How much is equipement important?

P-E

P-E

Munchkin
Jul 31, 2008
2,810
5
38
Montreal, QC
I have been using my (cheap but in working order) Line 6 Toneport DI for a while to record my cheap BC Rich Warlock guitar, but I seem to be never satisfied with the tone I get, even if I play the tightest I can or use a lot of EQ (well I almost only do little cuts and barely touch the guitar tracks in fact).

(By the way I don't have a bass, so it doesn't help at all.)

I'd like to know how much using a Presonus Firepod, for example, would help for the sound, or better pickups (I know my sound was tighter trying amps with EMG 81s). Not so much on the software side of things, but really on the hardware side.

BTW I normally use SoloC, 8505 and 7170 for guitars -> sounds more real and raw than what I could get with Gearbox/Pod Farm, and I load impulses in Boogex (my favorite being CatharsisStudios recent ones).

Thanks
 
I have spent thousands of dollars on various amps, never getting a tone I am happy with, till i dropped $2000 on an amp and cab and another $2000 on a good guitar. I have also tried recording with cheap gear, cheap mics, through a firepod. All I have to say is everytime I save and buy something good I am blown away at the improvement of tone. Even though I have been playing guitar for 16 years and my bass player and drummer way more than that. It does make a difference. I tried micing a good kick with a shitty CAD mic. :puke: bought a D6 and mic'd the same kick I was amazed. But i guess it all depends I bet Andy Sneap could take $100 studio setup and make it sound amazing.
 
Yeah I see, thanks a lot!
The ampsims though definitely are getting better though, and thanks to AE's findings and tweakings, Nebula might be the next best thing (and less costier and difficult of course) to use instead of a cab.

Did you really notice an improvement using a better interface? I mean, what is really different?
 
Thanks to everyone.
Do you guys think I would be better off continuing using the toneport, or that buying another (still cheap...) interface would be better?
 
Thanks again.
For the record I'm all recording direct in PC so acoustic treatment isn't really important for me.

If I ever start a small home-studio though I'll keep that in mind. ;)

For pickups, I should upgrade the ones in my "crappy but working" BC Rich, it's basswood, what do you think?
Do EMG 81s work well with it? I really dig their sound. Seriously. But I'm open to other options too.
 
You'd need that while working on your mixes.

If it's basswood, get rid of it. You'd prefer a mahogany or an alder instead.
And yes, EMG 81s sound swell in such thick bodies (referring to the warlock).
 
P-E

He wasn't talking about acoustic treatment for a live room necessarily, he was talking about acoustic treatment for the room that you listen and mix in. Very, very important.

I would definitely get at least a little room treatment as well as new pickups first if I were you

EDIT, see you beat me to it ;)
 
Oh, okay I see now! Yeah I guess I just really need a better guitar right now.
There was this ESP M-1 NTB that I tried... wow. EMG 81 in alder, but not too bright, just great. And best neck ever (no frills though, one pickup, one volume, but man it rocked me). Costs a lot for a student though ;)
 
Have you tried the Ibanez Xiphos?
They've started producing black ones sometime back.
I'm not sure if you would get a neck-thru as cheap as that. Mahogany body.
I use that myself - I fuckin love it.
It does have a problem with it's center of gravity, just like those Jackson Kelly's, but I eventually got used to it.
 
I like Ibanez guitars but ESP really have THE necks to me. Still I never tried a Xiphos!
Agile seem pretty nicely made (though unknown), maybe one with emgs could be the way to go.
I'm a sucker for superstrats though, that's why I have almost no interest for the Xiphos ;)

EDIT : sounds weird because I have a warlock but my preferences changed :p
 
:D, a shame most BC Rich guitars are from my experience, not as good playing/sounding as their contemporaries (for the same price). A custom shop warlock though must be insane. I'd like a Stealth personally, Chuck being one of my heroes
 
Btw, one thing I've noticed is that people keep on claiming that Ibanez ripped off the Jackson Warrior with the Xiphos.
But here's how it goes:

BC Rich comes up with Stealth
Ibanez comes up with Axstar
Jackson comes up with Warrior
Ibanez comes up Xiphos

Basically, they all ripped off BC Rich:lol:
 
:O Stealth came first!!! :D

Still getting back to the OT... but in a different way. Do you use quantizing on guitars? I play as tight as I can but it still sounds delayed at places...
 
The recording equipment isn't as vital as say the instrument gear. IMO amp sims are tinny sounding to my ears compared to the real thing. My recordings went through the roof in terms of quality when i upgraded form revlaver to a real 5150. It also takes years of experience, when i first started recording i had decent enough gear but had bad results and now i don't even really think about whan I am doing though I am doing nothing different now than i used to (or that I am aware of).

All I run is a $100 Behringer pre amp, Shure 58 beta into an E-MU 1212m card ($500 total max.) And for what I have for equipment, I am satisfied with my final tone. My 2 main guitars...LTD M-207 and F-50 and I use the 50 for mojority of my recordings. IME its the guitars, amp gear and the drunkits that dictate whether a whole mix will sound good or bad more than the recording gear. Though the recording gear helps, or makes getting a good tone easier it is not the end all say all. Honestly I couldn't see much of a real improvement if you got a presonus interface. If you got a real amp? definately a huge improvement.

keep that in mind.
 
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