Direct Guitar Recording

  • Thread starter Thread starter tonyA
  • Start date Start date

DO YOU RECORD DIRECT?

  • Never, that is lame. I mic everything - vocals, guitars, keyboard, drums

    Votes: 63 14.8%

  • Need to mic Drums, Vocals and Lead Guitar

    Votes: 81 19.0%

  • Except Vocals and Lead Guitar, I could plug everything direct

    Votes: 29 6.8%

  • Yes, with a little work I could get a good sound from it

    Votes: 254 59.5%
  • Total voters
    427
mic'd

I mic vocals, drums, guitars. For me , a mic'd tube amp sounds best. I've tried solid state, I've tried DI redbox, I've tried amp emulation 'processors' from several companies (Line6, Korg, Boss, Yahmaha) .. not for me. For the style of music I play, through experimentation and trying many products, I have come to the conclusion that the mic'd tube amp sound .. is my sound.

I use distortion (hard rock, classical, metal) and, i found that a good tube amp (5 preamp tubes in my case) has such amazing dynamics that it's unbeleivable. To my knowledge, solid state circuitry can't emulate the distortion attenuation that a good tube amp can. Solid state can emulate the 'sound' of a specific distortion and tone of a good tube amp, but falls short in the realm of 'dynamic distortion'. This is why people buy tube heads from marshall, ampeg, and mesa boogie etc. it's about soul and feel.

Anyhow, this is just my experience. I am lucky enough to have gotten a great deal on an amazing couple of top end tube heads and a mesa cab loaded with celestions .. so go figure. Results may vary.
 
I hated going direct until I plugged into my ART. There is something about that Toob that just phatens ti all up. With that and revalver on the right settings we got blues settings that sounded WAY better then my Strat / Reverend Hellhound Combo. Just takes some experimentation. We also got some very Phat metal and punk sounds. It is nice and dry (Like recording in a closet), and punchy, but not very brittle which surprised me.
 
my guitarist has a new marshall tsl, it has a balanced emulated out.... this gets a far better sound than i have been able to get with micing in my shitty room.... whats more important is my guitarist likes the sound too... i think those d.i. connections on the back of a lot of amps are under estimated..... but thats just my opinion
 
crazy thing

Crazy thing , this weekend.

I got this idea for a tune, and instead of burning up my precious, expensive tubes (13 tubes in my Mesa) , since it was a 'clean' peice, I plugged my guitar direct into my mixer!!!! Set the mixer's EQ settings to fit my taste.

So I laid down the 'rough' take, to a metronome of course .. and to my surprise, after adding SOFTWARE plugins such as the Warp VST guitar emulator and dynamics processor .. i found that the clean sound was BETTER than anything i can get out of my monster amps. (I don't own a Roland Jazz Chorus or any other nice 'clean' amp)

So I forged ahead and through the same process added a 'clean lead' track to the mellow guitar rythm

On the overall mix, I added a touch of multi band harmonic excitation to bring out some 'crystal highs' and a multi band stereo imager (delay, not EQ trick) to to get the sound spread out in the stereo field ... and BOOM!! It's a keeper.

I'm not even gonna buy a solid state clean amp.

In terms of distortion, I'll keep my monster amps, but for recording clean, I'm straight into the mixer and using VST plugs from now on.

Tristan
 
sorry , may not be the right term.

Multiband Harmonic Exciter.

A product that's popular on this site, called iZotope Ozone provides the capability. (I only use izotope for this purpose, nothing else actually.) Steinberg mastering edition provides a similar 'single band' product called ME Spectralizer.

Don't quote me on this...

Harmonic excitation is a process by which a fundamental frequencie's multiples are amplified and sometimes even created.

This process can help bring out an instrument's presence.

Apparently it was popularized in the eighties and somewhat overused at times. Can be used to add 'sparkle' to an instrument you're trying to 'bring out' in the mix. To be used with GREAT caution. Only use a small bit of it.. if you have too.

