guitar to recorder - nothing in between

damianhk

Member
I'm looking for a guitar sound for my latest song, and can't find it. I have never recorded guitar straight in, but i'm thinking about it. I will try guitar to recorder, nothing in between. Is this how i'm supposed to record guitar to use those amps? I have a tascam dp01 and will export to my computer and use reaper.
 
Your post is a little light on details.

Is this an electric guitar and you're proposing to plug straight in to the Tascam with the instrument/guitar input, then using amp/pedal FX in Reaper to make it sound how you want, after getting the track to the computer? If so, that's probably going to work. The electric guitar signal is relatively lo-fi so you're not going to hurt it much with that. (Most of us would plug into the INST input in our interface and record it directly, but I'm inferring that's not possible for you.)
 
I have a carvin bolt electric. Yes i will have to export, don't have a computer recording set up. I have never tried this method. I think i'm learning that if I don't have a quality amp, it's not worth micing up. I wanted to keep it real, but have a very tight budget. I do have a behringer v amp and just can't find what i'm looking for. I'm hoping i'll be able to work with this dry/raw guitar signal once it's in reaper.
 
It'll work, but will sound like ass while you're recording. Maybe you can live with it, but I'm sure that would affect my performance if it was me. Maybe think about splitting the signal so you can hear it through an amp or sim that's close enough to get you through and then record the dry sound to tweak later. The VAmps have a mode that does that for you.
 
I'm glad to hear that this will give me more options. I know exactly what you're talking about when you say "it will sound like ass". If it was a full out rock song, i don't think i could do it; i just need that sustain and sound when recording. The sound i'm seeking is sort of a semi distorted sound, clean enough for strumming, and dirty enough to chug some chords. My behringer v-amp is noisy, and all the options are driving me mad. For the solo, i'll probably use the behringer. It has a very nice chorus with delay for lead guitar; just can't find a rhythm sound on it. Looking at sansamp, and may try to simplify when i have $.
 
You wont get much in the way of "sustain" plugged straight in, which is probably at least partly the suggested signal split to an amp while playing.
 
If you have a basic DI box you can take the parallel/thru route to the amp, record and monitor that, and take the XLR to the Tascam and record that on a 2nd track. (Guessing that's what [MENTION=142548]ashcat_it[/MENTION] meant by "splitting the signal.")

Just export the dry/DI'd track, or maybe both, and try your amp/fx playing around on the dry and maybe even the wet track, and experiment with mixing them together. All kinds of things you can do that way. I almost always did that when I recorded electric guitar (mic'd amp).
 
no di box, but maybe i can use the line out (1/4" out of practice amp) and find out what the amps on reaper will do with that sound. The options are stacking up again.
 
no di box, but maybe i can use the line out (1/4" out of practice amp) and find out what the amps on reaper will do with that sound. The options are stacking up again.
If you're playing pretty clean, the line out might work, but I probably wouldn't bother otherwise.

A DI is good to have. $20-30 new for a basic passive one (or $100 for Radial Engineering - but you can buy an interface for that!); maybe less if you find a used one, or just borrow to experiment if you can. For electric guitar any DI will do.
 
I don't love a passive DI for passive electric guitar for a couple reasons:

1) They tend to load the pickups quite a bit more heavily than a bare amp or instrument input and can affect tone. That's not always a bad thing, but it IS different.

B) More importantly, it steps down an already too quiet signal from the guitar so that you have to add gain at the other end. The S/N of a guitar is arguably bad enough that you won't know the difference, but there's no good reason to make it any worse if we can help it. Anyway, it just offends my sense of proper gain staging. :)

Like I said, the V-Amps have an operating mode that will send the effected signal to one of its outputs (and the headphones if you want) and the dry signal is passed through to the other. Try that and see if you can't get something usable.
 
Good points, i didn't consider. Maybe i got frustrated with the v-amp too soon. I should get back on it, and try to dial something in, and kill all effects. I think the options on the thing is why i get wound up. 32 amps and when I think I have it, I find something else, then realize the first sound was better, and keep searching and going back. I'm going to look into simple v-amps/modelers; i think it will help with my particular recording situation. I'd like to find a certain sound in a pedal, and just use eq.
 
I demoed all of the available modellers back in 2000 and decided on the V-Amp because it had the AC30 emulation that sounded and felt closest to the way I wanted it to. Ran an entire band (actually 2) on them for a while - 2 x blue and 2 x bass, one "Pro" of each. Recorded a couple albums.

But I have been suggesting that you find the mode that splits the signal so that you can listen to the "amp" sound because it has to be better to play to than your actual DI sound. Then record the dry signal and do with that as you will. Like, you don't have to buy a direct box. Monitor the amp side of the V-Amp and record the other to add ITB FX to.
 
I had breakthrough with changing the cabinets. I assumed that the suggested amp/cabinet combos on the presets were the best, and if i changed the cabinet, it wouldn't sound right. Well this is where i'm getting close to the sound i'm seeking. I'm experimenting with the 1 X 8 tweed and the 2 X12 combo. The suggested 4 X 10 cabinet sounded muddy to me, like i couldn't get the bass down low enough. good info
 
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found that mode. It's L3 (live 3). Left side has no simulation. I never looked at that. Wow.
 
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Poor man's guitar splitter. Solder 3 jack pin to pin. You can often even get a way with just a bit of gaffer tape to prevent accidental contact but better of course in a tin.

This assumes the destinations are both the 'magic meg' and the total load will be 500k but this is easily high enough and is way above a passive DI and some interfaces.

Better too if the splitter can be driven from a pedal since even when 'off' the pedal's source Z will be much lower than a guitar and almost purely resistive. NOT so however for those STUPID "true bypass" dinosaurs!

Dave.
 
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