My setup check

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Adz6794

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Hey guys, I have been recording on and off for about 4/5 years but am still a relative noob because I never seem to get a good run at it! I didnt know if someone could let me know if the equipment (Or lack of) that I have will allow me to produce a decent recording.

Here goes:

Ableton Live 7 (there maybe better programs out there but I got to know this one fairly well) running on Win Xp (Computer is fine in terms of performance)
Line 6 UX-1
M-Audio Oxygen v2 MIDI keyboard
Rode M3 condenser mic complete with p-p-p-p-pop shield
AKG K77 headphones (Fairly cheap but seem to have a decent range)
M-Audio studiophile AV-40 monitors
I record guitars/bass using my Line 6 spider 2 mic`d up using the Rode and for drums I use a free peice of software I got from the Computer music mag a few years back called Drumcore (I think anyway)

I have never had much of a chance to put vocals over but will use the rode again for that.


Thank you if you have taken the time to read this

Adz
 
Your set up should give you respectable results.

If you could expand on why "I never seem to get a good run at it", or why you are not happy with your results, people here may be able to help you further.
 
Thanks for the reply gecko, I seem to struggle with getting a good guitar sound and because of that my confidence in the track is almost non existent. The syle is in the vain of Senses Fail/Set Your goals/New Found Glory etc..

Drums and vocals always seem to come out pretty well but I can never really nail the guitar, I know part of this is probably trial and error and experience but can get frustrating.

Im not sure if I am using too much distortion on the way in??

Does anybody have any basic tips when recording a guitar with a mic? ie placement, distance etc.....
 
I don't know if your interface will allow this but you could record a clean guitar signal and then use plug ins for fx OR re-amp the clean guitar and experiment with mic placements etc.
 
Adz6794 said:
Im not sure if I am using too much distortion on the way in??

.....
Click to expand...
it's pretty common to use way too much distortion. What sounds good in the room turns to mush with no note definition when recorded so try really backing down the distortion.
Also ..... a Line 6 Spider is gonna be so-so soundwise but if that's what ya' got ...... that's what ya' gotta use.
I find that modelers really tend to be compressed and that makes having too much distortion even worse so with that amp you might want to try using what sounds like a pretty clean sound to you and see if that helps.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, I will def try and record with a clean signal and try to place some fx on it in Ableton.

I will let you know how it goes!!

:guitar:
 
Are you struggling with the rhythm guitars or the lead licks...or both?

As the guys have already said...it's easy to overdo distortion. Mics tend not to pick up excessive distortion the same way your ears do in the room. I was doing a rhythm track last night...and I kept dialing the crunch back...back...back...as the guitar just had way too much "hash" for the chords to sound crunch but still articulate...yet it sounded fine in the room.
Finally I was way down, almost clean, which just a pinch of crunch and it was finally getting where I wanted it.

Also..some mics don't pick up crunch as well as others. If you have a good deal of crunch and the mic tends to over-hype the upper mids/lower highs that define the crunch...that's when it can get real "hashy".
Not sure about your Rode (have not used their mics ever)...but I'm really on a ribbon mic kick for most electric guitar work these days...leads or rhythm.

Also...get the tone/EQ right for crunch...it's all about how the mids fall into place for your chosen song/style.
 
Yeah def record a clean DI signal for guitars/bass as well as record the actual sound you want.
You then have the option of either using plug-ins on the DI track or sending the clean signal out and through another amp/sound if you decide the sound you recorded first isnt quite cutting it.

Shure SM7B is a great mic for the price. We used it all over our record.
 
Thanks to everybody that helped as I have a much better guitar sound now by recording an almost clean signal in to Ableton and then added some FX to it!

Will post a complete song once I am happy with it.
 
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