It's multi band cause it allows you to pick up to 4 different frequency ranges to work on. This allows you to add excitation to the treble frequencies without affecting the others for example.


Check out the iZotope Ozone manual on iZotope's website. .. it's free. (the manual that is.)


Tristan
 
I will often record direct from my Mesa DC-3's recording out. Sometimes straight to the recorder, sometimes an art tube MP inbetween. When ever I do this, I always have some sort of room mic going on, usually it's just leaving the drum overhead(s) powered up.

Reamping = excellent

especially on snare drums :D want a little more snare sizzle on a track that lacks? set up a good sounding snare, place a monitor on top of it, run the soloed snare track (using a gate can help) through the speaker and mic the snare. from the bottom or on the shell works well, experiment.

Also, if you have a good PA, set up the kit, mic it, then run other instruments through the PA, blasting the sound into the body of the kit. You pick up the resonances of the shells and cymbals, a cool way to add some live performance air to some isolated or direct recorded guitar and or bass tracks. Sometimes that guitar track dosen't sound right unless it's rattling the snares in places.

It all good cuz if you don't like it or it dosen't work, you don't have to use it! If your on some studio clock, may not be the smartest idea to waste time on it, but it's so fun to experiment on your own time. try it.

For a time I had an old Acoustic 18" bass cabinet (i think a design Harvey maybe had something to do with back in the day) I would reamp bass and sometimes kick through that thing and mic it with a Beta-52- a good way to "eq" a track. :D
 
tvaillan said:
sorry , may not be the right term.

Multiband Harmonic Exciter.

A product that's popular on this site, called iZotope Ozone provides the capability. (I only use izotope for this purpose, nothing else actually.) Steinberg mastering edition provides a similar 'single band' product called ME Spectralizer.

Don't quote me on this...

Harmonic excitation is a process by which a fundamental frequencie's multiples are amplified and sometimes even created.

This process can help bring out an instrument's presence.

Apparently it was popularized in the eighties and somewhat overused at times. Can be used to add 'sparkle' to an instrument you're trying to 'bring out' in the mix. To be used with GREAT caution. Only use a small bit of it.. if you have too.

It's multi band cause it allows you to pick up to 4 different frequency ranges to work on. This allows you to add excitation to the treble frequencies without affecting the others for example.


Check out the iZotope Ozone manual on iZotope's website. .. it's free. (the manual that is.)


Tristan
Click to expand...


thanks, tvaillan. I will look into it. Sounds like an interesting processor.

AL
 
When we record, i usually split the signal to my amp and the POD II. Granted, the pod sounds decent by itself, but when you play it side by side with a good amp, the combined sound is great.

vl
 
volcano_lance,

So i figure you're getting some good high end as a result of the direct POD line , then the 'oumph/body' comes from the amp.

Is this correct?

Tristan
 
tvaillan said:
volcano_lance,

So i figure you're getting some good high end as a result of the direct POD line , then the 'oumph/body' comes from the amp.

Is this correct?

Tristan
Click to expand...
The POD does add some unwanted high end sizzle, which in turn works out extremely well for me.
My main amp is a Sovtek Mig50, and its fairly dark.
The combo gets the best of both worlds. When its possible, I'll post. I'm at work right now :)
 
Right on .. looking forward to hear it.

I may try that soon. I've got access to a Korg Toneworks ax1500g and may try the same trick with my mesa boogie.

It'd be nice to be able to 'ride' the track volumes in nuendo and get a good feel for how the two sounds 'blend' and compliement each other.

This may explain why George Lynch has been reported to use a POD in his effects loop. I mean the man uses Soldano heads for crying out loud. I didn't think he was in his right mind for adding a POD to his rig (macho ego thing).. but now, i think that it's a possibility that he's lining out to a POD through his effects loop and that the signal never actually gets back to the amp. He may be simply micing his amp, and blending in with the POD at the mixing console to taste.


Give us a clip!
 
