Need some expert advice on recording amps.

P

pepe silvia

New member
Hi there,

First time poster, long time lurker.
Im currently at the stage where im about to record guitar. My question is about the amp...
I am planning on recording by micing up a Randall rg40r (solid state) with a shure sm57.
Will this get me professional sounding rock/metal tones? Additionally i have a Boss GT-8 multi effects to use with the amp to give the distortion a little somthing more.

Will it sound like shit because it is a solid state amp and do i need to invest in a tube amp to get that professional sound im looking for? Does anyone out there record using a solid state amp?

Kind regards,

Pepe
 
Well, a tube amp will be better pretty much most of the time, because they just are, but that doesn't mean you can't do good with what you have. Try it and see. All you have to do is try.
 
Hiya mate, I'm not sure what the Randall sounds like but a lot of people used to record rock and metal with peavey bandits.

If you can get a sound you like when sitting in the room you should be able to record something you like too.

My technique is this:

1. Stick the amp on a table or chair so its at about ear level when you're sitting on a chair facing it.
2. Spend some time dialing in a tone you really like and think sounds good in the room.
3. Stick the 57 about 2cm off the grill, just outside the dustcap of the speaker cone.
3. Stick some monitoring headphones on (so you can hear what the mic is picking up and protect your hearing)
4. Chug on a powerchord and crank the amp to about halfway (so you can see the speaker cone moving)
5. Record it and see what you get.

Just play in the room, record, tweak the amp, tweak the mic placement etc until you're happy that you're getting the sound recorded that you like in the room. Just repeat the steps above until you have what you want. Make sure you only change one variable at a time so you know what variable is making what difference! Just get your gear set up, where you can easily get to your computer to record, play your guitar and tweak your amp conveniently.

This process should only take you an hour or so but it will be an hour well spent. You'll then find out if your amp is actually limiting your ability to get what you want - you might find you quite like your amps tone when you record it properly.

Post up some example tones of what you're getting too - loads of people here will give you a hand.
 
Hi Pepe.

You won't go far wrong listening to the advice from JDOD. He's quite right. Its all about tweak and placement and readjust and importantly....listen. Don't be quick to dis your amp just because its a solid state. There are clever engineers out there that can make it sing. Perseverance and you could be one of them. I use solid state and valve. And my solid state HH ic100 with multi effects gets some great results.....to my ears anyway. 40 years playing guitar made me a fussy sod at one stage. Now I think of it like wine.....if it sounds (tastes) good....it is good!!

Hit that record button dude!!
 
Remember that what the mic 'hears' a couple of inches from the speaker is different from what you hear out in the room. Stick your ears down there where the mic is (but watch your levels).
What you hear in headphones may be a combination of the mic + the sound in the room. Record a minute of playing, then listen to it - is it what you want? Also remember that the final results are how the guitar works with the rest of the instruments in the song.
 
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