Direct Recording Electric Guitar

[Aled_King]

Hello all.
I'm still pretty new to all this and I was just wondering what the best way of record electric guitar was:

- Should I just play it through my amp and then mic it?
- If so, what micing technique should I use?

- Should I use Direct Inputing?
- If so, can you please explain the exact process of doing this?


Thanks for all your help!!
Aled

[TimOBrien]

Recording Guitar and Bass by Huw Price
http://www.amazon.com/Recording-Guit...5734124&sr=1-1
(I got my copy at a place called Half-Price Books for $6....)

[Aled_King]

Thanks Tim.

i will certainly look into getting that book.

The equipment I have is

Epiphone Les Paul Electric Guitar, Marshall Amp, AT 0202 Mic, EMU 0404 USB Interface, Laptop with Reaper.

So if someone could please let me know how the chain would work, e.g. do I link up the guitar to the amp, then into the interface? or do I not need to include the amp, just go straight into the interface?

Many Thanks

[Thunder33]

The best way is always to mic a guitar cabinet. However, if you are recording in an apartment or late at night and have to go direct, there are some great plugins for Reaper to emulate cabinets. Go to http://habib.webhost.pl/ and in the upper left hand corner, there is a VST download called, keFIR. Download that bad boy into your VST effect folder and give it a whirl. Now this is a cabinet emulator so you will need a preamp. There are downloads for that to if you don't have any sort of preamp. If you have a line out from your head, you can use that but it probably isn't going to give you the best sound. Let me know if you have any problems and I will help you further.

[antichef]

AT 2020 mic? You may or may not like that on the amp -- you'll have to try it. Probably back off a bit with the mic in a room that doesn't have a lot of echo/reverberation if you can.

the 0404 specs say it has:

Two E-MU XTC™ Ultra-low Noise Mic/Line/Hi-Z Preamps with Soft Limiter and 48V Phantom Power (-127dBu EIN)

so for DI just plug the guitar cable into the 0404 (it'll be the Hi-Zness that takes the signal -- my guess is that you can plug in your 1/4 inch jack in the middle of where you'd put a microphone cable). Might sound pretty good, depending on what software you're running (Thunder33 has good advice in that area).

for the mic, use a mic cable to plug it into the same place, and make sure that phantom power is on (assuming you have a 2020), then just play with placement and levels until you're happy (budget some time for this).