Overload question

F

F_cksia

New member
Hey

Doing my guitarparts works best if I'm alone in my room, I've discovered. The problem is, I can't bring also a guitar amp there too. I only want to record clean & distortion guitars, so I decided to do the following:

Clean: Just go direct (Tascam 244 Portastudio), Input level at Line (low).
Dist: same, but a input level at Mic (full open)

Now because of the overload, I HAVE got a (F_cked up) Distortion sound, but it sounds just good enough.

But my question is: does this harm my equipment? I know that you're doing almost the same with a quitar amp, but aren't there some protection-things in too?
Normally if I see a red overload-indicator I think that's not good for the sound, but also not good for the equipment. Is that true?

Thanks,
Maarten.
 
QUOTE: Now because of the overload, I HAVE got a (F_cked up) Distortion sound, but it sounds just good enough.

But my question is: does this harm my equipment?

-- definitely. It's not good for the equipment. It harms your equipment, by making the mic preamps take the brunt of the overloading and also overdrives all of the other stages of the mixer channel. No doubt, you have a mean, dirty distortion, but it's not kind to the electronics of the mixer on the Portastudio.

A better idea might be to get a line out of a guitar amp, [line out/pre out/direct out, NOT ext spkr out!], if available, or getting a distortion pedal or effect box. Then, you can develop the distortion or effect in a box that was designed to take that kind of punishment, and you can run an already distorted signal into the mixer, and run a 'nominal' [safe] signal thru the mixer, and onto tape.

This would do several things:
1) Possibly give you more control over your distortion effect, up front.
2) Possibly sound a lot better, and put a cleaner signal onto tape. 3) Save the mixer channel or input preamp from frying and burning out under the load.

You need a preamp device, and some headphone amps, or personal, mini-style amps have line out, as well as some larger combo amps, etc. Not all amps will have a Line Out or Pre Out, but it's handy if they do. I have some Roland amps that have Line out/Pre out.

Having a good guitar amp and/or preamp is almost a 'must' for recording, but I go one further, by mixing mic'd sounds with 'line' sounds, and therefore giving the overall sound a distinctly "live-er" sound quality.
 
Thanks for your reply.

Ok, now I'm not really a newbie in the home recording stuff, but one thing I have NEVER understand:

When recording, or playing live, most guitaramps are recorded or more amplified by using a Mic. But why? There's a Line Out on your amp, isn't it? And from my point of view, I would say that micing it would give a worse sound, because you're also recording/amplifying the background noise in the room etc., and using the Line Out will give a better reproduction of the sound you will hear true the amplifier itself.

I know this is the wrong thread for this, but could you explain this to me please?
 
Absolutely...

It could be as simple as capturing the difference of a very direct-sounding signal via the line-out versus the more ambient (read "more natural") sound of mic'ing up a cab, but there's more to it.

There is a world of difference in capturing the sound of the interaction of the guitar pickups with the cabinet as opposed to the dry line out sound. An electric guitar sound is the sound of the instrument thru an amp - where a majority of the sound somes from the cabinet. Mic'ing captures this sound quite well. The line-out signal is really just the sound of the guitar itself, well thru the pre, anyways...

Both type of guitar recording have their place, depending on the sound you're looking for.

Bruce
 
Thanx, Bruce.

Suffice to say, that LINE OUT and MIC'd signals sound different.

Line out signals are "way" dry, and mic'd signals [obviously] pick up on some of the ambience that is over and above the straight LINE signal, i.e., the sound of the cab, the sound of the room, the sound of the pick on the strings, etc.

I don't know why people do what they do, necessarily, and I'm not going to lose a lot of sleep trying to figure out why, but there are many, many different recording techniques being used out there, at any time.

I, personally, [as I've said before], have quite a fondness of mixing LINE signals with MIC'd signals, and achieve my best results that way. Definitely. That's one of those "secrets of mixing" [techniques] that I declare, stand by, and use virtually every time I record. I'm not bragging, but my recordings sound "pretty darn good" [technical term].
 
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