Proper Gain Stage Question & Best Way To Get Distortion, Please

M

Mike Freze

New member
Hi! If one is recording a guitar track (real guitar, real amp, miked amp speaker), what is the best way to get the best input signal? Should you turn the volume completely up on your guitar knob and then turn up your amp a few degrees to get the best gain level as it goes into your audio interface then to your computer? Or should you keep you guitar volume knob low and raise your amp volume up instead? Is there any difference?

Also, for good, clean distortion: do you raise the volume up on your amp as far as possible while keeping your guitar volume knob way down low, or just the opposite?

I have both a tube amp (Fender Music man, vintage model, 2 10's) and a solid state (Crate, 8 12-inch speakers).

Thanks! Mike Freze
 
There shouldn't be a 'best' way, but keeping the interface volume down should keep the residual noise down as well. Usually with a guitar amp, having it dimed brings in the noise, some amps worse than others. So find the right balance between the two to get the tone you want and keep the noise down. Keep your guitar wide open. Have the interface volumes at half. Now adjust the amp for the best level. To keep the level consistent, use a compressor.
And will someone explain 'clean distortion' to me? :confused: That an oxymoron kind of like 'army intelligence' or 'jumbo shrimp' or 'happily married'.
 
Hey, ranjam, thanks!! What I meant by "clean distortion" (ha-ha, sounds like a contradiction) is a natural distortion from a tube amp (like I have) without being dirty or distorted to the point where you can't here individual notes on a chord (or with leads). You know, you can jack up distortion where it just sounds like loud noise and then there's that fine distortion that is there but the distinction of each note is there, too. Does that make sense?

Mike
 
That 'clean' distortion is the Holy Grail some people spend their entire life chasing. All I know it isn't a 'clean' amplifier with any pedal, and I don't care who disagrees. I think the best is a slightly overdriven amp with the right 'boost' as opposed to a 'distortion' or 'fuzz'. Let the amp do the work, and I am always happier. Sometimes, a hot pickup is all you need, but then you give up some clean tone. I remember the first time I dimed a Deluxe Reverb with a hot humbucker. :eek: Same with my Blonde Bassman; it sounds like a freakin' cranked Marshall. No pedal can duplicate that. It doesn't sound like a Fender anymore, so there's the compromise.
 
Best bet is to just forget the mic and the DAW interface to begin with.
Find the tone you want between the guitar and amp....whatever level you end up with and however the knobs fall.
Then get the mic in place and adjust the gain for the mic accordingly to the amount of SPLs coming out of the cab. If the level is too hot for the mic/intertface...lower the mic's gain...NOT your guitar or amp.

Of course...if you are playing at ear-bleed levels...the mic may not be able to handle it, so you have no choice but to back off the amp a bit...but I doubt it...most mics will hold up even when your ears are bleeding. :D
 
One place to start they say get your signal up into optimum level as early as possible, then the rest of the parts in an audio chain by design (hopefully) are then also in their nominal range and fall into place (with less fuss.
Now with the guitar/amp combo you have another whole sub-set of stages to juggle before it even gets to the record' part.

Seems to me I've stayed upper what? 70-100% range? ('7--dimed'?) on the guitar volume knob 99 percent of the time. Guitar signal's a fairly weak and fragile thing to begin with..
Can't recall wanting to run with it way backed off much (maybe 'trying to fit in 'acoustic'
 
And then you get into the hunt that grown men have painfully endured for 912 years; the amp that gives you the tone at sane recording levels. But a 'recording amp' like a Deluxe Reverb or an AC15 cranked sounds pretty damn good. Then you stick an SM57 in front, maybe add a ribbon way back in the opposite corner for the room ambiance. Insert your favorite compressor through your DAW. I still say if your input or gain and output levels are at about noon (half way) you're doing it right, as long as there isn't any clipping indicator going off. If you're using a distortion box, anything over unity gain for the output tends to sound noisy, so balance that as well. Even the 'Gain' dimed gets noisy, so this is all a balancing act, and this is also where I thank God for inventing the Hush.
 
You seem confused between the volume of the amp and recording level. What you do is get the guitar sound you want, stick a mic in front of it, and then adjust the recording level with the interface or mic preamp you are using. The volume of the amp is irrelevant.


Now, if you are asking how to get the tone you want out of your amp: Most of the time guys run the volume on the guitar wide open and adjust preamp volume on the amp for the distortion they want. When they want to clean it up a little, then they back off the volume on the guitar.
 
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