Recording Beginner - What's Possible?

[Thomadin]

Well, the title might be a little irritating:
I am a guitarist and I am trying to get into recording my own stuff.

I read a lot of threads here in the last few days and got the impression that if someone doesn't have good mics or good amps etc. using software plugins and DI tracks is the way to go.
(Please correct me if that is a wrong impression ;-))

As my budget is very limited, the equipment I am able to use is as following:
Line6 POD X3 (I mainly use this one for the different tones and sounds)
BOSS RC-50 Loop Machine (I use this one to record my tracks and transfer it to my PC via USB afterwards, and for practice purposes obviously.)
VOX AD30VTXL amp(Mostly used for the amplification, sound comes from POD)

I have the following questions regarding my equipment:
What would be the "best" way to record some Metalcore/Melodic Death Metal stuff? Recording via the POD directly using some presets I made?
Or trying to record a DI track and manipulating that with software plugins?

I maybe should also mention that most of my stuff I record are in Drop D and my guitar is a Epiphone ES335 dot Studio (yeah, I know, not the best guitar to record metal )

Also, excuse me if this is the wrong section to post this in

I hope to get some responses to improve my technique
Greetings, Thomadin

 

[muckypup1]

Recording DI tracks is probably best, then you can use computer amp modeling.

 

[Thomadin]

Okay, thats good to know

I have another question then:
Is it possible to record the dry guitar signal with the POD or the Boss rc-50?
Or do I have to buy a DI-Box?

 

[Mutant]

Real good quality amps + proper micing technique = best.
Good DI box + Amp sims = second best.
Bad quality real amps + bad micing = worst.

Yes it is possible to record a dry signal with POD, but a good DI box and interface will be better.

Oh ! And welcome to the best forum on the internet !

 

[ahjteam]

Yes it is possible to record a dry signal with POD, but a good DI box and interface will be better.

But at this point POD without buying additional gear, POD is the best option for recording the DI-tracks. But I would still advice to buy

1) pair of active studio monitors, I would keep the Behringer Truths (~300) as the lowest model worth buying
2) Recording interface. If your computer has a firewireport, the M-Audio Profire 610 (~300) is a good lower pricerange choise if you don't need to record more than 1-2 tracks at a time
3) Bass guitar. Guitarists otherwise try to overcompensate the lack of low end by making their guitar sound muddier by adding too much bass.

 

[Thomadin]

Thanks guys, that was a lot of help

Yeah, I always wanted to buy a bass guitar for recording, a recorded song without bass sounds crappy

Just to compensate for not having a bass guitar at the moment, is there any reasonable solution for recording some kind of bass?
VSTi? Pitch Shifted guitar?

I will try to experiment with recording the dry signal and some plugins, and try to get into recording a little bit more professional (as with my equipment, that is )

Anyways, thanks for the good answers, this is really a very good forum

 

[KungFuKid]

that was very good advice, to get a bass guitar on there. there's lots of great bass guitar samples available for free, do you have a midi keyboard? of course, a real bass is best for rock if you can afford it. If you're super broke, spend 50 bucks on a cheap used PEAVEY bass, some people swear by those. You might get lucky and score a really great one for 50 bucks (or course test it out before you buy it)

for guitar amp simulation your best bets are probably guitar rig and/or amplitube, but WAVES and NOMAD FACTORY make great ones too. for the bass, AMPEG SVT plugin is great, if you have the cpu to run it (its a hog). Adding bass guitar will make your tracks really sound like a BAND, and you don't have to play busy, just play simple on the bass. will give your tracks so much more punch and power.

 

[Ionei]

for guitar amp simulation your best bets are probably the many many free AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME amp sims available.

Fixed