Recording With A Pickup Booster Pedal: A Few Questions, Please

[Mike Freze]

I have a lot of hardware effects processors (foot medals, mainly) for guitar/bass/mics. Old habit from the live playing days, I guess.

If you record in a small or medium-sized room and you want a good crank our of your guitar or bass without blasting your ears out in the room, is using a pickup booster effects pedal a good way to go? I have one designed for guitar or bass. Will that help keep you from having to crank your amp up too high for a "hot signal" and not go over that recording threshhold that causes distorion/clipping?

Or are pickup boosters only good for making your guitar itself sound hotter (or better) when you only have the stock pickups that came with the guitar when you bought it and haven't replaced them with better quality pickups?

If anyone has messed around with pickup boosters like I have, I'd appreciate advice on how you use them to get that great boost effect (hotter guitar tone or hotter amp signal) without clipping when recording in a small environment. I use a Fender twin reverb, tube amp (2 12" speakers). I also have a solid state Crate amp/speaker system, if it really matters which one I should use concerning pickup boosters.

Oh: Does a booster only help if you have great pickups to begin with or will they help stock pickups to sound better too??

Mike Freze

 

[miroslav]

You can use whatever you like to get the tone you need...there is no limit or rule on that.
What you have to consider is your overall gain staging to get the right signal level recorded.

That means....

1. Find the tone you like from your guitar and amp (and pedal)...at the sound level your ears and your neighbors can accept. That doesn't mearn you always have to hit the limit...I'm just saying first get the amp/room level sorted out and don't think so much about the recording levels going to the DAW.

2. Get your mic out in front of the cab (you have to experiment where to put it)...most mics will handle whatever your amp can throw at them without distorting internally (what kind of mics are you using?).

3. THEN you set the gain on the mic preamp so it's not overloading the signal at the preamp...and simultaneously watch the signal at the DAW interface if the preamp has only a gain knob. Which means...the gain knob at the preamp is setting both the preamp level AND the level of the signal going to th DAW interface. However, if the preamp also has a separate output level knob...then use that to set the DAW interface level.

At each point you are setting levels...and creating gain stages....just keep in ind that the level at the amp should not have a direct connection to the levels you want at the DAW. However, once you get all the above set...then yes, if you just crank up the guitar/amp level some more, it WILL be seen at the DAW...same if you lower it, which is why you want to first set your guitar/amp room level without worrying about DAW level. You use the preamp and/or interface knobs for the recording level settings....for getting the the right signal at the DAW.

 

[moresound]

Hey Mike. I would only be cautious of foot pedals adding their noise to your recording. But a side from that, go for it. If that's the sound your looking for.

 

[jjjtttggg]

Yep, yep. Sound level coming out of the amp has nothing to do with clipping in the pre-amp, the interface or the DAW... nothing at all... whatsoever. (I only emphasize that because in several threads now folks have said that, but maybe not clearly enough and it is a very important distiction.) The level/volume of whatever sound you are recording is one thing. Clipping of the signal in your electronics is a totally other thing. First, (as Miroslav says above) get the sound you want/like from your amp. You already know that I like it REALLY LOUD, but that's up to you. For recording purposes, it does not matter (AT ALL) how loud that sound may be. It needs to be loud enough to hear well above other sounds in the room of course, but beyond that, any volume will work. AFTER you have the sound you like, set up/adjust your recording gear to properly record that sound. I'm sure there is a level that would make the mic itself distort, but I think that's going to be up near the level of a jet engine, so don't worry about it. You're not going to be anywhere near loud enough for that to be a problem... and if the mic's ok, everything downstream is ok. It's just a matter of setting the gain/trim/volume/output/whatever they're called on each piece of gear to the right level so that none of the electronics in the chain clip the signal. As you adjust your levels, work from the mic toward the DAW. Each knob affects everything downstream, but nothing upstream. Once you have it set, if you change your amp loudness, you will need to readjust, usually with just the first knob in the chain.

J

 

[justmark1]

"If you record in a small or medium-sized room and you want a good crank our of your guitar or bass without blasting your ears out in the room, is using a pickup booster effects pedal a good way to go?"

It sounds like you're wanting to use the pickup booster as a hot plate (amp attenuator). These allow you to get the tone of a cranked amp at reasonable listening volumes. The pickup booster is essentially another preamp, adding a boost to the overall chain.

That being said the hot plate won't do much for your solid state amp, but it will make the twin reverb sound great even at low volume.