1st Time Recording Efforts

S

SuperCharger

New member
Hey there

I'm just starting out with home recording, I bought some equipment to get me going, a Shure SM57 a new sound card and a Line6 Pod 2. The music I write uses mainly electric guitar but some accoustic, so I wanted to try out recording both seperatly to see what results I could get.

For the accoustic song I did a quick recording of 'Rivers of Babylon' to save time writing something new for now. There are no drums on this track, 2 layers of guitar and lead and backing vocals. I've messed around with the panning, added a little compression, a wee bit of reverb on guitar and vox and left the EQ alone.

The other song is to test out electric guitar with distortion, which I found 'A LOT' more difficult to get any good results. There is an accoustic bridge which I think I'll scrap cuz it doesnt seem to sit well with the rest of the song (sound wise). The song has no bass guitar or vocals and the drums were done in Fruity Loops, but they'll soon be replaced with a drum track done on my Roland V-Drum kit. The song is far from finished as there are still bits that need writing/recording (example; the intro). It's mainly for seeing what sort if sounds I can get from the guitars, and I don't want to add anything else until I get them sorted. There are 2 layers of guitar on the verse, and a single rhythm and lead for the chorus. The bridge was made up of 2 layers of accoustic and 2 clean electric layers (1 with flange effect). I've messed around with the EQ a little and thats about it, no reverb (appart form accoustic bit) or anything else.

Accoustic


Electric


Any tips on panning, EQ'ing, compressing etc would be great.
Am I layering my guitars correctly?

Do they sound rubbish?


Thanks
 
NOTE: Please right click and 'save as' on the files, cuz for some reason geocities doesnt like having there files left clicked :-/
 
Hi. Sounds good. Here is my constructive critisisM:

The line 6 sounds too digi and has to much emphasis in the midrange. It needs more high frequencies to make it shine. I think you would get a better sound by running your line 6 into an amp and recording the amps cab with your SM57. The problem with the kind of guitar sound you have now is it is to up front in the mix and has no depth. Listen to the mix in headphones, the guitars sit right on your ears . They need more space. Try EQing the guitar on the left differently from the one on the right. Add some reverb. I like the phasing in the bridge, I think as far as the arrangement maybe try using a semi-distorted guitar with that phaser sound on it in the bridge.
 
I listened to the electric tune. The guitars sound ok but that really means nothing. The problem is that when you start adding more instruments what was once a perfect tone can turn to mush. The best way is to get a good sound from each instrument and record. Then go back and tweak the tracks. Once you have all of the tracks you will have a better idea of which tones work and which ones don't.



http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/jerryroncomusic.htm
 
very nice sounding bridge in that electric song, tight flange, not too overdone which is the most common story for people new to recording. Sounds pretty cool man.
 
Thanks alot for the tips man.

I'll try out what you suggested. I've tried mic'ing the amp before, but the results seemed to be lacking in tone, I guess I'll just have to mess around with mic placement and maybe adjust the settings on my amp (more bass, mid etc?).

When doubling a guitar track to give it more depth like ive done in the verse, I've heard people say you should pan them hard left and hard right, does this mean 100% left and right, cuz at the moment I have mine panned at about 70%.

When you say I should make the EQ for the guitar different to that of the right, do you mean make one slightly deeper sounding and the other more high end for instance?

As for reverb I usually find it makes things sound a bit vague when used on distorted guitars, maybe with better EQ'ing and some very light reverb this would be ok?

Anymore help would be great.

Thanks again
 
Hi,

By EQ different I mean Maybe boost one guitar in the mid 1000-5000k area and cut the other. Just try it and see if you prefer having the sound of two guitars that sound a little different.

Add a splash of reverb to make it sound like the guitars were recorded in a room. Use a reverb with a short decay time.

Dont put the guitars 100% left or right. Do about 90% to 75%.

Check out these tracks:

http://neopolitanmusic.com/neoMUSIC.htm

For my guitar tracks I used a Mesa-Boogie Dual Rectifier Trem-o-verb through a marshall cab. They were recorded with an SM-58 or maybe an SM-57, I cant remember. Place your mic about 6" away from the speaker. I used the reverb built into the amp.

Try that and let me know how it works out for you. Those things have worked for me in the past, they may work for you too. Let me know how it goes.
 
Cool I'll try out what you suggested.

I've just ordered a boom mic stand so I can actually place the mic properly and not just balance it on top of books and stuff :-)

I'll run the Line 6 Pod through my Marshall 50watt amp and mic the cab. The Pod has a few Rectifier models built into it, so I'll give those a whirl. Maybe one day I'll fork out for a real one :-D

I had a listen to your music and I like the sounds you got, sounds quite proffesional, good songs too. For example on 'The Punk Song', did you just record the same guitar parts twice, pan them equally about 85% and adjust the EQ on each one accordingly?

As for mic'ing the the guitar amps, did you have the mic pointing straight at the center of the cone of the speaker, or slightly off center? And was the mic perfectly horizontal (lying flat) or was it at an angle?

Again thanks alot, this is really helping me.
 
Oh and another thing!

How loud should I have the amp when I'm mic'ing it for recording? Just enough to get a good tone, or quite loud? I don't wanna blast the mic with shouting guitars and have it record a fuzzy mess.

Ta
 
The guitars should be LOUD. Play them at the same volume as you would if you were playing a show. Adjust your gain on the mic so that the signal isnt clipping. It shouldnt be fuzzy if you are recording it properly.
 
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