Sorry dudes, the computer has been on the fritz,...look for clips tonite.

vl
 
or you could try the guitaport... nobody mentioned it so i guess ill bring it up. its kinda of like a preamp i guess, and its direct into your soundcard, recreates alot of classic settings as well as your own custom ones. and like its not dull, it sounds like someones mic'ing a marshall stack lol

i had one myself, but since i got my peavey and marshall combo, who needs that little gizmo. lol
 
I record everything direct mostly because of my limited capabilities (as far as mics and amps go). If I work at it I can get some decent sounds. I have a Korg multi-effects pedal that can give me all sorts of amp sims (heads and cabs).

I heard that Jimmy page, in the early days of Zep, used to put a mike in front and behind an amp and mix them to get a desired effect. I wonder if that is true? It sure sounds like a cool experiment.
 
I'm gonna have to go with Vurt on this one. There's nothing more sweeter than sticking a shure sm57 on a JCM900 half stack.

I like to think of those amp simulators as crap. There's no integrity.

Amp simulators are fake just like autotuned vocals are fake. We can tell it's fake and it's horrible to listen to.
 
Get a guitar efx pedal, efx rack, or processor, that gives you the ambience you want,

and GO FOR IT! It's not the end of the world, and with effects you may have moderately realistic ambience, if it's the right combination of efx, & tweeked just right.

Meanwhile, your in-laws living in the basement is a problem. However, make due with direct-in for now, in your present situation, and make the best of it in the meantime.;)

Direct in guitar's not all that bad, especially with enough efx, but I'll clue you in on a hint:

I get the best DI results if I train a mic about 6"-9" off the body of the guitar, MIXED with the DI sound. You'll have to play with the mix a bit, maybe, til it's just right, but it will give you a more 'live ambience' to the recorded track. You're a bit more susceptible to outside noise, but it's not that bad, and is worth a try. Anyway, with something that's close-mic'd like that, your susceptibility to outside noise is reduced to a minimum.

That would be ESPECIALLY true if you're micing an AMP TURNED UP IN THE ROOM, with the relative gain you're using on the mic, it would tend to reject ambient noise. IMO, a close-mic on a loud amp in a normal room, would reject ambient noise quite well, since the mic-gain you'll use will be so low, due to the amp being turned up an appreciable amount. Anyway, that's how I see it, from my view.

How noisy is your house, anyway? Can't you go in the bedroom and close the doors and windows? Isn't that enough?;)

Last comment, IMO some small amount of ambient noise will not be noticeable on a final mix. Cheers!;)
 
Reamping is only as good as your amp. Most amp simulators will give you better results unless you got a nice amp. Me, I like the thrill of micing on the fly. We record in a room that is octagonal and about 52 feet wide and 27 feet tall. All my tracks come through nice, not to mention the drums.
 
A little late jumping on this thread...

IMHO you can't beat a well-miced tube amp, BUT for those times when that's not practical or if I need tonal variety I've been using a Johnson J-Station ("similar" to POD) as follows:

I record the J-Station L and R analog outs and also the stereo SPDIF out (three tracks total). Since the SPDIF is a dry signal (no effects), it allows me to blend a dry track with the effected tracks till I get the desired result. Sometimes I'll add plugins to the recorded dry signal (complimentary to but different than the effected tracks) for some interesting results.

For some reason the combination of the 3 tracks makes for a rich, fat guitar sound, where as the L & R analog or the SPDIF on its own sounds anemic in comparison.
 
I defintely mic the drums and vox.

The bass is direct through a SansAmp.

I use two guitar amps. An Ampeg VH-140C and a Gallien Kruger ML/S. Both are run through an ADA Microcab II cabinet emulator.

I had to stick an EQ on both outputs of the microcab to get the sound where I wanted it on the guitars, but I just made minor boosts above 0db. All in all, it's been a great investment.

The SansAmp requires very little post EQ'ing. I do insert a compressor on the bass chanel when recording just to squish it a bit and give the response some bite :D.
 
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