tracking DI guitar solo w/wha wha

[Arsenu,]

ok guys, that's pretty simple

i need to track a guitar solo with a DI for later re-amping, and that solo contains a wha-wha effect.

question is, should i use the effect while tracking the solo or track clean and add the wha pedal in front of the amp while re-amping?

on one hand if i track clean, i'll know for sure that every note sounds good and clean. on the other hand, i really want to get a more "live" sound like you'd get when the guitarist uses the pedal while he's playing.

i'm pretty sure i'm gonna track it clean anyway but i'd still like to get you intake on this one

 

[zer0_c00l]

I would track it with the wah, unless the guitarrist sucks...

 

[-Noodles-]

Why not split the DI twice? One pre and one post wah?

If you've got the DIs and the channels..

 

[jipchen]

Imho all feeling gets lost if you don't track the with the wahwah in the chain. There's no need to apply it later really, because if the take sucks just do it again.
Even with special delay effects etc., recording them while tracking makes your job easier in the end and I can't see how it could become a problem. It never was for me, anyway.

 

[Arsenu,]

^
it could become a problem if one bar out of the solo was tracked when the wha is 70% on and the other was from another take where the wha is, say, 30% on.
haven't started tracking it yet but i assume it would sound bad.

i agree on what your'e saying if i could have nailed the solo as tight as fuck in one take but i just wrote it yesterday and won't have enough time to practice.
i can try making one track with no wha and track every bar seperatly until it sounds clean and tight and another track where i'll just track it all at once with the wha until it sounds good to my EARS.
only question is if the wha really "swallows" a lot of notes so a take that would normaly sound played clean would sound good.

 

[jipchen]

Ah I didn't realize you were also playing the guitar for this^^
True, if the wah makes "jumps" from one bar to another it will most probably sound bad. If you have to split the solo into bars, then I guess it's best to make sure the solo is perfect first, and you can use the wah while reamping in real-time and make as many wah-takes you need until it sounds good

 

[Fama]

Or you could even track it clean, then rewah it (while recording the DI WITH the wah) in one take until it sounds good, and THEN reamping it, so you can concentrate on just that.

 

[if6was9]

I wah afterwards. When I've tracked with the wah it clips horribly and didn't sound great through the amp. If I lower the pre's gain so it doesn't clip when recording it sounds undergained and weak then.
It's pretty easy to "wah" while doing the reamping. I've done it with a few bands and none had a problem with it though one had to wear a guitar while doing the wah because it felt weird for him to be using the pedal without one!

 

[zer0_c00l]

I also thought about that "holding the guitar" thing if6was9 haha

 

[KillFrenzy]

It's preferable to track a clean DI, no matter what. If you have to move notes with any effect (wah, verb and specially delay), it will sound weird