Recording Guitars....., Tips and Tricks......and a Question Options

[slowintrepid]

Hows it going, I had a couple questions about recording guitars on my Mac. Basically my I obviously wanna get the best sound I can from my setup so here it is:

1 Bright Sounding Acoustic Gutiar w/ built in fishman pre amp
2.Epiphone SG electric guitar
3. Marshall MG-80 solid state guitar amp

ok so I have my electric going into my amp then the line out of my am into the built in sound card of my PowerMac G5 and it doesn't sound very good.

However I have my acoustic guitar going straight into my computer via the built in pre amp and that sounds just like I was playing it live.

so 1. I wanna know how can I get out the clangy jangley sound from my acoustic (new strings lower gauge) and how can I get my electric to sound better and should I use amp distortion (mines so so) or should I use something like Amplitube

also I feel that this is a fairly elusive subject for s

[rickenbacker]

So… are you happy with the acoustic sound or not? I can't tell. You say it sounds just like you were playing it live. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

As for the electric, the best way to record a guitar amp is to stick a decent mic in front of it. Get the best sound you can out of it, then close mic it with something like a Shure Beta57a, roughly an inch away from the speaker, usually just at the edge of the speaker radius (ie not pointing right at the centre). If you've got a nice condenser mic, back that off a couple of feet so you don't blow it.

Steve Albini's trick for finding an electric amp's sweet spot is to turn the amp up full (with nothing plugged in, of course), arm a track for recording on your multitrack, put headphones on, then move the mic around in front of the speaker until you hear the strongest signal (hiss). That's probably a good place to point your mic to get the best signal to noise ratio.

Other points to consider: the built-in sound card of your Mac isn't the greatest quality in the world and going in direct from the amp won't give you a natural recorded sound. Also, no offence meant here, but does your Marshall amp have a great sound? If you're happy with that, you should be able to capture it. If you're unhappy with its sound, that's a problem you can't resolve with software.

As for Amplitube, personally I don't like the whole "amp sim" thing. If you can get a decent sound out of a real-life amp and mic it up well, it'll sound better and more real than any simulation/emulation.

[pdgood]

Ditto the comment that a mic'd amp will always sound better than an emulator (with current technology). I would add that you probably want to mic the acoustic as well. A good friend of mine is one of the top acoustic players here in Nashville and his technique is to put a mic around where the neck meets the body (but not over the sound hole). Turn it in facing towards the guitar, but not straight in, use a slightly up angle so that you can position it closer to the treble strings aimed more at the bass strings. That's all you need, but sometimes engineers will use a second mic.

[bjkiwi]

the last 2 posts echo my thoughts precisely.
as for the 'clangy jangley' sound on the acoustic, if you've got light gauge strings and a low action then that's what you'll get. Heavier strings, maybe a set of 12-52, may help you. I know they're harder to play but well worth the perseverence for the tone.
thin strings and a low action on an acoustic is not a recipe for good tone.

bjkiwi

[visualmusic]

I would have to say I agree with all of you guys. Recording direct isn't the best way to go. The only time I record direct is with my acoustic because it has a decent pick up (the new Taylor Expression System). However, I always record with a condenser mic at the same time so I can blend the two. The direct is always more treble than I need, and I find that the mic does a better job of picking up the bass (depending of course on where you place it).

So on the mix I have two channels that I blend. I tend to throw the bass (mic) to the left, and the treble (direct) to the right so I get a full sound.

[toekneenose]

Putting two mics in close proximity on anything is a recipe for disaster. The ugly 'phase cancellation' monster rears its ugly head! Just ask anyone who has tried to mix several mics on a drum set. It can be done, but it takes a skilled, experienced and knowledgable engineer to do so.

You may kid yourself and your ears, but the sound is no better.

Best advice: get a good mic and follow the proceedures outlined in an earlier post on this thread.

Good luck.

[Jeff Pelletier]

Just to add to what toekneenose said....

Phase Bull%&*^ IS NOT NECESSARILY A BAD THING!
Use phase cancellation, and the resulting comb filtering to YOUR ADVANTAGE!
You can "phase tune" using teo mics, going up two strips, obviously panned in the same location(mono).

Get someone to sweep the first mic to find a sweet spot in from of the amp. (You may want to actually have someone play while you're doing this...how the h$)) are you going to know if you're getting a good sound by listening to the amp's noise floor???). Next, place the other mic right beside the first, and start backing it up slowly. You will hear the comb filtering, especially at the high-end. Tool around for a while, try stuff, it's not like you're renting studio time. Try even placing a mic at the back of the amp (even a closed back!), then flop the phase (phase-invert) one of the mics, or not.....LISTEN!....there is some art involved....it's not just science.

Another thing you could try is adding a room mic. Throw up another mic somewhere in the room and blend the 2-3-4-5-6......mics you have on that amp.

I've made a Peavy Bandit sound good this way......a Marshall can't be that hard!

-Good luck! Try anything! And DON'T FEAR PHASE RELASHIONSHIP...especially on mono sources.