guitar recording tips

  • Thread starter Thread starter thequietcity
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thequietcity

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Hey everyone.

I am new to the recording thing, and wanted to know how you guys go about recording guitar with a heavy distortion sound. The stuff i've done is decent, but i just can't get the full, heavy, resonant sound that i hear others get.

I am using:
fender deluxe 90 amp
sure sm58s and a sure condenser
basic 4 track mixer into my computer with cakewalk home studio 4.0

i know part of the problem lies in my budget equiptment, but any advice you can give would be great.

thanks.
 
Have you thought of layering the guitars? Ie record them twice or more until you have a nice thick base to work with. Then you might like to pan the recorded tracks left and delay each of them by about 20ms and pan the delayed signals to the right. By delaying the signal 20 ms you create a slap back effect. Similar to what John Lennon used on his vocals. Basically 20ms is not long enough for your brain to distinguish it as a second sound event so it sounds like one big guitar sound. If you listen to Rammstein's breakthrough album youll know the kind of effect you get using this method. They recorded each guitar track about 6 times and doubled them. Try it and see what you think of it.
 
i'd have to agree with poddy here, although i use a simpler, more stripped down method that sounds great to me:

just record the guitar part twice (you can use the same tone for both or use slightly different tones fore each) and then pan them out to the left and right.

also using two mics, one up against the amp, and another a couple of feet away works real nice, as you can layer the natural room reverb with the sound from the amp.
 
i think your budget equipment should work fine for what you are trying to do.............it all starts with a nice loud amp sound with good tone..........then mess around with mic placements.........how's your soundcard? that could be a problem
 
I've found the close mic placement is really importand. Too close to the center and all you get is a thin ball-less sound, too close to the speaker edge and it's all mud.

I recommend doing a bunch of takes inching the mic around the speaker at differnt angles, name them all accordingly, then sit down and listen to them with a decent monitoring system/set of headphones.

Doug
 
i've found that double tracking the guitar is an awesome way to make it go POW!!!

but, like most things too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

when you get to having triple or quad tracking you start getting a more chorus-y sound.
 
I would suggest you (if you can afford it) to buy a virtual amplifier effect such as POD or V-Amp2.
I own a V-Amp 2 by Behringer which is Very good and CHEAP (aprox. 200 Euros in Greece) and I have every sound I need! Even making my own ones. Fantastic "classic" amplifiers and tremendous variety of cabinets.
Just plug it to your audio card or mixer and Play MUSIC!
for more:
http://www.v-amp.com

Note: I own Fender Strato, and a Gibson "Jazzy" guitar.
 
I suggest an inexpensive amp modeler such as V Amp2 or J Station. But the most impotant thing is to always be in tune. (Don't laugh - this seems obvious but is often overlooked)
 
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