Electric GTR Dry or Wet?

[2000Z28M6]

I know this seems obvious but whats the best approach when recording a nice combo such as a clean gtr with an awesome amp like a fender twin. Dry or Wet? Is amp verb good or bad, or does it come down to what sound you are going for?


Gtr players will most definitely want it wet, but is better to add the verb in post processing?

Just wondering if dry till mix down still applies for say blues, reggae or pop?

Noob question I know.

[RAMI]

That's about as vague as it can get. Depends on the song, personal taste, etc... Do you really expect to get answers like "It should always be dry" or "it should always be wet"?????

[2000Z28M6]

I did name genres don't be so close minded. I was just wondering if it was better to track dry when capturing amps that are known for their verbs, like a twin.

Sorry I didn't explain it better. I know there is no rules just wondering how to approach it.......

[SouthSIDE Glen]

It should always be moist...

But as far as electric guitar, that's a different story That all depends on what you want/need in the mix:

If you want the guitar to sound like it's reverberating within a room or space, then you'll probably want to record dry or mostly dry and let a stereo studio reverb fill the "room" as designed (or use a room mic or mocs in a real good-sounding room and blend that in the mix).

If you want to not necessarily have a natural-ish room reverb, but wish to have a reverb effect (possibly with pre-delay) panned separately, then record dry or mostly dry and pan the mono or stereo reverb as desired.

If you want it to sound like an amp verb or otherwise have verb be a special effect to the git track itself, then you can either record the amp verb to the desired wetness, or record it dry and use a studio verb to wetten it up. The choice there is simply to taste; which do you like the resulting sound of better. A third alternative here would be to record dry and direct, and then re-amp with an amp verb later.

G.

[gecko zzed]

My preference is to record the guitar as dry as possible.

That is the way that allows the greeatest flexibility afterwards.

However, sometimes the reverb is an essential part of the guitarist's sound, and they generate their feel by having it present.

In that case you make the best of what there is. I've recorded guitars so wet that they'd need three hours in a spindrier. And I don't like it that much.

I encourage them to set the amp dry, and I will add reverb and feed it through the headphone mix, so that I still get a dry sound. That's not always possible though.

[DrewPeterson7]

Originally Posted by gecko zzed

My preference is to record the guitar as dry as possible.

That is the way that allows the greeatest flexibility afterwards.

This is a personal preference/recording philosophy thing more than a hard/fast rule, but this is what I believe too. If you record a guitar wet and then decide it's too wet in the mix, you've got no choice but to rerecord. If you record it dry, add a plugin 'verb, and later decide it's too wet, you just twist a knob. To me, that's an easy pick.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by gecko zzed

My preference is to record the guitar as dry as possible.
...
However, sometimes the reverb is an essential part of the guitarist's sound, and they generate their feel by having it present.

Not a dilemma if you do a DI split; run the direct into the recording and let the guitarist hear it amped.

G.