Please give me your suggestions

E

elfie57

New member
Hi all.


Here is what I want to record: Heavy Metal guitars, bass, and vocals. I mean brutal distortion, slap/pop bass, and screaming vocals.

Here is my setup: electric guitar, amplifier, SM57 Microphone, PC with Adobe Audition.

What I believe I need: Preamps! I am looking for some damn good preamps that will record the heavy distortion guitars onto my PC sounding EXACTLY the way they sound out of my amplifier!

I only desire to record one instrument at a time so I am looking for one input with an AWESOME preamp. Could you all please give me your best recomendations based on these plans?

As for price range, well it always helps to spend less, so if you could give your BEST and then your cheaper but still very good version, that would also help. BUT I will save up and borrow if it means perfection or at least darn near it! I await your responses! Thank you!
 
How much money are we talking here...at least give a max. Theres a lot of decent "cheap" pres...ie, M-Audio DMP3, Art MPA, RNP...those 3..plus the M-Audio tampa, if u wanna spend around 700....57 can do screaming/guitars good...just gotta mess around with placement. If you know the band underoath, i saw a studio video of them where the screamer used an sm57 to track his screaming.
 
Hi and thank you for responding. I guess 700 is a good limit. so 200-700 I guess is where I am looking. Could you please give me the specific models you would suggest? I am not familiar with any of the brand names. Thank you!

P.S. Yes, I am familiar with the band Underoath. That is very cool to know; thank you for the insight!
 
I really don't think the preamp has much to do with getting that kind of electric guitar sound.

You'll get a whole lot more mileage by taking that $700 and applying towards the very best guitar amplifier money can afford, and/or some studio time. Not that it isn't a good idea to use good mic pres. It's always a good idea to use the very best equipment possible ... whenever you possibly can.

But what makes a good guitar sound like the one you are currently seeking ... has everything to do with plugging in to the right amplifier, and being in the the right environment. And by environment, I mean the kind where you can crank it very loud without getting any warrants or eviction notices issued. And finally, and this might be most important ... having the isolation to where you can monitor a very loud guitar in a separate room, and be able to hear / evaluate what it sounds like coming out of the monitors. That requires some pretty controlled conditions.

If you don't have access to both the ideal amp and the ideal environment, then you might as well just use something like a Mackie, or an M-Audio.

.
 
surfmaster said:
a 57 and the brick[/URL] is what you want.
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That looks very interesting but the description talks a lot about acoustic guitar? What about heavy distortion?



chessrock said:
I really don't think the preamp has much to do with getting that kind of electric guitar sound.

You'll get a whole lot more mileage by taking that $700 and applying towards the very best guitar amplifier money can afford, and/or some studio time. Not that it isn't a good idea to use good mic pres. It's always a good idea to use the very best equipment possible ... whenever you possibly can.

But what makes a good guitar sound like the one you are currently seeking ... has everything to do with plugging in to the right amplifier, and being in the the right environment. And by environment, I mean the kind where you can crank it very loud without getting any warrants or eviction notices issued. And finally, and this might be most important ... having the isolation to where you can monitor a very loud guitar in a separate room, and be able to hear / evaluate what it sounds like coming out of the monitors. That requires some pretty controlled conditions.

If you don't have access to both the ideal amp and the ideal environment, then you might as well just use something like a Mackie, or an M-Audio.

.
Click to expand...

I do have the right guitar sound. I love the sound out of my amplifier. The problem is I cannot get it to record onto my PC. That is why I am getting preamps. The PC cannot record audio of the mic directly. As I said, I am unfamiliar with brands, so if you are going to make a suggestion, please tell me the model you are speaking of so that I may research it.
 
chessrock said:
I really don't think the preamp has much to do with getting that kind of electric guitar sound.

You'll get a whole lot more mileage by taking that $700 and applying towards the very best guitar amplifier money can afford, and/or some studio time. Not that it isn't a good idea to use good mic pres. It's always a good idea to use the very best equipment possible ... whenever you possibly can.

But what makes a good guitar sound like the one you are currently seeking ... has everything to do with plugging in to the right amplifier, and being in the the right environment. And by environment, I mean the kind where you can crank it very loud without getting any warrants or eviction notices issued. And finally, and this might be most important ... having the isolation to where you can monitor a very loud guitar in a separate room, and be able to hear / evaluate what it sounds like coming out of the monitors. That requires some pretty controlled conditions.

If you don't have access to both the ideal amp and the ideal environment, then you might as well just use something like a Mackie, or an M-Audio.

.
Click to expand...

good advice will get you nowhere around here.
 
