recording guitar techniques??????

B

bball_1523

New member
I need help with recording my electric guitar. I got cool edit pro 2.0, and I was wondering how do I pan the mono recorded guitar part? Are there any effects I need to use to get that stereo guitar sound? How do I even get stereo sound for my guitar? What program on the computer will give me more accuracy in recording my guitar?


thanks
 
Cool edit pro should do you just fine. Your problem might be your soundcard. A stereo track=2 mono tracks, which means, you need 2 outputs from your guitar processor, and 2 inputs on your soundcard to recieve them.

Or, make your own stereo track by recording the same guitar twice, then just match them<<double tracking

AL
 
It actually doesn't matter so much that you're recording on a PC...any tips regarding recording guitars will apply no matter what you're recording on (unless the tip is "record to tape", hehe). You might search the recording techniques and mixing forums because this topic of course does come up from time to time.

There are a million ways to get big guitar sounds in a recording. Overdubbing is probably the most common. You just record a lot of takes and mix them together. You can either use the same guitar sound or blend a bunch of different sounds.

An interesting song to listen to in this regard is "Stacked Actors" by the foo fighters. From memory, there are three very different guitar sounds on that album, and they're very easy to distinguish. Each on its own isn't really powerful, but put them together and wham. Try to duplicate the style of that song is a great way to learn.

Then of course you can always just try to get the big sound you want before going to tape. Experiment with stereo delay's, chorus, compression, and various overdrive/distortion pedals.

No matter how you try to get your sound though, you should always have a plan for how you'd like it to sound before you start recording. Don't just record tracks and try to make them sound good at mix time. That is a very common mistake.

Slackmaster 2000
 
is there a way though with my soundblaster 64D soundcard to record a mono track and duplicate it in cool edit pro 2.0 and then pan em out and add effects to make em sound better, atleast in stereo format?
 
Sure, Cool Edit should have a "clone track" feature. If not you can just add the same wav containing your guitar track to the project twice. However, panning copies of the exact same sound won't do anything unless you process them differently.

Really it's best to do live overdubs than to process the exact same sound multiple times.

Also, don't let the concept of "mono" confuse you. All mono tracks can be panned left an right when they're added to the main bus which is stereo. That's why your "mono" track plays back through both of your monitors when it's panned dead center...it is automatically "converted" to stereo for you because you're mixing in a stereo application. In other words, just use the pan knob/control that CEP will provide for each track.

Finally, lots of effects have stereo output. You could throw a stereo delay on a single mono track to instantly fatten it up.

Slackmaster 2000
 
if you listen to some of my songs I played at http://www.soundclick.com/faith23 the POD one especially and Toxicity cover, have the guitar sound like dead-center mono. What effects will atleast make them sound like general rock songs that have their guitars panned and in stereo. I don't care about perfect sound like metallica, just good enough regular recording sound techniques?
 
Try *panning* the guitars. I don't know what else to say. Your average rock song has many layers of guitar tracks mixed to create a "single" sound. You might not get a nice big stereo guitar sound from a single take.

Are you trying to make something out of an existing recording? What precisely do you need to accomplish?

Slackmaster 2000
 
I dont want to edit an existing song I created. I just want to generally improve my guitar recording to sound more better recorded because my songs sound ugly. lol
 
Ok, then you just need to try some of the things I mentioned above.

The simplest thing you can try right now is this:

1) Record a take.
2) Record another take.
3) Pan one track about 75% left.
4) Pan the other track about 75% right.

That's a start anyhow. Try listening to the guitars on the albums you like...and I mean really listen to the guitars. Try to find that Stacked Actors song by the Foo Fighters, it's like How to Get a Big Sound With Minimal Effort 101.

Here's another fun & simple one:

1) Record a take of a guitar with a lot of low mids and not much else....preferably with gnarly overdrive instead of distortion.
2) Record a take of a guitar with its lower midrange scooped out, so it's kind of bright...preferably with more of a distortion sound.
3) Again with the scooped out low end, record yet another guitar, but use slightly different settings, maybe switch your POD to a different cabinet or amp model.
4) Pan the low growly guitar dead center, but keep its level pretty low, it's just there for meat. Now pan the other two guitars about 50-90% left & right respectively and mix their levels with the level of the low guitar until you get a nice big mesh.
5) Depending on how tight a player you are, you might also try delaying one of the panned guitars by about 20-50ms.

Now you just have to be creative!

Finally, watch the low end of your guitars...what sounds good while you're playing it solo might not sound good in a mix. Typically in a rock record when you hear a guitar that sounds very big with a lot of apparent low end...well...it usually doesn't have much low end at all. That's just what a good mix of guitar + bass + kick will sound like. Let the bass guitar be responsible for its range and the guitars be responsible for theirs.

Oh, and again check out both the recording and mixing forums. Anything said about getting big guitar sound in there will apply directly to you. Those of us recording with PC's use the same techniques to get big guitar sounds as those recording with whatever else (unless the technique specifically involves tape or something not possible on the PC).

Slackmaster 2000
 
although slack has really said it all...i suggest/do:

first get the amp to sound the best that it possibly can...and yet back up on the distortion a tiny bit when you record it.

second, find the perfect mic spot...play around until you think it sounds player as hell...i mean really player...haha
you'll notice that if you start with you SM57 pointed dead center at the cone, maybe 2 inches away frlom the cloth, that if you even move it an inch or 2 to the left, the sound may change dramatically. so be carefull, and take your time.

lastly - i record tons of guitar tracks. sometimes even 6 of the same thing. 4 on one guitar setting, 2 on a similar, but different guitar sound setting.......
then, i usually pan something like (l/r) 80/80, 40/40, 15/15...or something like that..just depending on the individual mix.

that will generally give you a hell of a thick guitar sound, which i love. stuff like Weezer blue and Poison the Well - Opposite of December...the REALLY thick stuff.

honestly, i found one of the fullest kick/guitar/bass mixes in Poison the Well - Opposite of December............although i'm sure its nobody here's favorite style, lookit up on kazaa, i think you'll love the mixes.
 
you'd have to ask their engineers :D

Going from memory, I'm sure that Sad but True has doubled guitars - you can hear it (also, tuning down to 'D', and probably huge cabinets, too). But much of the heavy sound you hear is a result of the tight interaction between guitar and bass, like Slack said (very well put, by the way, Slack).
 
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