Recording High Reverb Guitar

D

daisyvale

New member
Hi all,

I am new so apologies if I am in the wrong place.

I am trying to record my guitar with a Strymon Bluesky through an SM57 but having questionable results. Do you have any tips for recording guitar with high reverb through an amp into a mic? Is it better to record direct and add reverb later? I quite like recording with my pedals, which is the main reason I purchased the majority of them.

My set up: Fender AV 1956 Strat < MXR Dynacomp < Strymon El Capitan < Strymon Bluesky < Fender 58 Custom Twin Reverb < Shure SM57 < Focusrite 2i2 < Logic Pro X.

Thank you in advance for your help!
 
Depending on where the meaning of questionable results' leads..
There is one thing, it is easier -better in some ways, to dial in things like this in the context of the mix. So there's that.

Welcome BTW and Happy Hunting !
 
It is not known from your post what the issue is.

Using a reverb in your guitar signal chain has no bearing on getting a good or bad result. People successfully record an amp with reverb all the time.

Maybe your issue is mic placement, maybe a crap room, maybe your gain structure into the daw. Who knows.

But, I'll tell you, the blue sky is a nice reverb. I use one sometimes on an insert on my console. There's great plate reverbs in there that I'll use on snares.
I actually wish they made a rackmounted version of it. I like it that much.

Also I'm a big fan of 'committing' to a guitar sound, rather than endlessly playing around with plug ins to get that 'perfect' sound.

If you've been playing for any length of time, you know what sound you want.

Now the trick is just to capture that to 'tape'.

Play around with mics, position, room, ect.
Good luck.
:D

Edit: re read your post. You have some good gear, you just gotta figure out how to use it fully. :D
 
I always look at it in reverse. A 57 for guitar amps is a proven decent choice - BUT - it hears what it hears at a certain position. I suspect what it is providing is exactly what the amp sounds like where you put the mic. You listen from a very different position - so you are hearing the stuff coming out of the amp front, what comes out of the sides and of course the open back. I'd experiment with mic positions - but what happens if you record from the end of your processor chain - excluding the amp. What does that sounds like. The fender has a proven heritage and well know sound - so maybe what you are hearing is a combination of loads of things, and the mic is excluding some of them?
 
This is a common topic around here. As noted, what you hear in the room is not the same thing the mic "hears" some inches away from the speaker. A corollary is that the recorded sound of a guitar you hear when listening to your favorite guitarist is probably not exactly what they were hearing, and these days, probably not exactly what was initially recorded either. You've just got to figure out how to use the mic, amp, and magic of the DAW, as well as train your own ear to understand how to set up the guitar to get a track that will be usable to get a good mix.

I'd start by adding a 2nd mic in the room and see how a mix of the two mics sounds. You could use a cardioid LDC and keep it mono, i.e., both mics panned the same and just adjust the balance, or try a figure 8, whatever you've got, mostly working the EQ and mix between the 57 and room mic.

Sometimes a recorded track needs to be drier than what your brain is telling you sounds good, and sometimes it might need to be wetter. My preference is to keep things a little drier, though some things, like tremolo, I'll work on dialing in until I'm happy, if I'm not going to do that itb.

Post some tracks here for feedback from the folks that are recording electric a lot (which is not me).
 
I think I heard somebody say it was trumpeter syndrome. They're never happy with their recorded sound because they've never in their lives heard it, and never will!
 
I am trying to record my guitar with a Strymon Bluesky through an SM57 but having questionable results. Do you have any tips for recording guitar with high reverb through an amp into a mic?
Click to expand...
Questionable results for you can mean Awesome Great results for 1,000,000 others. so i have no clue what you mean.

But, the guitar doesn't produce reverb, so you need to figure out what you are doing wrong. Use the proximity effect to your advantage and close mic the guitar cabinet of your room is horrible for recording.
 
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