Best Way to Record Guitar For Album

[kenfobert]

Good day

I was wondering if I could get some recommendations from you guys on how my band should go about recording guitar tracks for our next album. We want to do most of the recording ourselves, especially guitar tracks. We have been fooling around with POD's, Line 6 Vetta Head etc. but it's just not cutting it.

We are considering reamping as we have a Radial J48 DI box.

What we really want to be able to do is to mic a cab in our rehearsal space. I'm not sure of the best way to go about doing this though.

Our Rehearsal space is in the basement of our drummers house where we also have our recording equipment. I'll let you guys know what equipment we have:

PC with Cubase 5
Waves Diamond Bundle Plugins
Mackie Onyx 1640 Mixer
Decent set of monitors (don't know what they are)

Peavey 6505+
Mesa Dual Rec

2 SM57's

Now the only problem is that we don't have a separate soundproofed room to put the amp/cab that is being mic'ed from the computer. It's pretty much an open basement that's carpeted. And I know a lot of the tone you get from a mic'ed amp comes from the room.

But, I was thinking if we just wore headphones to hear the click/drum track and mic'ed the amp it wouldn't be a problem.

We don't want to use impulses, we just want to do it the traditional way.

So what are your guys' recommendations?

 

[-Noodles-]

You have waves plugins?
Really?

Legit versions, yeah?

If you have bought them legally - you wouldn't need to be asking US how to record guitars with 57s.

 

[Executioner213]

Did we try looking around to see if this topic might have been covered yet?

I'm not trying to be an ass...just asking a plain question...

 

[Force666]

Did we try looking around to see if this topic might have been covered yet?

I'm not trying to be an ass...just asking a plain question...

No, recording guitars has never been covered here.

 

[El_Gato]

No, recording guitars has never been covered here.

Disagree! I think I once saw something about

 

[P-E]

Disagree! I think I once saw something about

Sarcasm.

 

[AllanD]

Sarcasm.

He was being sarcastic back.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Disagree! I think I once saw something about

Yeah man, only once

 

[Harry Hughes]

Seriously though dude, do a search instead of wasting people's time. You need to put in the effort to do your own research rather than asking about a topic which has been covered literally thousands and thousands of times on here and other recording/AE forum boards.

 

[LydonB]

 

[P-E]

He was being sarcastic back.

Goddamn I fail - everytime.

 

[kenfobert]

Sorry guys

any mods can delete this topic if they want

 

[narcossintese]

Well, there are tons of threads about micing an amp here, specially with 57s, Rectos and Peaveys. I don´t think you should discard the impulses alternative. If I had the heads but not the room and know-how, I´m sure using impulses would be the best way to go.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

I think he had a legitimate questions regarding the state of acoustics in the room. I would use the 6505+ and the recto cab over anything else, single 57 at the edge of the dustcap on axis (the most obvious mic technique choice). Wouldn't worry about bleed form the monitors providing a click track however I would use a click track becuase sometimes clicks at even low volume can wreak havok on your pickups Just use drums tracks, get the amp volume up enough so that you won't have to worry about the monitors bleeding into the mic. Other than that you could use headphone obviously and give yourself a drum/click.

Though you could use some mild dampening around the mic and cabinet, just enough to kill any reflections, like a mattress a few feet behind the mic stand.

 

[lolzgreg]

If you want the best sounding product, and you have no knowledge of micing up an amp/recording DIs, consult someone who knows their stuff. I do reamping as one of my main services, so feel free to contact me.

Regardless, talk to me via PM and I'll help you out on trying to mic your cabinet (though it has been covered here on several occasions).

-Greg

 

[mrbean667]

With free vsts and a relatively cheap DI box, you can't go wrong.
If you want to sound really good, one of the guys here could reamp your stuff for a reasonable price and have you sound professional.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

You have waves plugins?
Really?

Legit versions, yeah?

If you have bought them legally - you wouldn't need to be asking US how to record guitars with 57s.

Yeah this chaps my ass as well.

When someone has a plug in budle that costs more than the hardware they own, I call bullshit.

 

[Executioner213]

^ yeah...best advice there, especially on this forum, is to keep yo damn mouth shut about it rather than throwing it out there like it's supposed to be leaving a good impression...

 

[plague_rider]

^ yeah...best advice there, especially on this forum, is to keep yo damn mouth shut about it rather than throwing it out there like it's supposed to be leaving a good impression...

+1

 

[kenfobert]

ok yes, I get it about the whole Waves thing...but considering the price of those plugins, I wasn't about to spend the ridiculous amount of money for it when I could get them a lot cheaper. Call me low, or opportunistic or whatever you want, but myself and my band have already spent thousands on equipment for our band. Not to mention spending $20,000 on recording our last album. Hence why we want to do it ourselves this time. And I wasn't trying to impress anyone by saying I had the plugins, I was just letting you guys know what I had to work with.

Anyway, I don't want to get into an argument about ethics and moral values here and I apologize.

I just wanted some recommendations on what other people would do if they were in my situation. I'm not looking for anyone to type out a tutorial on how to mic an amp, I know I can find all the information in the world about all that on this forum and elsewhere on the Internet

I just wanted to hear what other people would do, given they were in the same situation as me (same equipment or lack thereof, cabs, mics, amps etc).

If there were a majority of people recommending I try and mic the amp, even though I don't have a good sounding room for the cab, but people thought I could still get a decent sound, then I would go for it. But if most people recommended to reamp since I don't have much experience mic'ing, then I would.

Thanks to the guys who responded and are trying to help me out. I appreciate it.