Small place for recording guitar

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killthepixelnow

killthepixelnow

Do it right or dont do it
Hey, no space here, I live in a small place so I'm guessing what's the best way to record my guitar. I've heard about wood boxes to simulate acoustic of a room or putting the amp in a bathroom. Maybe you have some suggestions (including the use some reverb unit). My rig is:

Me > Jackson guitar > Solid state Marshall > Shure SM57 > Mixer

I play death metal in the vein of Monstrosity and Death.
Thanks.
 
For that type of music, you normally want to capture a dry sound. I would make a 'tent' out of heavy blankets and put the amp in that. Then you will need to play the rhythm parts twice and pan them. That will give you a sense of space. If you really think you need reverb, add some in the mix process.

Putting the amp in a bathroom is cool for a rockabilly sound, but not metal.
 
if it's a solid state amp, you don't have to worry about turning you amp up for the tubes to distort.

so, you dont have to do anyting. Just keep your amp quiet. Also don't turn your gain up all the way. It may sound good in the room, but it will most likely come out way too gainy in the mix.

Or you can run direct. Maybe not for the main part, but direct recording little parts and overdubs would sound fine. (and you may be able to turn the gain to 10 and still have some deffinition in your tone)
 
Great, the tend thing sounds great. I'll add some reverb later.

Another questionr efering to amp... what's the main probkemas recording with a tube amp. A friend of mine has one and maybe I can borrow it for some days.
 
I started to put my amp in the bathroom. I found,.. depending on mic placement,.. it gave my guitar sounds a bit more depth. If you get the mic too far away though it could start to sound a bit rock-a-billyish,..but that also has alot to do with what your amp sounds like in the first place.

If you want to check it out,..my last tune was recorded with the amp in the bathroom with a bit of direct guitar mixed in. You may not like the sound but you can check it out if ya want. The guitars are metal sounding in it.

The tune is "Immerse",...it's here,....
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=46776

Anyway,..I've never had much luck with box's or tents for recording guitar,...I'm not saying that it wont work for you,..but I personally havent gotten good recordings doing those things.

Good luck.

Take 'er easy,..
Calwood
 
Your style of music differs from mine, but I've used the "tent" idea a time or two and it turned out decent enough. I've also played around with my amp in the bathroom and it wasn't too bad, it's going to depend on your bathroom, as all bathrooms are not created equal. Best advice right now is to experiment.


Lately, I've been using a 3 mic technique, my amp sits at a 45 degree angle at a corner in my room. I put two dynamics on the front, one high right and one low left (this will vary by amp) and a LDC in the "triangle" cubby hole created by my amp and the corner of the room (open backed cabs/combos are the win!)
 
The amp is on the ground or you put somethign to aisle it like from the wall and soil (foam or another gizmo)?
 
It's sitting on top of my Bass Rig, so the speaker is level with my head when I play.
 
Interesting. Hey, that's a question that doesn't has to do with the recording process but with the amp. A friend of mine is selling a Peavey Bravo 112. Considering I'm playing death metal and it's a tube amp, do you think it would be a good purchase? Thanks for all the advices.
 
Tube amps are wonderful and have a unique sound that is very responsive to your playing technique. Tube amps also have an inherent fragility that is absent in many solid state amps - so you have to treat them nice and replace the tubes every now and then.

The main issue with tube amps (and I have them and love them), is that you need to be able to turn them up in order to generate the overdriven tube distortion that we all know and love. This can be a big problem in small spaces unless you have a suitably small amp. Cranking your Marshall half stack in your apartment might sound good, but it won't endear you to the neighbors.

Small tube amps like the Champ work pretty well for this as a result and lots of screaming guitars were actually recorded in the studio with Champs and other small amps. Much of Layla was recorded using Fender Champs and Jimmy Page used a smaller Supro tube amp to record Led Zep I. There are a variety of low wattage boutique amps that are sold primarily for recording purposes because they can be turned up to get the right sound without blowing everyone out of the room. In addition, because different power tubes have their own unique sounds, some newer amps, like the THD Univalve, allow you swap out power tubes to change your sound.

I have an old (64) Champ that works admirably for this purpose. It puts out a grand total of 6 watts and the volume knob goes to 11. Of course there is only one knob on the thing. I have an 83 Superchamp as well and it puts out 18 watts. The Superchamp allows me to crank the pre-amp gain rather than/or in addition to the master volume so that I can get some tube distortion at lower total volume levels, but preamp tube distortion doesn't completely supplant the sound you achieve by running the power tubes at high levels. I also have a Matchless SC-30 that puts out 30 watts, but it is really too loud at that level for in-home recording applications (unless you have a good size room and the neighbors are indulgent). Happily, it has a half power switch so I can turn off two of the 4 power tubes and cut it down to 15 watts. It's still pretty loud at that level and still probably wouldn't be suitable for apartment levels. I'm not familiar with that model Peavey, but the nomenclature suggests it's small - which would be a good thing here I think. You should give it a whirl and see what you think. Have fun!
 
Farview,
I'd like to avoid an error due to differences in dialect.
When you use the term "bathroom"
are you referring to the room with the shower &/or bath
or
the room with the bowl & paper roll?
Down under we are still uncouth enough to avoid the euphemisms so "bathroom" is the room in which one takes their ablutions.
The other room is referred to generically as the "toilet" though often slangishly as "dunny", "shit house", "bog" & in polite company "the Little boys'/girls' room"
 
rayc said:
Farview,
I'd like to avoid an error due to differences in dialect.
When you use the term "bathroom"
are you referring to the room with the shower &/or bath
or
the room with the bowl & paper roll?
Down under we are still uncouth enough to avoid the euphemisms so "bathroom" is the room in which one takes their ablutions.
The other room is referred to generically as the "toilet" though often slangishly as "dunny", "shit house", "bog" & in polite company "the Little boys'/girls' room"
Click to expand...
Ha! I remember when I first came to Australia. I did a lot of country driving wearing a suit and driving a company car and I asked at a petrol station (gas station) where the bathroom was. The look I got was a scream! Here is this Yank in the middle of the f'in bush dressed like a Martin Place monkey asking where the bath was!

Bathroom?? You mean the dunny, mate!
 
I was talking about the room with the shower/bathtub, toilet, sink, etc...

The 1/2 bath (toilet and sink) is usually really small and would sound terrible because of the reflections.

The other problem with the idea of recording in a bathroom is, besides bathrooms being different, around here, they aren't all floor to ceiling with tile any more. When the idea was first put out there, bathrooms were medium sized rooms loaded with tile and porcelin, this isn't necessarily the case everywere.
 
Think the best solution is to construct a "tent"... I'm thinking in made a small division in my room an put some wood with sponges. I'll try the Peavey, i'ts 30w and pre/power tubed. But first I have to sell my good old crate gx15
 
The tent idea was used on the guitars on Metallicas black album.
 
A "cherokee" tent or a "dog house" tent?... think the first one would be weird, lol.
 
It was just 4 packing blankets hanging on all 4 sides and one across the top. The idea was to create a small dead space. If you can, rent 'a year and a half in the life of Metallica' on DVD or video. The first half is all in the studio, you can see how some of it was done.
 
I'll check it put. im also planning to do a dead space with some sponges inside a recreated room made of woodply.
 
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