Tascam Porta 2 studio help!!! Teribble Sound

[Aris]

Hi ,
I`ve been having trouble recording my guitar with Distortion on my Tascam Porta 2 studio.I`m forced to use headphones for obvious reasons,and the sound of my guitar when using distortion is horrible.Is there any way of making it sound as if I`m playing through my amp ( with out playing through my amp) and sounding good? Would the Pod be the answear to my problem .I do have a very high end pair of Senheiser Headphones ,so I don`t think it`s that .Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated.This has been tormenting me for a while now.Hope you can help!!!
Thanks in advance,

[The Green Hornet]

Yo Aris:

[If you see Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, say hello for the Green Hornet.]

With regard to you "sound" problema:

I have a GK amp in my studio that I sometimes use for live bass/guitar inputs. This amp has an in/out buss which bypasses the speaker; thus, the sound can be funneled directly into the recorder. Now if your Porta Studio has fairly decent preamps, you should get a fairly decent reproduction without having to twiddle EQ too much, etc.

You might also try recording without reverb. Most recorders, tape/older/etc., have the capacity for you to listen/hear the reverb; however, unless directed, it won't get to the recording in progress but you can add reverb in the mixdown.

Another solution might be to run your guitar through a mic preamp; I use mine to run almost anything from my synth to vocals to drum machine because it "warms up" the sound being fed into the recorder.

Keep asking and twiddling the knobs,
Green Hornet

[This message has been edited by The Green Hornet (edited 01-14-2000).]

[Aris]

Green Hornet ,
thanks for you Quick reply. Forgive my ignorance but beeing a newbee to most recording equipment,What is a mic preamp, and what does it do? I`m still pretty much confused as to how to get rid of that "Boxed- in" sound when I add distortion.I don`t usualy add any reverb just some Chorus and Compression.I`m not shure how to tweek my Tascam 4track ( porta 2) to get a better sound , but when I play clean everything is beautiful.As soon as I play Dirty it all goes to hell.I have a Fender Champion 110,would it be possible with this amp to bypass the speaker and use the preamp to get the sound from my amp as opposed to the Marshall Direct rec preamp i`m using.Would the POD elininate this problem i`m having all together ? Sorry for all the Questions ( but you did say " keep asking" ) .Thanks in advance,
Arid