recording guitar techniques

[transmission]

<b>my room situation is:</b>
7' high
14' x 12'

<b>the equipment i will be using is as fallows:</b>
gibson SG special
marshall AVT 50


<b>recording equipment:</b>
mackie 1642-VLZ pro
directly from mixer to soundcard

<b>mics:</b>
AKG c1000
AKG c3000
(3) SHURE sm57
AKG d112




does anyone have any suggestions on what mics to use? more than 1?

also does anyone have any ideas for placements of the amp? ive been told putting it facing a wall from about 4 foot away gives a good sound if you mic it correctly. i was just wondering what anyone thinks and what people would suggest. i also have a behringer compressor and pre amp. i dunno if they would come in handy?

please just any ideas at all anyone has. thanks!!

-mike

[chessrock]

Well . . . first off, you might want to ditch that Marshall AVT, because they basically just sound nasty.

If you have any doors that need to be kept open, you could use your akg's for that task whilst you work long, hard, and painfully trying to find a good mic position for one of your SM57's to where you can get a passable guitar track.

You can get it right in close to the speaker grille. I'd recommend pointing it somewhere close to the center of the speaker cone, but not completely head-on or straight up (we call it off-axis mic'ing).

[transmission]

to be honest... i actually like how the amp sounds. thanks for the ideas though.

[Echoes]

Well, apparently you have 6 mics and one amp. Now, I'm not trying to tell you what's right and what isn't, but all you really need is an SM57 or one of the AKG's and stick it fairly near your amp in the position described in the above post. As for the room situation, if you notice that the recording sounds very boomy and echoes a lot you may want to pad the walls down by hanging something soft over them or getting some of that foam that you can install with an adhesive. Conversely, if you hear a muffled dull sound on the recording you can try putting up a hard, sound reflective surface, such as a piece of plywood. Other than that, there's nothing really that I'd recommend or advise against. If you have some more questions, then just be a little more specific.

[sonicpaint]

There are so many options when it comes to micing a guitar amp. It would be a huge task to go though even some of them.

I suggest (as chessrock did) to go about it the tried and trusted way with your SM57 right up to the grill. Once there adjust the angle of the mic to taste. Angle of the mic (if you didn't know already) changes the sound quite a bit even with small changes in placement and angle.

If you would like to add more of the room sound I'd suggest adding a second mic a few feet back from the amp to get more of the room sound, then you can mix the two sounds after.

After recording the guitar you can always record another performance of the same part to fatten up the sound.....like I said there are too may options to list.

All the best,
sonicpaint

[KaosTheory2.0]

Are you using distortion or a clean patch?

Stick with a dynamic mic (sm 57). They have a slow transient response and add a small amout of compression to the signal. Keep it on axis with the cone unless the highs are too hot.

What is wrong with the sound?

Too boomy?
Too thin?
Too harsh?
Not enough bite?

Next experiment with the volume of the amp and the preamp trim pot on the mixer.

Are you recording a strong signal? Is it clipping at all?

If it still sucks, change the eq settings on the amp until you get something you can work with.

Lastly, put your ear where the mic is and see how it sounds there. Standing up in front of the amp will give you a different sound than where your mic is.

I record my guitars in a big cedar closet with acoustic foam on the walls and carpet on the floor. Adjusting the amp is what does it for me. I usually use an sm 57 and a large condenser and mix them together to taste.

[Bulls Hit]

Originally posted by KaosTheory2.0

Lastly, put your ear where the mic is and see how it sounds there.

Kids, don't try this at home

[VesuviusJay]

The best technique for mic placement on a speaker cabinet is deduced using Aaron Carey's post in this thread. It says metal guitar but it works equally as well with clean tone.

Hey boys and girls!

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/sho...r&pagenumber=1

[mishappen]

Hey
Is there anything wrong with recording electric guitar direct in?

dana

[ChristopherDawn]

Originally posted by mishappen
Hey
Is there anything wrong with recording electric guitar direct in?

dana

That depends on if you want it to sound good or not.

[VesuviusJay]

Originally posted by ChristopherDawn
That depends on if you want it to sound good or not.

I second that! If you are like many of us who got into this recording thing because we couldn't get the recording up to par with our own satisfaction. So hey, why not consider a bit of advice that will save you even years of spinning your wheels and never seeming to get the sound you are looking for.

