It's been a long time since I've been on these boards, I just rejoined, but if I remember correctly I'm about to betorn apart for the title of this post. The fact is, I just do't think I have the proper amps, mics, or acoustics to mic guitar right now and get a suitable sound. I've seen a couple times when guitarists have recorded direct with a module that are like digital amps and it ended up sounding alright, i just have no idea what they were using, so Im looking for reccomendations, preferably under 200 bucks, the cheaper the better lol
Recording distorted guitar direct
- Thread starter limetree
- Start date
GONZO-X
Well-known member
i use the palmer junction.
it is the small unit, that only has the speaker filter in it, no load soak....
i use a WEBER MASS LITE for that.
you have to match your attenuator/load box, with the wattage of your amp.
it's better to have more, than your nameplate wattage.
you'll have to research, to figure out what's available.....
but the idea is as you have it in mind-
control the volume with the load box, dial in the gain on the amp (preamp versus power amp, and wherever that mix hits the sweet spot, that's what you go with, and then attenuate the volume down to be something you can handle/use)
then, use the output of the palmer (whatever version), at line level, to record with.
this will not sound like your cabinet in a room.
it will sound like the palmer has decided it will sound like.
it's simply a matter of whether or not you agree with the decisions that palmer has made.
i happen to dig the sound of it, so it works for me.
i a/b'd MY rig, close miced with a 57, with the junction, and it was SO CLOSE, there wasn't enough difference to matter, whatever differences there are, i can easily tweak inside my DAW, and the point was to drive my amp HARD, but not have the volume.
i can alway mic the amp, at the same time as capturing signal with the palmer, and blend them.
i do this whenever i can crank my amp loud enough to get some cabinet thump.
but be aware:
the cab sim, does NOT capture the sound of the room your in, which is probably HALF of what most guitarists think their rig sounds like.
and then they wonder why it sounds different when recorded in the studio.
if you get down on your knees, in front of your cabinet, while your wailing away, and stick your ear about a foot away from the grille cloth, THAT is what your cabinet sounds like to the microphone!
LOL
you use room mics, to get that BIG sound you hear when you are 10 feet away from the rig, hearing it bounce off the walls and shake the floor.
_____________________________________________
using attenuators:
some folks think that attenuators create distortion, or compression, and the sound is like 'hitting a brick wall'.
what you're experiencing, isn't the attenuator hitting a brick wall, it is the output power tubes and transformer hitting that 'saturation' level, where nothing happens except more grit and compression.
yes, i've used the attenutator live, to just knock off a few db's.....
it works the same for me, no matter what volume i attenuate down to, or allow...
the bottom line is, every amp has a 'sweet spot'...... where the tubes, pre and output, and the transformers, all play nice.....
set the amp for THAT setting....
then use the attenuator to bring the volume down.
part of the magic of loud amps, is the volume.... and the pushing of the speaker...
i'd say that the cabinet/speaker interaction is at least HALF the overall tone, so when you quit pushing air, your tone changes dramatically.
a lot of folks who try attenuators and hate them, i'm guessing, haven't wrapped their brain around the idea of how much of their tone is coming from the speaker excursion, the room, and the cabinet.
i guess the idea with attenuators should be to help dial in your tone AT VOLUME.... within a certain range...
most people think they can take an attenuator, play their 100 watt marshall thru it at bedroom volume, and still have tone!
LOL
nope.
it is the small unit, that only has the speaker filter in it, no load soak....
i use a WEBER MASS LITE for that.
you have to match your attenuator/load box, with the wattage of your amp.
it's better to have more, than your nameplate wattage.
you'll have to research, to figure out what's available.....
but the idea is as you have it in mind-
control the volume with the load box, dial in the gain on the amp (preamp versus power amp, and wherever that mix hits the sweet spot, that's what you go with, and then attenuate the volume down to be something you can handle/use)
then, use the output of the palmer (whatever version), at line level, to record with.
this will not sound like your cabinet in a room.
it will sound like the palmer has decided it will sound like.
it's simply a matter of whether or not you agree with the decisions that palmer has made.
i happen to dig the sound of it, so it works for me.
i a/b'd MY rig, close miced with a 57, with the junction, and it was SO CLOSE, there wasn't enough difference to matter, whatever differences there are, i can easily tweak inside my DAW, and the point was to drive my amp HARD, but not have the volume.
i can alway mic the amp, at the same time as capturing signal with the palmer, and blend them.
i do this whenever i can crank my amp loud enough to get some cabinet thump.
but be aware:
the cab sim, does NOT capture the sound of the room your in, which is probably HALF of what most guitarists think their rig sounds like.
and then they wonder why it sounds different when recorded in the studio.
if you get down on your knees, in front of your cabinet, while your wailing away, and stick your ear about a foot away from the grille cloth, THAT is what your cabinet sounds like to the microphone!
LOL
you use room mics, to get that BIG sound you hear when you are 10 feet away from the rig, hearing it bounce off the walls and shake the floor.
_____________________________________________
using attenuators:
some folks think that attenuators create distortion, or compression, and the sound is like 'hitting a brick wall'.
what you're experiencing, isn't the attenuator hitting a brick wall, it is the output power tubes and transformer hitting that 'saturation' level, where nothing happens except more grit and compression.
yes, i've used the attenutator live, to just knock off a few db's.....
it works the same for me, no matter what volume i attenuate down to, or allow...
the bottom line is, every amp has a 'sweet spot'...... where the tubes, pre and output, and the transformers, all play nice.....
set the amp for THAT setting....
then use the attenuator to bring the volume down.
part of the magic of loud amps, is the volume.... and the pushing of the speaker...
i'd say that the cabinet/speaker interaction is at least HALF the overall tone, so when you quit pushing air, your tone changes dramatically.
a lot of folks who try attenuators and hate them, i'm guessing, haven't wrapped their brain around the idea of how much of their tone is coming from the speaker excursion, the room, and the cabinet.
i guess the idea with attenuators should be to help dial in your tone AT VOLUME.... within a certain range...
most people think they can take an attenuator, play their 100 watt marshall thru it at bedroom volume, and still have tone!
LOL
nope.
arcadeko
Illuminatius Overlordious
I expanded my setup Friday - as I said above, I have
GTR > EFFECT PEDAL > stereo out into 2 channels of mixer
I realized the cool thing is that the 1/4" outputs on the pedal wasn't even being used (im using headphone out)
so I plugged a cable out and into my Little 25wt Fender Amp and set a mic 6 inches in front of it.
The three tracks (stereo mix from the pedal + amp mic) combine in all kinds of ways to create some really fat warm full tones.
It's killer really and versatile. pan them hard l/r and it gets real wide, center them and it creates a major bass boost - lots of options and enough variation that it sounds like two separate recorded tracks.
try it if you can
GTR > EFFECT PEDAL > stereo out into 2 channels of mixer
I realized the cool thing is that the 1/4" outputs on the pedal wasn't even being used (im using headphone out)
so I plugged a cable out and into my Little 25wt Fender Amp and set a mic 6 inches in front of it.
The three tracks (stereo mix from the pedal + amp mic) combine in all kinds of ways to create some really fat warm full tones.
It's killer really and versatile. pan them hard l/r and it gets real wide, center them and it creates a major bass boost - lots of options and enough variation that it sounds like two separate recorded tracks.
try it if you can
