mike the amp or use a pod?

[drepmoreh]

at the moment i am undecided over whether to record my epiphone gibson les paul guitar by miking my laney hardcore mxd 120 amp or by buying an emulator such as a pod/v-amp.

i only have money to either buy a shure sm57 or a v-amp/pod not both

i will be buying an extra shure sm57 for vocals. would one mic be enough?

i'd appreciate any input.

[mikeh]

I don't have hands on with your amp - so I can't speculate on what your sound will be.

I use a POD 2.0 (and a Johnson J-Station) all the time. I get very good sounds. A couple guitarists I respect (both for their chops & their sound) have commented on how "real" my guitar tracks sound. As important, both tried the POD and thought the emulations were very good (neither of these guys owns an emulator - simply because that have several great amps and nice rooms to record in.

I do a lot of recording late at night - and the POD (or J-Station) allows me to put down guitar tracks while people sleep - I could never do that with a mic'd cabinet. That alone, makes the POD a logical choice - for me.

That being said, if you feel you get the tones you want from your amp - and you can crank up and record whenever you need to - a POD may be redundant. In which case, it make make more sense to buy a 57 and spend what you would spend on a POD (abourt $250???) on a low cost condensor mic - (for vocals).

However, buying a single 57 may be all you need for now. It is a very good mic for an amp cab and it can work as a vocal mic (for the right voice). I've always thought a 57 works best with a "screaming rock & roll voice".

[Ronan]

I think the Hardcore series is solid state. I am not a fan of solid state amps in general, but I still think you will have better luck micing the amp. I really dislike the Pods..OK I hate them. Some guys really like them and thats cool for them, but as a guy that mixes a lot of records that other producers have recorded, if tracks come to me and the guitars were recorded with a Pod (or the equivilent) I have to work really hard to make the guitars work in the mix. Pods can really screw up records and usually do.

[Songwriter333]

Methinks: #1- Try to listen to the difference before-hand, before departing with hard-earned $., and #2- bare in mind how you want to record, specifically what media, and what will you want to do with that media, potentially. This could boil down to quality vs. convenience when on a limited budget.

[drepmoreh]

mike's point about recording at night has convinced me that a pod is worth considering, however i will be sure to test them out to see if they meet my expectations. i hope to record a mix of tranquil/hard rock so hopefully it all works out right in the end.

by chance i was looking through musiciansfriend and found a mixer which seems really good by the price (taking into consideration the reviews). it is the alesis multi mix 8fx and im thinking of buying it instead of the Behringer UB1204FX-PRO. anyone have any experience with this mixer?

Alesis Multi Mix 8fx