Back to Ignition Mag frontpage How to record electric guitar - By 'Dr.Loop' (Contributor) - 3 March 2001 Hello! Again, there's no right or wrong way in doing this, this is solely my idea of doing this. Feel free to disagree and feel free to experiment. Recording has come a long way since I first started recording in the late 80's. I used to record in a big studio (huge old mansion in the woods) on analogue tape with old equipment. It sounded good. Now in the digital age, you can get to do allmost all the studio tricks at home. Here's some poiters. Save the source When recording you favourite amp, be it a Marshall on full volume or a Fender Twin singing a nice Jazzy lullaby, record the direct signal too. There's many reasons to do this. First of all, you get to really edit your licks. You usually have your phaser pedal and your wah-wah before your amplifier in your signal path, right? Well, you can record your dry signal, add effects later and send them (via AUX or whatever) to your amp and experiment and record it with different settings. Additionally there are severeal amp-plug-ins (DirectX and VST) coming out as we speak. I've heard rumours that they actually does the simulation job well. Maybe you want to do a remix your tune in a year or two with a brand new amp that is not even out yet? The dry source comes in very handy there. Additionally you get full access to automation. When you are pre-pre-amplifier in the signal chain, you can simulate and automate wah's, chorus-pedals, flangers, your tone knobs, whatever right where they 'should' be, before your amp. If your on a budget with your HD space, burn the direct signal on a CD, convert it to mp3 (mono 112kps is enough) or whatever. Use the right mic Get a good dynamic mic. Get at least a Shure SM57. You can ruin everything with a bad microphone. There are lots of great mics out there. Do a little research. Try to save up for a few good mics. Make a 70 year plan, what do you really need for the rest of you life as an musician? Propably a some good mics, right. They don't get old, they get classic. There's mic-simulator software / plugins coming out right now, and the entry level for what can be simulated is (propably) in the SM57 level of performance. You still need one mic even if the others can be simulated, see? That is if you're not recording dry in, using a VST amp simulator and a DirectX vocalist. My way of micing a amp Record with one mic. Then you don't get annoying phase cancellation. You can add annoying phase cancellation during the mix if you want to. If you want a 'big' sound, place your mic at a distance of 10-70cm (1-3 feet) from your speaker. If you want a 'tight' sound record at 2-10cm (1-3 inches) from the speaker paper. Yes, cut a large ugly hole in the grid of your expensive vintage Fender twin to get access to the special 'tight' Dr.Loop sound. Going further away from your amp/speaker will get you a lot of ambience (room reverbs and echos) which is hard to remove later. (easily added with a reverb) I usually searh the 'sweet spot' on the speaker (guitar cabinet) by running the amp on really low volume, and then with headphones up loud (from the mixer) move the micstand and mic slowly into the 'right' position. Once found I turn the amp up and the headphones to normal. There has been years/shitloads of discussion around how to get that 'right' sound, but I find the whole discussion as bullshit. You simply mic the damn thing with one mic and it's ok. You propably won't even hear the guitar& after the drums, bass, cymbals, keyboard, vocals, etc jump in and the rest of the whiny band start complaining. And your smoked-out polka-producer kicks in hard with his opinions. ;) EQ - Equalizer Guitar is a simple instrument. Try to keep the guitar EQ simple too. Cut or boost bass or treble. Try to get the midrange ok on the amp itself. Oh, and go for the low-cut on the mixer before you record. It mainly takes out the sound of your boots walking around in the room. There's graphic EQ, notch filters, parametrics, in-rack, DirectX, VST… Usually You don't really need them, there's knobs on your amp. Compression Compression is a good trick to turn your overall guitar volume up. However, you don't need to compress a dirty overdriven signal. It is allready compressed, the distortion does the job. I personally do not compress before mixdown. I record, as stated above, my source signal as is, leaving enough headroom (~ -12db), and add compression and other effects during mixdown. Okay, I know there is exeptions. Go for full spaced-out post-reverb compression if you want. And remember to record mono in mono. You just waste HD space recording a mono source in stereo. Effects This is a rule for the effects: - Yeah. Go wild here! I usually think the following way: If the effect is part of the song, record it, else add it in the mix. An unnessessary reverb on tape can ruin the whole take in the final mix, you can't redo a wah-wah afterwards. However if your guitarist is good and he knows exactly what he's doing AND he's leaving for the bahamas for 6 months, you will record all his wahs etc. You cant add his feel and groove later…