansAmp GT-2 which doesn't see much action anymore. I was never too fond of it either. Cheers! Trag.
 
The POD and the other direct recording things mentioned are great... but there's nothing like the sound of a good tube amp when you spend time getting the best sound out of the amp and the room. I get this idea in my head everytime I use the POD that it's sounding just as good as my amp and think how much easier it was to setup and start recording, then I turn on the amp and it always hits me how much better it sounds.
 
My 2 cents....your all half right. POD's, SansAmp, Amp Farm, J-Station and the like can give incredible distorted, heavy sounds that could probably fool most people into believing they are hearing the "real" thing. They just don't seem to get the clean sounds right, they have no "life". Even a poorly miced solid state or tube amp is warmer and more natural ( keep in mind I haven't tried every simulator available ) However, in a few years everyone will probably record DI. It's all moot to me because I've fallen in love with acoustic guitars....I've become 'unplugged'.
 
Acoustic is beautiful

I play acoustic everyday, electric about every other day or less. Acoustic is where I write all my songs, and really think about what I'm playing and improve upon it. However, there's nothing on my acoustic that I can do that gives me the same raw adrenaline that blasting away on the electric does. I like them both, and wouldn't enjoy playing nearly as much if I had to chose between one or the other.

Now I really think camn is sending hugs and kisses with what he puts at the bottom of the posts. :D Seriously though, I'm glad some others agree with what I said before. I hope we don't end up with the future of guitar recording going all DI. I don't think convenience should win over sound quality in most cases.
 
My $.02
I like the POD, I like the J-Station even better, but I still say it's well worth the effort to experiment with different mics and placement until you get it right. So far, nothing is better than the real thing (although technology is quickly closing the gap).
Rock On
 
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