Recording by Amp or a Direct Line In?

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Red_House

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I'm using my computer to record at the moment, and have recently been recording electric guitar arrangements. I definately prefere recording a direct line into my computer, but then I loose out on all the head controlls on my amp.

Is there a way I can plug my amp directly into my computer somehow, so that I can use the controlls on the amp?

Perhaps using the headphone jack from the amp going into the computer?

I'm not sure. I have a pre-amp so it won't blow the soundcard, so all I really need is someway to get the guitar amp head controlls directly into a line in on the computer, without micing the amp.

Thanks.
(sorry if that's a bit confusing)
 
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If you have an effects loop you can use that output to go direct to the computer. Sometimes it's labelled "pre-amp out".
 
Yes, you can use the headphone out. Go down to radioshack and get a chord to go between the 2. Just make sure you don't crank it up the master volume to much and get distortion from the PC sound board. You can put as much gain as you want, just keep the main volume down.
 
why record direct?

The recorded sound we have heard on albums and cd's is an electric guitar thru a tube amp thru a speaker. That is what gives the guitar a "voice' or some folks say "tone". The element that you will miss if you go direct is the speaker. Maybe a POD will give a close simulation of the speaker cabinet.
 
mike the amp!

Mic the amp with a simple shure sm57. It's been reported that Eric Clapton recorded most of Cream catalog in the studio with a small Fender Princeton amp-10" speaker and 12-15 watts of power. Most recordings use small amps that are well miked thru a preamp. Nobody uses a Marshall stack in the studio! I don't believe you will get the same sound by going direct either. You should experiment anyway you want, but to get great electric guitar sound you should find prior sound engineer's sound chain and try to follow it on what limited equipment you can scrounge up. Maybe some of the professionals can enlighten us. I think there is a FAQ on the home page that provides a link to "amp recording".
 
Done both

Was recording direct for a while with the POD, but never got the full tone of a miked amp. Direct always sounded thin and sterile to me. Now using an SM57 and couldn't be happier with the sound. It is definetly worth the extra $$ to pick up a mic, cable & stand...
 
You could use a speaker simulator (the Palmer is the most well known) in place of your amp speaker. This will provide the necessary load for the power amp section of your amplifier and provide you with a speaker emulated signal that sounds like your amp mic'd up, but without any sound from your amp's loudspeaker. You'll then be able to control the sound using your amp's controls.

If you like the sound of your amp driven really hard, but can't have something that loud then an attenuator like the Marshall Power Soak will let you run your amp hard, but can keep things at bedroom volume which then may be ok to mic up closely with the ubiquitous SM57.

Although k1enneth says that nobody uses a Marshall stack in the studio I do know that Gary Moore records his guitar so loudly that it is painful to be in the same room as the amp. There's an apocryphal tale of Ted Nugent having his amps so loud that when he turned his guitar on he got such ear splitting feedback that it paralysed him and the engineers had to shut off the power to the live room to rescue him. What you hear on many modern recordings is often the sound of a POD or similar modelling software. Many session guitarists haven't plugged into an amp in a studio for several years.

Pete.
 
You could have an amp technician install a direct out in the wiring (or you could buy the part and do it yourself).

It's possible to get a good sound going direct, it just won't sound exactly the same as it does coming out of the speaker.

If you have a mic you should also experiment with it. But going direct is acceptable if, say, your other option is a small cement cell with noisy pipes and a shitty mic.
 
Like more people all the time, I vote for using a better modeler with access to various cabinet models. It is so much faster than doinking around with an actual amp and trying to get "the" sound and fighting room acoustics - with bass, especially.

If you use the J-Station with the supplied J-Edit software, you can do amazing stuff in terms of building a near-perfect recording sound for a particular guitar in a particular song. It takes some tweaking, but it's certainly easier than getting an ideal sound for your guitars from one or two amps and one or two microphones in a room with troublesome sound. The effects are not bad either. You can do some pretty impressive things with some creative application, such as virtual track layering using double iteration analog pong for a very fattened sound.

Though the J-Station has recently been killed off by the company who bought the rights to it to use the patents for an (inferior) modeler of their own, there are still new units around in some stores and used ones can be had for around a hundred bucks. They are still the best recording modelers for the price by a long shot. For +/- $100, it's a total no-brainer.