[Velvet Elvis]

Just out of curiousity, what do you all think of this guitar sound (especially in the chorus or the solo)?

http://www.justwilliammusic.com/musi.../trade_96k.mp3

(I know this isn't the MP3 forum ;P)

I've found a few good ways to record guitar and wanted to see if its just me that thinks the sound pretty decent.

Velvet Elvis

[sonicpaint]

I liked that tune Velvet, nice work! The guitars sounded good to me, though I'm just listening through small computer speakers right now. I'd like to here more of your stuff. You have a CD for sale?

Later,
sonicpaint

[Velvet Elvis]

Sonic...

Thanks... yeah we have a CD for sale nationally... imagine that.

But the reason I wanted to post it is that a LOT (probably more than 90%) of the guitars on the CD were recorded direct.

Granted, I'd rather use an amp and such, but the situation was such that I couldn't.

I engineered and mixed the recording (as well as played the guitar parts) and just wondered what people thought of the sound.

All things considered, if you know what sound you are looking for, I don't think it matters if they are mic'd or direct... however that being said I DO think mic'd amps sound better in critical situations.

Velvet Elvis

[sonicpaint]

What is the CD called and where can I get it? Are there other audio samples on the web?

sonicpaint

[Han]

Very well done Velvet Elvis!

And about Chessrock's using AKG's for keeping the doors open: it is well known that inspite of the C1000 bashing all over the forums, the mic can sound very good on distorted guitars, even a lot better than 57's.

The C3000 can sound pretty good on acoustic nylon string guitar.

You want something to listen to? On my website there are some sound fragments. In the folk example the acoustic guitar was recorded with a C3000.

In the jazz example 2 the sax was recorded with a C1000S

In the rock example 2 the distorted guitar sound was a Marshall Valvestate (yes the crappy one) and it was recorded with an MD441 close to the grill.

In the Heavy example 1 the guitars were recorded directly into the console.

And you should hear the original mix on 1/4 tape!

Hell, even an SP B1 can give you a killer guitar sound.

[Velvet Elvis]

Sonic,

Yeah... go to www.justwilliammusic.com

There is a sample of all the songs on the audio page.

Also, the CD is available via grassrootsmusic.com or amazon.com, as well as many retail stores... just don't know which ones.

The band is called "just william" and the album is called "Blue Goodbye".

Velvet Elvis

[mishappen]

Originally posted by Velvet Elvis
Just out of curiousity, what do you all think of this guitar sound (especially in the chorus or the solo)?

http://www.justwilliammusic.com/musi.../trade_96k.mp3

(I know this isn't the MP3 forum ;P)

I've found a few good ways to record guitar and wanted to see if its just me that thinks the sound pretty decent.

Velvet Elvis

Wow those guitars are recorded d.i. huh???
They sound awesome to me!

dana

[NYMorningstar]

Originally posted by Velvet Elvis


But the reason I wanted to post it is that a LOT (probably more than 90%) of the guitars on the CD were recorded direct.

I engineered and mixed the recording (as well as played the guitar parts) Velvet Elvis

What did you use for direct-in and how did you arrive at 90%?

[grinder]

Originally posted by NYMorningstar
What did you use for direct-in and how did you arrive at 90%?

He said more than 90% on the cd, not the song.

[Velvet Elvis]

Yeah... I actually recorded with my amp during the scratch tracking... and on a few songs, the scratch tracks were so cool that I kept the parts in.

Those were a couple of solos and some clean parts and maybe a distorted part here or there.... so they made up about 10% of all the parts I tracked.

The rest of the guitars (the other 90%) were allllll tracked through a Digitech Genesis, direct into a mackie 24x8 console.

I've found the Digitech to be more "real" sounding than the Pod... although it takes some tweaking to get it there.

I'm not totally satisfied with the sounds, but all in all it turned out pretty decent.

I used a PRS Hollowbody I, a Fender JD telecaster, a Fender '69 Thinline, a Gibson '54 Les Paul, a Gibson Les Paul Deluxe and a Tonesmith custom for the parts.

As I mentioned, I'd rather use an amp... but in this situation we had to move locations during the recording, so I lost my ability to mic up loud amps... recording with the amps turned to lower volumes wasn't yielding the sound I wanted, so I borrowed the Digitech from a local store... by the time the project was done I had purchased the unit because it worked so well.

Velvet Elvis