I'm new to most of this and I went to record my friends song by mic'ing his amp with a Behringer C-2 condenser mic into a Tascam US-800. His amp doesn't really sound good and has a lot of mud and noise, which carried onto the recording. After trying to clean this up as best as I could I'm still finding the guitar tone to be really noisy and takes away from the notes being played. I was just wondering if there are any tips to maybe clean this up better, if i should mess with mic placement more or if I should just say screw it and go direct in.
Guitar tracking question
- Thread starter DaveTheEpicFail
- Start date
BLUElightCory
Member
If the amp and/or guitar and/or player sounds bad, there's nothing you can do to make it sound good when recorded.
Get your ears down to speaker level and start tweaking knobs until you dial in the best tone you can. DON'T look at where the knobs are, just start making adjustments and listen to how the sound changes. The goal is to get the sound from the amp that you want to hear on the recording - once you do this, it becomes infinitely easier to capture it.
Also, make sure the guitar is properly set up (neck adjusted, intonated, etc.) and has fresh strings.
Get your ears down to speaker level and start tweaking knobs until you dial in the best tone you can. DON'T look at where the knobs are, just start making adjustments and listen to how the sound changes. The goal is to get the sound from the amp that you want to hear on the recording - once you do this, it becomes infinitely easier to capture it.
Also, make sure the guitar is properly set up (neck adjusted, intonated, etc.) and has fresh strings.
AndrewB
That Darn Kid
What the guy above said is just about all you can do short of going direct and using amp sims. First rule of recording: Shit in, shit out.
Pre Studio Productions
Member
Shinozoku
Senior Memory
Don't overlook GROUNDING in the guitar. The guitar might be picking up some noise as well, even having humbuckers. Look up creative ways to shield the guitar's Control cavity, check the wiring, etc.
And you may get good results from turning the gain on the amp down a notch or two, or replacing one of the tubes (like the Phase Inverter or one of the gain channel's main tubes) with a good quality 5751. It's lower gain, but you get the same output. In the Phase Inverter position (last tube before the power tubes) it can take a blanket off the speakers and give you immense clarity, and in one of the gain stages, it can lower noise.
Your mileage may vary with the tube solution. May just wanna invest in a noise gate.
Oh, and if the guitarist turns his mids OFF, do him a favor and turn them UP while lowering the bass and treble. Super scooping and excessive gain can create noise and muddy up all but the nicest and most well engineered amps.
And you may get good results from turning the gain on the amp down a notch or two, or replacing one of the tubes (like the Phase Inverter or one of the gain channel's main tubes) with a good quality 5751. It's lower gain, but you get the same output. In the Phase Inverter position (last tube before the power tubes) it can take a blanket off the speakers and give you immense clarity, and in one of the gain stages, it can lower noise.
Your mileage may vary with the tube solution. May just wanna invest in a noise gate.
Oh, and if the guitarist turns his mids OFF, do him a favor and turn them UP while lowering the bass and treble. Super scooping and excessive gain can create noise and muddy up all but the nicest and most well engineered amps.
