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The Guitarist's Guide
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| Cool Guitar Stuff at zZounds |
Shure SM57LC
Cardioid Dynamic Microphone (Less Cable)
Tweak: Every studio needs
one. It can do everything, including vocals (thanks to a rich
sounding proximity effect). Perhaps the only issue with the SM57 is
that it does not have as much gain as your typical condenser and you have
to boost it with the trim at the board quite a bit more. But, OTOH,
the SM57 does not need phantom power, batteries, power supplies.
Just plug it in and it gives the classic Shure sound. And you can
drop it, step on it, whirl it like a helicopter (for bizarre effects, you
tweak you) and it will probably survive. Read the
SM57 User Guide
Fender
Cyber-Twin SE Digital Guitar Amplifier (2x65 Watts, 2x12 in.) Visit Tweak's Guitar Gallery for Revies on of today's new guitars
Roland VG99 V-Guitar System
Fender
Vintage Reissue '65 Twin Reverb Guitar Amplifier
Vox AD30VT
Modeling Combo Guitar Amplifier (30 Watts, 1x10 in.)
More direct boxes
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It might seem strange for some of you to think I might know anything about guitars, with my small claim to notoriety being sampling and programming, but the truth is, I was originally a guitar player who played in real bands. I've been recording acoustic and electric guitars so long I'd rather not tell. I've also gone pretty deep into midi guitar and have programmed guitar patches on synths for MIDI guitars. The good thing for you is that you get the advantage of some hard won tips on recording guitars and making your playing sound the best it can be. Lets start with a basic guide to ways to recording the electric guitar.
Recording the electric axe can be done direct. Particularly today, for the guitarist with an audio sequencer like Sonar or Cubase SX, there are many reasons to do so. By recording a clean sound, one can add effects later with plugins, when the song takes form enough that you know exactly what tone you need the guitar to be. Of course you could record your Tube Screamer direct to a sequencer, but in the end you will have to deal with making the screamer fit in the mix. Cubase SX and Sonar have some great valve plugins that can fool the ear convincingly. If you do go direct, perhaps the biggest obstacle is getting a good level out of the guitar. As these are HiZ outputs, they are meant to go to an amp. You can plug it into the line input of your mixer and sometimes it sounds good. However, you might notice some interaction with computer monitors and other electrified fields providing you with your old friend, Mr. Hum. Using single coil pickups hum is at its worst. Humbucking pickups reduce the chatter a bit, but if you boost your signal there you are again.
The time honored solution for recording direct is to convert the HiZ signal to a balanced XLR mic signal with a cool device known as a direct box. The direct box, in combination with the mic preamp on the board, provides a crystal clear hi-output signal suitable for recording. There are many models of direct boxes, some with amp simulators, and now some with digitally modeled amp simulators. I simply use an inexpensive Behringer DI100 and enjoy the hundredfold improvement in the signal to noise ratio of my Ibanez Cardinal which is a guitar of great tonal diversity.
Sometimes nothing will do better than the sound of a recorded amp. As we know, amps have particular gain stages that allow for a wide variety of crunchy tonalities. Digitally modeled amp simulators can go a long way to creating the beloved buzz, but not with the same fluidity, organic-nature or ok, lets say it, "warmth". The miking of a guitar amp opens a number of things to consider. Newbies should note that, first off, you don't have to crank the volume to get a great sound. You do have to boost the initial gain, so the amp delivers the preferred amount of overdrive. Small amps actually can do as good of a job as a stack, and you get the advantage of not having to crank to 11 in the wee hours of the night. To record your amps sound you need a good mic for the job, not a great $2,000 condenser, but a common SM57 dynamic mic works great. Placement of the mic is also a variable. I like to stick the SM57 right up about 2-3 inches from the cone, that way I get a little more bass in it due to the proximity effect of this mic. If you want more of a "room tone" you can begin by slightly angling the mic away from the cone towards a wall. Indeed, careful experimentation can give you some unique ambient tones.
