Recording in General.

[brentonkim]

Hello there,
I'm in a band, which we just started to record. (A common set up, one rhythm guitar, one lead guitar, one bassist, one drummer) We kind of play a Early November style of music. I was just wondering, when you record your instruments, how do you set up your equalizer. What does it mean when you're in the negative, What does it mean when you're in the positive. We have tried recording, and it sounded terrible. We had a mic on the amps, and we had a mic on the drums. Is there a better way to record? Thanks for the help, to those who respond.

 

[appleyardrules]

my favorite band is the early november
its best to try and seperate all the instruments as much as possible but still keeping it together. fool around with your mic placement at least, until you find some sweet spots. usually it will sound better if the instruments are recorded seperately, so there isnt to much mic bleed, but if you have to all play live try some way of separating the sound sources

 

[brentonkim]

ah! That helps alot, now what about the EQ? And what other ways are there, like reamping, and amp modeling. (basically, what does that mean?)

 

[appleyardrules]

Well
the object of the whole recording game is to get the sound you want with as little EQ, reamping, and well amp modelling is different i suppose
EQ can be used to change the tone of an instrument, bring out harmonics and overtones, but most importantly, help an instrument blend in the mix better and not clog anything up. General rule of thumb when using an equalizer is to cut/drop certain frequencies unrelated to the instrument or which cause muddiness. Boosting in EQ can be helpful, but too much boosting and not enough cutting can make a mix a tonal disaster. Reamping is playing back something through another speaker/cabinet, and recording that for multiple sounds/tones. MY suggestion to you would be to yeah just try and find mic sweet spots and see just how well you can record songs without too much EQ and reamping. good luck