Time to learn how to record guitar

[travisisgood]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I'm looking for some help. I'm happy i found this site because it seems to have some knowledgeable people floating about from a couple posts I read.

I recorded a demo of my band, and that went over pretty well, as we have sold all of the cd's we did up. It didn't sound too too bad in my opinion but I know there are things to improve on. (the demo can be heard here for reference: www dot myspace dot com slash bravuramusic - this is my first post so URLs wont work, sorry!). Let's just say I cheated a bit and used a toneport for guitar, which has its obvious flaws, but everything else was miked.

as stated above, it's time to learn how to mic an amp, and record the sound that comes out. I'm looking for a sound as per what's on our myspace, any advice would be appreciated.

What I've got to work with:
Alesis Multimix 16 - Firewire
Acid Pro 6
Some Shure 57's and a beta 52, a pair of rode nt5 overheads and a nice rode vocal mic (don't remember the model) - although I'm not sure some of those can be applied to an amp,
and a Marshall MG little practice amp thing

Basically, I'm looking for some EQ settings for the amp, a mic position (or combination of mics if applicable), and then some EQ settings for the mixer or for Acid because Acid can pretty much support an infinite set of plugins and therefore any combination of EQs and such (again, if applicable)

So, thanks and help me out if you can.

 

[ermghoti]

Get the amp sounding good. Put the 57 in front of the speaker. Try a lot of different positions for the mic. By "a lot," I mean somewhere from 3 feet back to touching the grille, anywhere in front of the speaker, at any angle fro straight to nearly parallel with the grille. A good starting point would be 2-3" off the grille, at the junction of the cap and cone, angled so that its pointed perpendicular to the angle of the cone. In any case, put some headphones on, have somebody else play, and move the mic around yourself, no stand, just hold it. Remember what sounds good, try some test clips.

EQ/effects? Don't worry about it. Fiddle with the EQ during mixing, with the whole band at the appropriate levels. Record it right from the beginning, you won't need a stack of plugs. Record it poorly, and nothing can save you.

 

[Wireneck]

Welcome aboard! First off, there aren't really any "cookie cutter" settings that you can just paste into your DAW for guitar. Every track is going to be different depending on what it is being mixed with, where it was tracked, how it was tracked, who and how it was played etc. Sound is completely subjective and what works for one guy might suck big time for another. At any rate there are some good starting points that will help lead you to your "ideal" sound.

This article has a lot of info...

http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html#contents

 

[WhiteStrat]

Here's a little tidbit of advice I used to ignore (to my own detriment!):

Try to get the sound you want on the way in. Work with your guitar, amp & mic as much as you need in order to get a track that puts a silly grin on your face without any plugs or eq.

Sometimes the plugs and eq are unavoidable, but the more you use them, the more you run the risk of altering the fundamental sound of your take--potentially losing energy, dynamics, etc.

I used to get a so-so sounding track and try to fix it in the mix. Lemme tell ya, the mix is a lot easier when it sounds right at first.

 

[travisisgood]

Thanks for the tips! I think I've got a sound i like, so I will probably ask for opinions on it (with a link to it of course) in the near future.