The Amp to Mic kind of recording chain also benefits from a compressor/gate. If you turn on your amp with nothing connected and it hums, you will need a gate to get rid of that part of the signal. The Compressor can give you a more sustained, balanced audio signal that is optimized for the recorder. See my article on compressors.
Over the past few years there have been a landslide of virtual guitar amp simulators on the market. These work by taking the direct sound of your guitar and running them through a mathematical model that imparts the sonic characteristics and artifacts of particular amp models. These devices usually have some effects added in, such as the typical chorus, flange, delay and reverb in various combinations that we have grown to love. I have the Behringer V-Amp, which i reviewed here. There are many others out there. Do they really sound as great as a vintage amp as they claim? Yes and no. In the mix with other instruments, few will be able to tell. The great advantage of these is that one can record clean and apply the modeler later, as an insert on a mixing board.
The Vg99 by Roland not only has amp models but guitar models as well
As with plugins, you can dial up the amp model./effects combination you need at mixdown and try others. That's pretty cool in an of itself. However, a careful detailed examination of the quality of these sounds is revealing. The models always sound the same, they are quite consistent. And amp never sounds the same exactly. As it warms up it might get crunchier or darker, and there might be hot pockets in the sound that the modeler does not reproduce. Heh, I am reminded of some guitar tweaks who would keep a stock of "almost depleted" 9 volt batteries around because their chorus pedal sounded best right before the batteries gave out. But let me not get sidetracked. The digital modeling amp simulators do a great job at providing extreme tonal diversity for a modest amount of cash. They have changed the way guitarists' record themselves forever.
Perhaps the most amazing method of adding guitar processing is using a software amp modeler plugin. When the software revolution began there were plugins that attempted to emulate distortion and tube screamers and of course the common flangers, delays, and compressors. But things have gotten quite complex. Native Instruments Guitar Rig 3 wins the award for letting the user custom design their stack of amp/effects models, just like an arena rock star might. The latest incarnation of this software lets you select among 12 amps, 15 guitar cabs and 4 bass cabs, 4 rotary speakers and 9 mics, along with 44 effects. And they sound great. Especially the delay called Psychedelic. Enough to make Austin Powers say "Groovey Baby!" We'll get into this in detail in the next class.
Native
Instruments Guitar Rig Software Edition (Macintosh and Windows)
GUITAR RIG 3 is the ultimate guitar and bass solution. GUITAR RIG 3 software
grants you access to an incredible number of perfectly modeled classic amps,
cabinets, mics and effects - all arranged in a super-simple drag-and-drop rack
format. Any style, any time - the perfect solution for professional studio and
live setups.
With the onset and deluge of amp modelers came the logical next step. A real amp with a built in modeler, offering the best of all worlds. These are the priciest of the amps out there today but have features that are truly revolutionary. An amp with Presets, like synths have? Reality. Check out the specs on the Fender Cyber Twin. There's plenty of digital amps available in all price ranges from Behringer, Line 6, Roland and more.
Fender Cyber-Twin SE Guitar Combo Amplifier (2x65 Watts, 2x12 in.) The Fender design team is proud to introduce the "second edition" of their flagship amp. It's simply called the Cyber Twin SE. It's a 2 x 12 combo with tube preamp, reconfigurable analog and digital circuitry, motorized knobs and a 2 x 65-watt power amp.
Which to do? Why limit yourself? Use all the techniques. Let the artistic considerations of the piece dictate which approach to use. Recording the electric guitar is about making a tonality speak from the heart, and as with many other studio practices, the more you experiment, the better the odds you will know how to get what you want.
Cool Links
Getting a Great Guitar Tone in a Computer
Review of the Roland VG99 Guitar Processor
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Cool Quote:
"The soul of music slumbers in the shell Samuel Rogers (1763–1855) |
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