Direct vs. micing a guitar amp

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Reilley

Reilley

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Do any of you prefer to go direct, rather than micing an amp? [I'm doing my homework before assembling a DAW.] Can you get as good a sound directly?

Thanks very much.
 
As a rule, no....

You can get workable sounds without an amp, but not BETTER (IMO)...
 
Reilley said:
[I'm doing my homework before assembling a DAW.]

But obviously you're not doing your homework before asking this question :p

Seriously, you could read about this at length if you did a little searching. ;)

Most everybody prefers micing an amp, but you can get acceptable results from DI or modelers depending on the sound you're after.
 
run a search there were two big threads on this in the last two weeks.
 
The best way to record electric guitar is to get a great sound with guitar and amp, put a decent mic in front of it (and a decent mic is often an SM57), and hit the big red button.

The SECOND best way is to use the Palmer PGA 04 or the Sequis Motherload. These are the best devices I have heard at emulating a miced amp sound.

Motherload

Palmer
 
you big bunch of conservative wimps!
of course you can get a GREAT sound out of simply recording your guitar direct.
there are no rules for making a great sounding recording,just have a great song ready to record and do it to the best of you and your equipments abilities,everything will be fine and all of these clinical,yeast-mouthed school boys will take heed...some of you fucks belong in college,not making records.
save the creative process for men with balls that hang low,like myself.
music always sounds better coming from an artist with no fear and no rules.
Ted Philips/Mystery Records
 
Drewcifer666 said:
The SECOND best way is to use the Palmer PGA 04 or the Sequis Motherload. These are the best devices I have heard at emulating a miced amp sound.


Very good point, and something that often gets overlooked.

It's not necessarily the mic'ed speaker that is hard to mimic. It's all the rest of the stuff (tubes, transistors, etc.).
 
It all depends on the sound you want. All you want, aside from effect and responsiveness, PRESENCE, if you will, is that you get enough mid and high-end for it to sit well in a mix. Watch out for that and you'll be fine.

Personally though, I like DI-ing everything unless I can't get a certain sound and need to mic.
 
it's easier to DI everything, and use something like Amplitube or Guitar Rig, but not really at all better sounding.

i perfer to mic a nice tube amp, with a 57. i've also used a condensor backed about 3 feet from it, behind the 57. the two blend nicely, as the 57 has that distinct- well you know! the 57 sound to it, and my condesnor (oktava MK319) blends well.
 
But what about getting a really compressed, even tone for shred-oriented guitar music? I've heard of even big bands doing their lead work like that. A 20 watt tube amp with a 57 and a nice LD condenser a few feet away in a dark room is ideal for certain styles of music, but it doesn't always cut it.

Guitar sound is a big, wide-open issue. There's so much to get out of an electric guitar and only a few ways to get each sound.

You can get a good sound, don't let anyone tell you that. You just need to understand how to do it, what to compensate for, and you need to limit it to certain styles of music where the dynamic range of the instrument doesn't need much headroom. You RARELY want to DI clean tones, but distortion, you can get away with.
 
i have never heard a great distorted guitar that was not amped. I am from the school of the 1x12 tube amp miced with a 57 also. In my case I use an Audix I5, which is a better 57.

I hav guitar rig, and it I actually just replicated the guitar rig setup with the real deal (pedals and amp) and the amped sound has tons more depth to it.

A cool thing to do is blend them both, which I may do on a track im mixing now.
 
yes, 1x12 tube amp is the way we love!

and when wouldnt it cut it? i really dont know, i think with the appropriate effects, that can always get the 'right' sound, no matter what style of music.
 
mrhotapples said:
............You can get a good sound, don't let anyone tell you that. You just need to understand how to do it, what to compensate for, and you need to limit it to certain styles of music where the dynamic range of the instrument doesn't need much headroom. You RARELY want to DI clean tones, but distortion, you can get away with.

mmmm......intriguing and bemusing.....and .......well.......darn kookey!
Your last sentence that is!!,(and the first one for that matter!) Can or Can't?
:confused:
Kindest Regards,
Superspit
 
to answer the original question..yes I prefer direct in, its less hassle and can be done anytime...ergonomcially simple. I've heard enough great Direct non-amp guitar sounds to prove the point it can be done. Its the operator not the tools. imo.

on the "real" Tube amp, yeah thats the sound... the emulators and simulators and masterbators all try to copy.

to all the Tube-heads,
how important is the volume of the tube amp when trying to get the "sound", breakup?
If your just playing low volume, everything is clear and clean...tubes technically shouldn't be breaking up and distorting. so..maybe the speaker is more important on clean? :confused:

In other words, just sticking a sm57 on a Tube amp doesn't do the Stevie Ray Vaughn sound. or Hendrix... Did their amp volume have a lot to do with the sound maybe more than most realize?
obviously their technique. Volume=- Breakup and Distortion as I understand it so that being said Tube sounds may require a lot more volume to think about.

just curious never recorded a lot of tube amps...I can't imagine in my home cranking up a tube amp like Twin Reverb? so then I lean towrd the Direct In again.

no professional insinuation here, i'm just a HR head and not a amp boutique owner who could offer much better comparisons.

Lt. Bob mentions this neat little $99 tube head Ep Valve jr, he owns a bunch of tubes amp...

maybe you could float for one of these little guys and compare for yourself what you like using?

er...both is cool too? :D
 
Yes, lots of "classic" guitar solos were recording at piant-peeling volume.

Clapton: Bluesbreakers & Cream: Marshall at 10 in an isolation booth.
Randall Elliott: Reelin' In The Years: Super Reverb "" "" "" ""
Jimi: Half the stuff he recorded: "" "" "" ""

I think Jimi recorded with the mic so close that you hear weird cone noises which you would not hear distinctly at 15 feet.
 
you don't have to record loud with a tube amp to get a nice tone. You crank a tube amp only if you want it to sound broken up, which is not always the sound you really are going for.

First off, when you mic a tube amp at a regular volume correctly you will always get a more 3d image then through a digital modeler. It's not even close. A micd amp always sounds better then direct guitars. I have used amplitube and Grig for years when I could use an amp, and I never was happy with tones until i went with a micd amp.

Also people that say its the skill of the engineer or whatever..thats nice..but there is no amp plugin that distorts like an amp right now. What you may think is great distortion is probably not as great as you think. Go play a Bogner through a 421 with a TS9 in front and track that. It will have a much more 3d image and a tone that can not yet be replicated though a direct line into a modeler.
 
I was going to post in this thread, but then I realized I've posted in about six on this subject in the two months I've been here.
 
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