guitar distortion problems: direct | micing amp | alesis board ? argh

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fetusborg
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Fetusborg

Fetusborg

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hi
so...

im doing a lot of home recording, but as you all may know, recording overdriven guitars directly into the PC's soundcard gets you pretty much shit results.

so i line out from the amp into line in of soundcard... and that also gets me shitty results (better though).
1) cause my amp sucks
2) cause of course there is no pre amp
3) sound card is a SB LIve, ok but not ok enough.

so... i tried micing the amp and this mic would go straight to the soundcard. not much better results.
1) mic sucks (Fender P-51 ... and tried my Sony MD mic, a Sony ECM-MS907 condensor.
2) amp still sucks
3) room sucks
4) no mic stand.

:)

so ok... i have an alesis Studio24 mixing board which is broken. i budgeted its repair, which comes out pretty expensive.

so my question is: how much do you think i will improve my guitar tone (basically overdrive/distortion strokesesque type) ie. keeping it as faithful as what my amp is producing... if i went ahead and repairing my alesis board and used that as a preamp?


yeah, thats the question.

aright buddies
thanks
 
I think you would be better off spending the "repair" money on a new Mic, Preamp, and soundcard.
 
Fetusborg said:
so my question is: how much do you think i will improve my guitar tone (basically overdrive/distortion strokesesque type) ie. keeping it as faithful as what my amp is producing... if i went ahead and repairing my alesis board and used that as a preamp?
Click to expand...

First off, unless you are using a modeler (POD, vAMP, etc.), do not attempt to record any distorted guitar direct. It will sound bad, period. Mic the amp. Secondly, I think the mic preamp plays such a small role in the tone when recording electric guitar, it's not even worth considering right now. The tone of your guitar & amp are most important. Next is mic selection and placement. Then preamps and converters. What I'm saying is: frontload your recording chain, first. Make sure you have the right guitar and amp for the style of music you're making. Once you have that covered, get a decent dynamic mic for guitar cabs (Shure SM57, Sennheiser e609 would be great to start out). Then, any decent preamp will do. Sure, it will sound a little better through a killer pre, but the pre makes much less of an impact than the guitar and amp.
 
i see what you guys mean.

i've got the guitar i want, i love the tone i get from it. ive got the pedal i want, love it also. my amp is not good at all, but its what ive using for years, so the sound i get from it is what im used to. im sure if i played through a better amp, id be blown away, as i have before, but i just cant afford an amp now.

(live in sao paulo brazil, musical instruments and such are TOO expensive).

so... im faced with the decision, and at this point (money wise) only ONE can be made.

should i buy the SM57 or should i fix my alesis studio24?

now... the alesis will work as a preamp, yes? officialy, right?
my setup is very comando. guitar - analog overdrive pedal - amp - line out to sound card - ... into sound forge, cool edit, or kristal. whatever suits at the moment.

i dont go direct, ive learned that lesson quickly already.

what option (buying the SM57 or repairing my alesis board) would give me the best results of keeping my overdrives loyal to what the pedal is SUPPOSED to do and to the sound amp is producing?

repairing the board, lets say, would cost me almost twice as much as buying the microphone, granted the prices i saw for the mic on ebay are correct... what, 60 bucks for it? sounds great.

so... whats you guys opinnion?
 
Fetusborg said:
i see what you guys mean.

i've got the guitar i want, i love the tone i get from it. ive got the pedal i want, love it also. my amp is not good at all, but its what ive using for years, so the sound i get from it is what im used to. im sure if i played through a better amp, id be blown away, as i have before, but i just cant afford an amp now.

(live in sao paulo brazil, musical instruments and such are TOO expensive).

so... im faced with the decision, and at this point (money wise) only ONE can be made.

should i buy the SM57 or should i fix my alesis studio24?

now... the alesis will work as a preamp, yes? officialy, right?
my setup is very comando. guitar - analog overdrive pedal - amp - line out to sound card - ... into sound forge, cool edit, or kristal. whatever suits at the moment.

i dont go direct, ive learned that lesson quickly already.

what option (buying the SM57 or repairing my alesis board) would give me the best results of keeping my overdrives loyal to what the pedal is SUPPOSED to do and to the sound amp is producing?

repairing the board, lets say, would cost me almost twice as much as buying the microphone, granted the prices i saw for the mic on ebay are correct... what, 60 bucks for it? sounds great.

so... whats you guys opinnion?
Click to expand...

Buy the 57 IMO. You might also look at getting a cheap Mic pre such as the M-Audio Audiobuddy.

I would also re-iterate what has been said further up the thread. Get good gear in front of the mic! If the sound going into the mic is rubbish then it will sound just as rubbish on playback.
It could be that since you are so used to your amp you don't actually pay attention to the sound it's making. Listen closely. Is it a smooth round overdrive or a cheap-sounding wasp in a bottle? Is it *really*the sound you want to record?

IMO nothing beats a tube amp (I use a Fender Vibrolux Custom Reverb) cranked right up (no pedals required) and close-mic'd with a 57 with a pair of condensors about 10 feet away. Another 57 behind the cab helps too :)
Big. Fat. Sound :D

Gotta spend some money to achieve that though...
 
If you buy an SM57 you will also need to buy a preamp to make it work correctly. As Codmate pointed out the M-Audio Audiobuddy would be a good choice. The problem is that a new mic and preamp will not make a bad sounding amp sound any better. With the limited amount of money that you have to spend I believe that you would get much better results with an amp modeling device such as a Behringer V-Amp or a Line 6 Guitarport. These units are only a little more expensive than an SM57.
 
is there a software that can give me different amp effects?
 
The simulanalog stuff isn't bad at all if your software supports VST. I like to play through the jcm model from time to time, although for serious recording, nothing beats a real amp.
 
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