Recording Guitars

[DeadUnion]

Hey everyone, I've been lurking in the shadows for a couple months now and picked up some really great tips so thanks everyone. But now I have run into a problem and was hoping to get a little input. I just switched from recording my bands "practices" on 4 track tape to a zoom 1608 with the intentions of getting some good quality recordings. We always just ran a condensor in the middle of our room through a mixer and out to the 4 track. The quality wasn't great but it let us hear all the imperfections and really helped us tighten up. After I set up the new gear and spent some time messin around we decided to do a take the same way to get approximate tempos down to build a metronome track to get going on some serious recording.(our music has lots of time changes) The problem is, my guitar now sounded almost like a laser with some washy type things happening. The other guitar sounded fine and so did the bass. My guitar in the old recordings sounded alot crisper and clearer. I eliminated the possibility of it being the mic(other guitar sounded fine) and figured it had to be something to do with recording digital(first time). So we set the click and recorded bass, and other guitar and it sounded great. We just recorded them using the direct outs on the amp. When it came to my turn, more lasery, washy sound. Live in the room everyone says it sounds fine, but when it comes to heavy palmuted sections it sounds lasery and run together, almost like a phaser/delay thing, coming back through the monitors on playback. I attributed this to distortion on my amp and cut the gain way back on my amp and voila crisper clearer sound. The problem I am having now is I've lost alot of my tone and feedback and sustain. I was wondering if anyone here has run into this problem before and had any insight into what I may be doing wrong or any other suggestions. I'm recording my guitar parts with a 200 watt Kustom head using the Direct outs straight into the 1608, coming out through a pair samson rubicon 5a's. Like I said the other parts recorded sounded perfectly fine, it's just me and I want my tone back. Thanks guys and gals.

 

[Sampler]

Try recording your guitar directly; plug it into one of the inputs on the 1608...I assume some of the inputs have preamps to boost your signal. You won't be able to get the sound of your amp, but your tone might be clearer this way.

Have you tried mic'ing your amp? Instead of running the outputs of the amp to the recorder, where a lot of noise problems can occur...give it a try.

 

[DeadUnion]

thanks

I got rid of all my pedals and mic'ed the cab and it sounded fine. I know it was kinda a dumb question so thanks for the info sampler. Does anyone else use the same floor pedals they use live when recording? cause my seem to make weird noise with no true bypass.

 

[jonnyc]

I got rid of all my pedals and mic'ed the cab and it sounded fine. I know it was kinda a dumb question so thanks for the info sampler. Does anyone else use the same floor pedals they use live when recording? cause my seem to make weird noise with no true bypass.

I personally hate the way pedals sound. I had a kid come in here once with a digitech deathmetal and pleaded for him not to use it. We recorded with it anyway and it sounded like ass big time. Retracked using the marshall and he was pleased. IMO pedals just sound cheap on recordings. But wtf do i know.