Well, I have a pretty serious project I am currently working on. It's the album I have been waiting to record for about 2 years now. After our drummer (Dan Carle/ATB) left for tour we've had very little time to record, but finally we finished all the drums (V-drum MIDI) and I recently finished the dry rythum guitars for the album. Since it has been so long, I wanted to take my time on the project and hopefully get a half decent recording out of it.
My first issue, I live in a townhome so there is no chance of cranking any amps at my house, which can be a problem when miking amps as you all know. I then started to think of my options, I finally landed the idea of reamping in a decent studio in town. I hooked up with Jason Orris, he owns a studio called The Terrarium (www.the-terrarium.com) in Minneapolis. Not cheap to book a day there by any means, but this would really give me the chance to test out some high end gear and strip away all the real myths about how important gear is and so on.
My main goal was to leave the studio with as many options for mix down that I could get in 10 hours. I quad tracked everything through an Engl Savage 120 into an Orange cab w/ V30's, and then ran an extra set of takes with a Recto Pre running through the Savage power amp section for that gritty saturated tone that Mesa has. I stuck 4 Sm57's and a Beryer M88 (for dark tone) in front of the cab. There were 4 main types of preamps to use there; Neve 1078, Neve VR, API 200 series, API 512 w/ a 550b eq. I ended up using the board (Neve VR) preamps and the board filter at 60 Hz. If I had more time I would have liked to use the API 512's too.
First thing I learned was that 10 hours flies when you are having fun; there was hardly enough time to really sit there and experiment with the different preamps and mic placements.
Second, it's tough to adapt to a new acoustic environment so quickly. Going from my Auralexed 10 x 12 room to a professional acoustic controlled room with Genelec's may be better, but you still need to adapt to it.
Third, I learned in person that nothing beats an amp cranked! The speaker saturation plays a pretty big role in guitar tone character. I went from recording at bedroom volume to putting that amp master at 11 o clock and I watched that preamp gain knob get dropped back dramatically. It was like using a whole new amp.
In the end I am pretty happy with my results, but to be honest it didn't blow my home recordings out of the water like I expected. All that nice gear was cool, but I honestly think the biggest factor to recording at the studio versus my house, was being able to crank my amp. I think if I could get my amp that loud I could achieve similar results at home. With that being said if I had more time to move mics around it may have been different. Anyway, it was a great experience and it would be cool to go back for other projects in the future.
Pics: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...ndID=9718304&albumID=2813865&imageID=66262120
My first issue, I live in a townhome so there is no chance of cranking any amps at my house, which can be a problem when miking amps as you all know. I then started to think of my options, I finally landed the idea of reamping in a decent studio in town. I hooked up with Jason Orris, he owns a studio called The Terrarium (www.the-terrarium.com) in Minneapolis. Not cheap to book a day there by any means, but this would really give me the chance to test out some high end gear and strip away all the real myths about how important gear is and so on.
My main goal was to leave the studio with as many options for mix down that I could get in 10 hours. I quad tracked everything through an Engl Savage 120 into an Orange cab w/ V30's, and then ran an extra set of takes with a Recto Pre running through the Savage power amp section for that gritty saturated tone that Mesa has. I stuck 4 Sm57's and a Beryer M88 (for dark tone) in front of the cab. There were 4 main types of preamps to use there; Neve 1078, Neve VR, API 200 series, API 512 w/ a 550b eq. I ended up using the board (Neve VR) preamps and the board filter at 60 Hz. If I had more time I would have liked to use the API 512's too.
First thing I learned was that 10 hours flies when you are having fun; there was hardly enough time to really sit there and experiment with the different preamps and mic placements.
Second, it's tough to adapt to a new acoustic environment so quickly. Going from my Auralexed 10 x 12 room to a professional acoustic controlled room with Genelec's may be better, but you still need to adapt to it.
Third, I learned in person that nothing beats an amp cranked! The speaker saturation plays a pretty big role in guitar tone character. I went from recording at bedroom volume to putting that amp master at 11 o clock and I watched that preamp gain knob get dropped back dramatically. It was like using a whole new amp.
In the end I am pretty happy with my results, but to be honest it didn't blow my home recordings out of the water like I expected. All that nice gear was cool, but I honestly think the biggest factor to recording at the studio versus my house, was being able to crank my amp. I think if I could get my amp that loud I could achieve similar results at home. With that being said if I had more time to move mics around it may have been different. Anyway, it was a great experience and it would be cool to go back for other projects in the future.
Pics: http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/ind...ndID=9718304&albumID=2813865&imageID=66262120
