Electric guitar

[Lomas]

From what I've read so far, when recording acoustic guitar, you usually get it to sit in a mix (with bass, drums and maybe something else) by taking away more bass than you would for a solo acoustic guitar.

Does that apply to electric guitars too, generally? (not distorted metal guitar, but clean).

I'm trying to get my electric guitar to fit with other stuff but it seems no matter what I do it sounds too muddy, or shrill like hell. The guitar is going directly into the mixer 'cause I don't own an amplifier.

 

[NYMorningstar]

From scratch you need to have something good to record and a good room to record it in. Work on the guitar sound before you try to track it. You shouldn't be tracking it and then trying to get it to fit into a mix. Fixing it in the mix = bad. Fixing it before tracking = good.

There are a few options for electric guitar. Recording it direct in is not one of them. If you can't use an amplifier, you can use a D/I box to get the impedances to match or you can use some effects boxes to bring the signal to line level. I favor micing the amp.

 

[mrbowes]

Try a HPF at 80, 160, or 300 hz and then boost 7k or 12k by a few db.

 

[Lomas]

From scratch you need to have something good to record and a good room to record it in. Work on the guitar sound before you try to track it. You shouldn't be tracking it and then trying to get it to fit into a mix. Fixing it in the mix = bad. Fixing it before tracking = good.

There are a few options for electric guitar. Recording it direct in is not one of them. If you can't use an amplifier, you can use a D/I box to get the impedances to match or you can use some effects boxes to bring the signal to line level. I favor micing the amp.

Ok, but what is the reason for this? I don't have a problem getting setting the volume, so is the reason for not recording it directly a matter of how it sounds? 'Cause I do have some virtual amplifiers that works...
I can't use an amplifier so I guess I'll look into D/I boxes. Thanks.

 

[TelePaul]

Ok, but what is the reason for this? I don't have a problem getting setting the volume, so is the reason for not recording it directly a matter of how it sounds? 'Cause I do have some virtual amplifiers that works...
I can't use an amplifier so I guess I'll look into D/I boxes. Thanks.

Your amp contains a pre-amp and a speaker, both which contribute to the sound...by bypassing the speaker, you're cutting out a huge amunt of 'character'. Consider your standard run of the mill 15 watt practice amp...sounds pretty crap. Now imagine that run through a 4 x 12 Cabinet. Speakers make a big difference. I'd Mic every time, and if ya cant, try DI that puppy with your stompers.

 

[Lomas]

I see...yeah I realize that the amp is important for character and all that. I'm on a tight budget (yes, I'm the only one, I know ) and I don't actually use electric (or want to use it) that much. Mainly acoustic stuff. So there's a lot of things on the list that I would get before an amp...and sadly I have no stomp boxes either!

So I've got the guitar straight into the behringer mixer and then I've used plugins for changing the sound a bit.

I guess a stomp box is what I'll get. I also want to be able to use the guitar without waking everyone in the building up. I'm limitied enough to being alone in the apartment when I need to use the acoustic so it's good if I can sit and mess around with electric in headphones.

 

[daav]

I see...yeah I realize that the amp is important for character and all that. I'm on a tight budget (yes, I'm the only one, I know ) and I don't actually use electric (or want to use it) that much. Mainly acoustic stuff. So there's a lot of things on the list that I would get before an amp...and sadly I have no stomp boxes either!

So I've got the guitar straight into the behringer mixer and then I've used plugins for changing the sound a bit.

I guess a stomp box is what I'll get. I also want to be able to use the guitar without waking everyone in the building up. I'm limitied enough to being alone in the apartment when I need to use the acoustic so it's good if I can sit and mess around with electric in headphones.

Be careful about saving too much money and trying to do it all, your electric sound will be crappy, you will get frustrated and it will affect the whole recording. it might even been better to jsut leave the electric sound out until you can borrow a decent amp and spend some time practicing some recording.

That said, it sounds like you are looking for an amp modeler - made to record direct (and silently). Even stomp boxes are made to be played through amps and speakers usually and they really can't be relied on to add tone.

Another option is to use a guitar preamp, i have a real tube II thing that i got years ago and i used to give some tone as a DI box essentially. was a lot better than recording from the out on the amp. It is sitting around right now, I'd sell it pretty cheap if you wanted it.

Daav