guitar > amp > mic > 4-track, or guitar > amp > 4-track?

[topolino]

(I'm new at this.) Let's say my studio environment is a guitar, amp, microphone, and 4-track. my first instinct is to plug my guitar into the amp, and send a cable from the OUT on the amp into the IN on the 4-track, so the signal passes through the proccessing of the amp. (rather than simply guitar right into 4-track.) But, I realize it's possible to mic the speaker of the amp and send the mic signal into the 4-track. the difference is, the signal is turned into sound for the distance between the speaker and the mic, and then back into signal to travel rest of way to 4-track. Yes? I guess there'd definitely be more reverb stuff going on with the mic method. the sound wouldn't be quite so hi-fi, maybe. but that could be desirable in some cases.

So, what are pros and cons of each method? different applications? who's tried both ways? (ultimately that's what I should do. a consideration for my specific case is that my mic sucks)

 

[topolino]

haha, before I posted this I scanned down the forum to see if it was addressed already, and didn't see the Poll just a few posts down from this which seems to be very relevant. but still, answer this one if you want.

 

[topolino]

well, I guess as head of OTWA (the Official Time Wasters Association) it falls upon me to suggest the following reasons to reamp:

a) tracking with a DI enables you to keep the guitar or bass from bleeding into other tracks, but by reamping you can still get the sound of "pushing air".

b) if you have the luxury of a nice collection of guitar/bass amps, it allows you to make a choice between different amps at your leisure.

c) it allows you to experiment at your leisure with putting the amp in different positions in a room, or different rooms. It may turn out that the best sound might be obtained by putting the amp right where the drummer was.

d) you can also experiment with different mics, preamps, compressors etc. to your heart's desire without sapping the energy of the artists eager to record.

Other than that, I agree, it's a complete waste of time..

yes indeed