Here are the amp and cab models in the final J-Station firmware. Note that there are models for both guitar and bass, another advantage:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

Guitar & Bass Amp Models

00 J Crunch (based on a JM150 Millennium "crunch" setting)
01 J Solo (based on JM150 Millennium "solo" setting)
02 J Clean (based on JM150 Millennium "clean" setting)
03 Boutique (based on a Matchless DC30)
04 Rectified (based on a Mesa Boogie dual rectifier)
05 Brit Stack (based on a Marshall JCM900)
06 Brit Class A (based on a '63 Vox AC30 top boost)
07 Blackface (based on a '65 Fender Twin Reverb)
08 Boat Back (a piezo acoustic guitar)
09 Flat Top (a dreadnought acoustic guitar)
10 Hot Rod (based on a Mesa Boogie Mark II C)
11 Tweed (based on a '57 Fender Tweed Deluxe)
12 Blues (a dynamic blues setting)
13 Fuzz (a '60s fuzztone)
14 Modern (based on a Trace Elliot bass amp)
15 Rock (based on an Ampeg SVT bass amp)

More A1 (based on a Hiwatt Custom 50)
More A2 (based on a '78 Marshall master volume)
More A3 (based on a '81 Marshall JCM800 w/EL34s)
More A4 (based on a '72 Fender Bandmaster)
More A5 (based on a '65 Fender Bassman)
More A6 (based on a SWR Interstellar ODrive)
More A7 (based on a '83 Fender Concert Head)
More A8 (Direct - no modelling)

Cabinet Models

00 - No cabinet
01 - Brit 4X12 (Marshall 1960A w/75W Celestions)
02 - Johnson 4X12V (loaded w/Vintage 30 Celestions)
03 - Fane 4X12 (a Hiwatt SE4123 w/Fanes)
04 - Johnson 2X12 (open back w/Vintage 30 Celestions)
05 - American 2X12 (a Fender Twin 2X12)
06 - Jennings Blue 2X12 (a '63 Vox AC30)
07 - Tweed 1X12 (a Fender Deluxe 1X12)
08 - Blonde 2X12 (a Bassman 2X12)
09 - Bass 4X10 w/Tweeter (an SWR 4X10 w/tweeter)
10 - Folded Horn 1X18 (an Acoustic 360)
11 - Flexi Bass (an Ampeg Portaflex)
12 - Green Back 4x12 (a Marshall 1960B w/25W Celestion Greenbacks)
13 - Mega 1516 (a Peavey 1x15 and 2x8)
14 - Boutique 4x12 (a HT 4x12 w/Celestion V30s)
15 - '65 Tweed 1x12 (a Fender '65 Deluxe)
16 - Goliath 4x10 (an SWR Goliath)
17 - Ivy League 1x10 (a Fender Harvard)
18 - Bass Man 4x10 (a Fender Bassman)
 
"Nobody uses a Marshall stack in the studio!"

uhhh, WRONG! TUBE AMPS ARE THE WAY TO GO. and it maybe not a marshall FULL stack but plently have sure recorded with half stacks. nothing beats a tube head with a 4x12 cab. thats how most of the hit rock records you hear are recorded. mesa, marshall, fender, and plenty others. TUBE TONE is what everyone hear is striving for weather you know it or not. pod's are just a tease. they really cant do it.
 
I just got a j-station. At first I wasn't very impressed with it. But after playing with it for a while I got it to sound pretty good. But I had to mix it with a mic'd guitar track otherwise it was too flat. The bass amps are kinda weak though, which is dissappointing. But it does sound better than plugging my bass directly into the Mbox.

Would I like to mic a half stack? Yes. Can I? No. I like the sound of my little 60 watt amp, but I can't turn it up very loud. So for some sounds the J-Station is better. The J-Station clean tones are very good though.
 
My view for what its worth is that if you have a sound proofed room or no neighbors turn up your amp and mike it up. If like me & millions of others you have to record in the spare room, and you have the neighbors from hell then get a line 6 pod. OK so an engineer or guitarist can maybe tell the difference, but joe public probably won't.
 
Fifteen guitarists, fifteen answers...

But only one of them is right...for you.

I used to love the POD sound, good enough for Joe Public. Now my ears know better, so I mic a small tube amp, or a big one sometimes. You do what you can, and always try to get the best sound with what you've got. Who could argue with that logic?
 
Direct versus mic pointed at 4x12


This link my guitar is direct recording
Mesa Boogie V-twin preamp straight into the board:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/9/ragsclothesbottlesmusic.htm


This link my guitar mic recording
Marshall 50w tube head to 4x12 cab:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/0/jerrylockamyrecordinglogmusic.htm


I'm OK with my direct sounds, but have fond memories of the half stack in the studio. Mostly because feedback is better when your pickups are affected by the loud speaker cabinet.
 
I use a Pod 2.0 for more clean bright sounds than for distortion,
Yes it has distortion and it is okay but I really like the Peavy Classic tube amps with a well hung mic [ LOL ].
 
Yeah I heard well hung mic was popular with the girls too!
 
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