help, i have pod disease

[joeymusicguy]

ok, so i own a pod xt, its great, i use it a lot. i record a lot of bands from all walks of culture, emo, screamo, metal, hardcore, death metal, grind, whatever. i almost end up using the pod every single time. most of the time the situation is, the band doesnt have good gear... so we use the pod cuz it sounds better...

but there's got to be more to life and engineering than throwing pod xt tracks on every recording i do. some bands are starting to question the pod anyways, and would rather use their amp because they... "love the sound of their amp."

you know as well as i do, an amp sound is what someone hears about 6 feet away from the sucker, at full blast, with two ears. try doing that with a pair of microphones, the sound will surely be icky...

i used to rock at micing guitar amps (http://www.myspace.com/surcease), but i have somehow lost the magic. every time i've tried since i've gotten the pod, i've been disgusted with the results. am i just a loser?

someone help me find a cure to this pod disease.... bleh!

 

[joeymusicguy]

im gonna go ahead and predict that someone will ask how i did that recording, so here it is

peavy triple x, mesa triple rect (maybe a dual rect, cant remember for sure no difference really), another peavy head (ultra plus?).

didnt have a splitter or a/b box, ran the guitar to a y chord (im not joking), and ran a chord off the y chord to two amps, tracked each guitarist this way (two guitarists). sm 57's off axis on each cab. dont remember the cab models but i have pictures.

went back and track each guitarist playing the same exact (match your track) with the third amp and cab mic'd up with a e609 (this could have made or break the recording, im not sure. cuz if i had a tripler at that time, i would have used all three amps at once, but i was unable to do that, so the y chord was my answer. i was bound and determined that day to get the most killer guitar sound i could muster).

then, had the best guitarist go back through song, with different preamp settings (i had a generic behringer thingy that had a stupid little tube warmth knob), and throw a track of two amps and two cabs down the middle (panned center). this is the same configuration as the regular guitar tracks.

since i did that recording so long ago, the tactics were ghetto, i was not very knowledgable. but i crave to get that awesome sound back!

all together, every song had 10 guitar tracks to mix, each with different eq settings all bussed to a single group channel that also had an eq on it.

 

[joeymusicguy]

maybe i wasnt to the point...

i need help with mic'ing guitar amps cuz i choose to use the pod all too often

 

[nwright]

If your old method worked before, what's wrong with trying it again?

 

[joeymusicguy]

because thats pretty much the only time it worked out and sounded pretty bad ass in the end

 

[nwright]

ah, I see.

 

[mmetalmilitiaa]

Get on your knees, put on some good headphones... start with the amp volume somewhat low and move the mic around untill you get the sweet spot!

 

[joeymusicguy]

what if you try for 30 minutes (on client paid time) and still dont find it?

cuz thats what always happens...

 

[006]

Then you need to look into spending your free time mic'ing up amps. Get people to lend you their gear for a few hours or a day and just practice mic'ing it up with the different mics you have and try different positions and stuff. Everything involved with engineering takes practice...

~e.a

 

[smy1]

what if you try for 30 minutes (on client paid time) and still dont find it?

cuz thats what always happens...

Also, with your client-friendly rates (we talked about that before), the client should just shut up and let you do your thing for as long as it'll take you.

 

[joeymusicguy]

haha
i think some amps just blow ass, conclusion complete