Recording guitar with a VS880EX-HELP

[soniclust]

Hey-Anyone have any advice for recording guitars live with a VS880EX? It's a loud but clean tone(kinna like the band Television's tone). It'a 4X10 Super Reverb, and so far the results after using a SM-58 at diffrent distances have made the amp sound "thin" and not as full bodied as it seems in the room. Any mike suggestions? Also the recording has a slight digital pixil sound at playback from the recorder. Thanks in advance for reading this.

[monty]

Hey TAE...he's from Sun Valley.
soniclust...that's the sort of application where a POD comes in handy. Maybe try multiple mics. Are you recording on one track? Two with a slight delay on one can fatten it up a bit. Are you using the highest resolution? Maybe that's what's causing the pixil sound...too low a resolution. Other than that I can't be of much help. How's life in Sun Valley these days?

[virtual.ray]

If you are close micing,there's usually one speaker that sounds a little better than the others,try putting the mic on each one and see if this is the case with your amp.If you find this to be true,leave the mic on that one and then put up another mic further away in the room and if you can spare the trax,record each seperately and play around w/panning,EQ etc.It takes time,but you'll eventually find a really good sound.Cheers!

[Boris]

The VS880EX has tons of great sounding amp simulators. Run your guitar direct in and check them out!

[Burton]

A second condeser mic, about 4 - 8 feet back from the amp (at ear level) can help to add depth and dimension to a sterile clean sound. Going farther back than this can induce phasing problems. I usually put the mic at ear-height, aimed at the amp. Panning the two signals can also fatten the sound.

[pauld]

Hey soniclust

I'm with monty on this one. for the past six years i've struggled with getting big guitars, cutting guitars, lively guitars etc and i've used everything i could get my hands on to do, miking, powerbrake, pre-amps, amp-sims. i used the SansAmp GT2 for a long while thinking that had just about cracked it - then a friend lent me the POD for a weekend. Monday morning, straight into my local boutique de musique and got one. One of the soundest investments i ever made!

Monty also talked about double-tracking the guitars, depends on the music, but one trick i use a lot (if you can stand to do it) is to play some of your parts twice. the little variations between the performances can make for a really interested effect and the guitars generally sound HUGE. it means that you have to be a little more disciplined rather than spontaneous, but depends how good your memory is. That and a complete reliance on Punch-In.

I know it's always frustrating to read mails that say 'ah, just run out and get this or that bit of kit', I'm a huge believer in learning to use what you already have, but every now and then a device comes along to change that, and while the POD has its weak points (just look through the Line 6 mailroom) it goes a long way to becoming the best workhorse, most consistent, flexible bit of kit I have.

Anyone want to buy a Peavey????

Any questions, reply or mail me independently. Hope it all works out for you. Let me know.

Tata

Paul D, UK