THE OLD DAYS
I know I am dating myself by discussing this:
In the old days when the old 45 rpm records were just being introduced and the 78 rpm records were slowly being replaced. The 12" long playing records were just starting to be secure in the market, but there were still no cassette tape recorders. I was lucky enough, however, that my father bought a 1/4" portable reel to reel recorder which he thought was a cute novelty since he saw it being used by court reporters. It had a microphone which I used to record my long playing albums by placing it ever so carefully a foot or so away from the front of the speakers of our wooden stereo console (component stereo were just being introduced at a fairly expensive price). Place it to close and the sound distorts at low frequencies. Too far and I get more ambient noise. The volume controls (stereo and the tape recorder) had to be just right also. On the average, I get to record two pieces before a car would pass by our street and blow its horn once or twice to ruin my recordings that I had to do the recodings over again.
I was satisfied with recordings I made until Philips from Australia came out with the cassette console that was offered as part of the stereo system console cabinets and was wired directly. The 7 1/2" reel to reel from Akai and Teac also started to come out but was prohibitively expensive.
Then I learned how inferior my mic'd recordings were compared to direct recordings made by my father of his favorite FM programs. Even when we had the 7 1/2" reel to reel from Akai with a shure mic, my mic recordings were still lousy. Was it the mic? Was it the room acoustics? Was it because of the tape I use? It was all of those and then some, but definitely the direct method was inferior as far as fidelity is concerned.
BUT, we know something is lost when we record direct. We lose the ever important ambiance and the feel of the sound. It is the very same reason lead guitar effects should always be recorded live, not added post. It affects our playing. In short, the loud sound of the mic'd recordings is our crutch in a way when we play. Is the mic'd method any better? I doubt it. Given the right equipment, preamp, direct box, etc., you could get a good or even excellent sound from recording direct. More, you could shape the sound better, since you could change the size of the room from a "small room large room, large hall, auditorium, stadium, church, etc." and I am just talking about reverb effect boxes. Try that with the mic'd method.
As we could see, we get more flexibility recording direct. But as recording engineers, we know we have to please the guitar players ego as it affects his playing. A good recording engineer could give you an adequate recording, direct or otherwise. BUT, ask him what he prefers if he has to alter or change the sound later, I am sure you could guess the answer, unless, of course, he is the lead guitar player himself, he needs the crutch and/or reassurance as he plays.
This is the same reason the mixing console manufacturers gave us a separate monitor mix section where we could alter the sound we feed the players/recording artist through the headphones or otherwise or give them a different mix/taste of effects for each individual players as necessary/preferred, which could entirely be different than the one we send to the recording medium.
Just think if the player like to hear himself, give him the same speakers/monitors, with the effects he desires, twisted and toned to his heart content, but just let it pass through the recording console first. This is where it matters. (You could mic this also and send it to a different track just for comparison, just make sure the standard you use for "what is a better sound" is the same for both methods). I am sure your findings would be the same as most people on this thread already found out.
I am only talking about lead guitars. Some intruments have to be mic'd, of course (sax, trumpet, etc.).
I am happy to discover, that most people on this thread feel the same way I do, as evidenced by the survey results. Thanks guys!
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