Noobie Questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter oneguy
  • Start date Start date
O

oneguy

New member
Hello all,

First I would like to apologize for my noobie questions right off the bat. I decided yesterday to finally go out and buy some recording equipment (i.e. AKG D5 mic, Lexicon Alpha sound card.)

I've been fiddling with it and keep finding that my guitar recordings sound like very heavy strumming when I run it throuhg the Lexicon Alpha. I also tried recording the guitar by putting the mic in front of the amp and I think that sound was even better than running the guitar straight into the soundcard. It doesn't sound like this should be the case.

Any thoughts on why I might be getting this heavy strumming sound when running it straight? I'm using a top line Fender Strat.

My second question is on my amp I am used to being able to play with the the gain, reverb, etc... To my understand when I play straight through the sound card I am playing it clean and then should add all of these additions to the recording? Can someone direct me to where in Audacity I can do this?

Thanks in advance for any help,
One Guy
 
oneguy said:
Hello all,

First I would like to apologize for my noobie questions right off the bat. I decided yesterday to finally go out and buy some recording equipment (i.e. AKG D5 mic, Lexicon Alpha sound card.)

I've been fiddling with it and keep finding that my guitar recordings sound like very heavy strumming when I run it throuhg the Lexicon Alpha. I also tried recording the guitar by putting the mic in front of the amp and I think that sound was even better than running the guitar straight into the soundcard. It doesn't sound like this should be the case.

Any thoughts on why I might be getting this heavy strumming sound when running it straight? I'm using a top line Fender Strat.

My second question is on my amp I am used to being able to play with the the gain, reverb, etc... To my understand when I play straight through the sound card I am playing it clean and then should add all of these additions to the recording? Can someone direct me to where in Audacity I can do this?

Thanks in advance for any help,
One Guy
Click to expand...

Your guitar sounds "heavily strummed" because you are recording a flat signal without any EQ. Amps are often mic'd to get a fuller and better sound, so micing your amp is nothing strange. If you wish to play straight through the soundcard and still get a full sound (or even if you mic your amp but still want to adjust the tone) you can use EQ and compression plugins. These can be found in Audacity by selecting your recorded track and going to the "Effect" menu. From the effect menu you can play around with many effects, including the reverb and gain you were talking about using on your amp.
 
Thanks guys. I read a few more posts and found this helpful link: 10 Great Tuts About Recording Electric Guitar

which showed that most people (it looks like) still prefer to mic the amp rather than record directly.

As a novice this seems counterintuitive and somewhat comical. I would think that the best quality would be gotten from going straight into the computer.

I am working on getting the Guitar Rig program. Hopefully I can figure out how to use it... It looks like it used to be a VST plug-in in audacity but not in the current beta version?
 
dear all,
I am new to this forum...so hi to everyone. :)
I am an electrical engineer and want to pursue my carrier in audio engineering.
starting from building my own home recording studio,I am having casio 620l keyboard and precision 380 pc(2.8 ghz processor 4gb ram).
could you guys help me to list basic recording gears to necessary to record midi,vocals,drums and lead instruments(guitar,flutes,violin etc) and detail about acoustic requirement of studio.
hope I am at the right place.
Thanks in anticipation.
Khalid Gul
 
basic recording gear help

dear all,
I am new to this forum...so hi to everyone. :)
I am an electrical engineer and want to pursue my carrier in audio engineering.
starting from building my own home recording studio,I am having casio 620l keyboard and precision 380 pc(2.8 ghz processor 4gb ram).
could you guys help me to list basic recording gears to necessary to record midi,vocals,drums and lead instruments(guitar,flutes,violin etc) and detail about acoustic requirement of studio.
hope I am at the right place.
Thanks in anticipation.
Khalid Gul
 
As a novice this seems counterintuitive and somewhat comical. I would think that the best quality would be gotten from going straight into the computer.

Keep in mind that you are not trying to get the best quality recording of a guitar, you are trying to get the best quality recording of a sound.

And that sound is a combination of the player, guitar, amp, pedals, alcohol, drugs...the whole ball of wax.

There are some good amp sims out there, and if you can find one you like, going direct will work fine. But if you can't find a sim that works for you, you'll want to mic the amp...
 
As a long time guitar player(30yr+) I say... May there never come a day when an amp doesn't sound better than a sim!!!

The other guys here have already said it. Regardless of what genre of music you listen to, Jazz, Country, Rock, Metal, you name it, when it comes to electric guitar, the amp is a HUUUUUGE part of the sound. Pods and Sims are there because few of us can afford even one of the amps we dream about let alone the handful it takes to play the full range of sounds any particular guitar player might dig. For that purpose, they are pretty good, but I've yet to hear a sim/pod/whatever recording that sounded anywhere near as good as the actual amp it was intended to simulate recorded properly with a halfway decent mic.

Now, to be clear, if the only amp you have is junk, I suspect a decent sim/pod/whatever (can you tell I don't use them? :)) is likely to sound better. But if you have a decent amp, dial in a sound you like and stick a mic in front of it all day long!

J

PS - Without a sim or some such, and a good one at that, an electric guitar recorded direct is going to sound like crap coming and going. It's just not what electric guitars are designed to do. They make the sound we associate with "electric guitar" (even totally clean electric guitar) by working with the amp (and the speaker - lots of serious options there too) in creating that sound.

----------------------------
For the record, mine are a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, A Customized 59 Deluxe Clone (5E3) that I built, and a Line6 Spider III Valve depending on what kind a tone I'm looking for. For the tones it makes, I like the one I built the best by far:).
 
Last edited:
As a novice this seems counterintuitive and somewhat comical.
Click to expand...

I can see where you might think this, because we do want the best, cleanest signal going in. And the mic that you use and the mic setup are important. But after you've recorded for a while and you get nice, clean line inputs going strait into the computer and you start adding processing to the track so that you can make it sound "right," what you discover is that you are sort of trying to make it sound like it would have if you would've mic'd the amp.
 
Sorry I'm try to get to 5 posts so I can put a link in my next question....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top