a recording recipe (no big deal)

Silver Sonya · 26th August 2005

i'm not saying anything earth shattering here, but i just wanted to say that i tracked some electric guitars last week and i got a really great sound. i thought i'd share it w/ you folks. the sounds were mostly clean electric w/ complex chords resulting from some alternate tunings i made up myself (my alternate tunings are based on laziness... they're designed to make stuff easier to play --- it's not a sonic youth or joni mitchell "creative" alternate tuning thing).

anyway, here was the chain. try this, if you're ever in the situation to do it, it sounded great to me.

gibson sg -> tone king continental 2 -> wes dooley aea84 -> great river me1nv -> straight to tape. in the mix, compressed gently w/ a distressor.

it resulted in a really vivid, articulate sound.

try it sometime. i am now in love with the sg as a source for clean guitar sounds, despite its reputation as being a "crunch" guitar.

- c

Frost · 26th August 2005

I find that the really great sounding guitar recordings have a decent amp and a decent axe, and a decent or better mic, with a decent or better preamp and a GREAT player. I have the privledge of working with a few really great players, and their scratch tracks with a line 6 and a fender copy with a 57 in front of it sound amazing, while other guitarists will bring in a vintage axe and a vibrato king or boutique amp and their tracks will sound fine.

Its all in the fingers, too bad my fingers are made of rocks.

Frost

Silver Sonya · 26th August 2005

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frost

I find that the really great sounding guitar recordings have a decent amp and a decent axe, and a decent or better mic, with a decent or better preamp and a GREAT player. I have the privledge of working with a few really great players, and their scratch tracks with a line 6 and a fender copy with a 57 in front of it sound amazing, while other guitarists will bring in a vintage axe and a vibrato king or boutique amp and their tracks will sound fine.

Its all in the fingers, too bad my fingers are made of rocks.

Frost

i agree w/ the sentiment here. i'm not a guitar ace by any stretch of the imagination. i just thought i'd share a "recipe" to try. like actual cooking recipes, skill and intent are still heavily involved in the quality of the final outcome.

-- c

darjama · 26th August 2005

Since we're sharing, here's a recent guitar cab micing experience. I thought I'd try M/S micing for a rhythm guitar track. I also took a direct line in case it didn't work so that I could reamp later.

The Mid-side thing wasn't quite working for me, adding more of the side was taking away too much of the [insert your favority overused studio descriptive term here. I'll go with punch or impact]. I was feeling too lazy to reamp, so I thought I'd try something different. The side was set up with the phase inverted on the left, so I brought in a little of the direct signal with the phase inverted on the right.

Bingo. A wider stereo image with mono still preserved, and punchier than mid/side alone.

Is there a term for this kind of thing? Mid/Side/Side?

26th August 2005	#1
Silver Sonya Lives for gear Joined: Sep 2004 Location: Washington, DC Posts: 7,209 Thread Starter	a recording recipe (no big deal) i'm not saying anything earth shattering here, but i just wanted to say that i tracked some electric guitars last week and i got a really great sound. i thought i'd share it w/ you folks. the sounds were mostly clean electric w/ complex chords resulting from some alternate tunings i made up myself (my alternate tunings are based on laziness... they're designed to make stuff easier to play --- it's not a sonic youth or joni mitchell "creative" alternate tuning thing). anyway, here was the chain. try this, if you're ever in the situation to do it, it sounded great to me. gibson sg -> tone king continental 2 -> wes dooley aea84 -> great river me1nv -> straight to tape. in the mix, compressed gently w/ a distressor. it resulted in a really vivid, articulate sound. try it sometime. i am now in love with the sg as a source for clean guitar sounds, despite its reputation as being a "crunch" guitar. - c

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26th August 2005	#2
Frost Lives for gear Joined: Apr 2003 Location: Chicago Posts: 711	I find that the really great sounding guitar recordings have a decent amp and a decent axe, and a decent or better mic, with a decent or better preamp and a GREAT player. I have the privledge of working with a few really great players, and their scratch tracks with a line 6 and a fender copy with a 57 in front of it sound amazing, while other guitarists will bring in a vintage axe and a vibrato king or boutique amp and their tracks will sound fine. Its all in the fingers, too bad my fingers are made of rocks. Frost

26th August 2005	#4
darjama Gear nut Joined: Dec 2003 Posts: 119	Since we're sharing, here's a recent guitar cab micing experience. I thought I'd try M/S micing for a rhythm guitar track. I also took a direct line in case it didn't work so that I could reamp later. The Mid-side thing wasn't quite working for me, adding more of the side was taking away too much of the [insert your favority overused studio descriptive term here. I'll go with punch or impact]. I was feeling too lazy to reamp, so I thought I'd try something different. The side was set up with the phase inverted on the left, so I brought in a little of the direct signal with the phase inverted on the right. Bingo. A wider stereo image with mono still preserved, and punchier than mid/side alone. Is there a term for this kind of thing? Mid/Side/Side?