I really don't think the preamp has much to do with getting that kind of electric guitar sound.
Click to expand...

so true...

there was a preamp shootout last month on the ultimate metal forum, where some DI guitars were re-amped through 5 different pres, while the rest of the signal chain stayed identical

there were some audible differences, but none of them were really night and day. i would venture to say the pre is the least important part of the chain for heavy guitars.

also, in addition to a preamp, you're going to need an interface/converters to get the signal in to your computer. you may well be better off finding a unit that does all of this in one.

edit: case-in-point, and in your price range - http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...eWire-Interface-with-192kHz-Output?sku=180311
 
Guys, I am sorry for the miscommunication. An audio interface with preamps is what I am talking about. I assumed this was the same thing. My mistake.

I tried recording my amp with an SM57 mic into my PC, but the sound was barely even audible. I asked a guy about it and he said it was because I needed a sound card or audio interface with pre amps to boost the sound and therefore make it audible. This is why I was asking for pre amps specifically. I am new to this, but the sound of the guitar amplifier is fantastic, I love it. I just need it to sound the same way when I record/play it back on my PC. Know what I mean? So would The Brick still be a good suggestion or should I also look at something else?
 
elfie57 said:
Guys, I am sorry for the miscommunication. An audio interface with preamps is what I am talking about. I assumed this was the same thing. My mistake.

I tried recording my amp with an SM57 mic into my PC, but the sound was barely even audible. I asked a guy about it and he said it was because I needed a sound card or audio interface with pre amps to boost the sound and therefore make it audible. This is why I was asking for pre amps specifically. I am new to this, but the sound of the guitar amplifier is fantastic, I love it. I just need it to sound the same way when I record/play it back on my PC. Know what I mean? So would The Brick still be a good suggestion or should I also look at something else?
Click to expand...


Presonus Firepod/box. preamp plus firewire. you're connected to the pc while using decent preamps
 
yoyo said:
Presonus Firepod/box. preamp plus firewire. you're connected to the pc while using decent preamps
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I second that...If possible, get one of those Bricks, or an M-Audio DMP3 with an interface such as a Firepod or Firebox. that'll run you around 600, and is what i plan on doing with my next few paychecks :D .
 
JPXTom said:
I second that...If possible, get one of those Bricks, or an M-Audio DMP3 with an interface such as a Firepod or Firebox. that'll run you around 600, and is what i plan on doing with my next few paychecks :D .
Click to expand...

Ok if I get The Brick, how does it connect to the pc? I didn't see any connectors in the description for it. :(

Guitar>amplifier>SM57>audio interface>PC

Is this a good setup?
 
JPXTom said:
I second that...If possible, get one of those Bricks, or an M-Audio DMP3 with an interface such as a Firepod or Firebox. that'll run you around 600, and is what i plan on doing with my next few paychecks :D .
Click to expand...

Sorry to hijack the thread but I'm wondering what the advantage is in getting a DMP3 and a Firebox ? Is the pre in a DMP3 better than that in the Firebox ?
 
lasagne said:
Sorry to hijack the thread but I'm wondering what the advantage is in getting a DMP3 and a Firebox ? Is the pre in a DMP3 better than that in the Firebox ?
Click to expand...

Probabaly not enough to justify buying it unless you could use the extra pres for recording more inputs at a time.
 
Things like the Presonus Firepod or M-Audio Mobile Pre have the preamp and converter all rolled into one. While useable, the preamps aren't all that high end. The M-Audio DMP3 and Art MPA are supposed to be better preamps. I don't have either, so I can't really tell if they are. But I am looking at getting an Art MPA myself. Even though I have the Mobile Pre. But then again those are just the best of the "cheap" ones.

As far as a true transparent recording. It's sort of the holy grail. And you could spend thousands, even tens of thousands trying to get that. You've got mics, cables, preamps, compressors, limiters, converters, room treatment and other stuff. Any one of which can cost from $100 to $10,000 or more.
 
Transparent recording, is that what it's called what I am looking for? Heh, heh... Well I figured it might be like chasing a ghost. Very well, I can settle with what I can afford and experiment with at the moment :) But your suggestions are very helpful, thank you.

Someone on an other forum just told me that I would be better off buying an audio interface and a preamp seperately, rather than only using the preamps of an audio interface that I buy. Do you agree with this? If so, then this should now be broken down into 2 seperate buys. lol I can hear the money say "byeee" but I am quite serious about this.

I am still curious about The Brick. Is the Brick only a preamp? If so, then maybe a good way to go would be to buy this Brick, and combine it with an audio interface that has been suggested? What do you think?
 
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