[Question For Guitarists]

Thanks everyone. Think I'll work on getting some acoustic tracks down, experimenting with the mic and see how I go!

[Question For Guitarists]

*looks for Bill*

Hi Darren

One thing you don't say is what you plan to use the recordings for? That might make a difference to what I would suggest.

Direct Injection (DI) (line) recording has never been as good as it is right now. In addition to effects there are some excellent amp and effect simulators for guitar, for example look at some the Amplitube range of products from IK Multimedia. There are others in the marketplace but their products achieve a great balance of quality and versatility. Some amp sims and guitar effects are free, try checking the free VST suggestions board on Songstuff.

DI is by far the simplest hardware set up, and usually the easiest therefore to record. Apply the effects /amp sim on monitoring, ie don't record the effects and amp sim sound, just the DI guitar. When you record you can monitor the amp sim output with few issues once you master the basics of latency.

Cheers

John

 

Where the hell did I get Bill from...lol??? 

 

Thanks Rudi, John and The S!

 

John - I'm trying to figure out how to get some guitars into my arrangements. I mainly come up with the chord progression/ composition on the keys and envisage some electric guitar on a number of these tracks.

 

I'm glad you've both endorsed using plug-ins as I didn't want to go out and buy a complete guitar rig (nor can I afford to if I wanted). Hadn't thought about recording dry and adding effects later tho, so will give that a go.

 

The S

 

Yay, I found Bill Happy! ;-)

OT: Now, I'm more of an acoustic sound loving guy so that probably will explain the following but at least you know. An electric guitar lover would probably recommend you buying a superb amp to go with your guitar and using a mic recording it, but for me, I plug my electric directly, using line in and then the Logic amps. I think it works like a charm and always deliver good and solid sounds! I would never ever do that when recording the acoustic though, but maybe that's me and my preferences. I've never liked the way an acoustic guitar sounds when plugged directly to the source, it's doesn't do any guitar justice. If a guitar has that special specific sound, like most acoustic guitars have for better or worse, it's completely gone and flattened out if you plug it in. I would say, learn and use a mic when recording acoustic guitars. It's not that hard and it really pays off in the long run.

S

 

It makes sense to record acoustic this way. Would I be better with a condenser or dynamic mic?

[Question For Guitarists]

Thanks, Bill!

 

I was hoping someone would reply and say use a direct line in. That's what I planned to do but I was reading in a lot of places that people use mics to record their guitar parts, either acoustically or electrically.

 

I guess, due to lack of a decent amp and any pedalboards, I'll have to use a direct line-in for electric guitar. Logic has loads of amp/pedalboard simulations I can add to the signal once it's in.

[Question For Guitarists]

I'm just about getting into recording some guitars to add to the arrangements in my tracks and wanted to ask how to get best quality. Guitar is not my first instrument and I don't have any amps. I have an electro-acoustic and a Gibson Epiphone, and the method I plan on utilising is recording the guitars direct into Logic via my Apogee One. 

 

It would be good to hear from specialist guitarists as to how they record, and maybe answer a couple of questions:

 

Should I record acoustic guitar through a mic, or is it better hooked up directly into Logic?

 

Do any real guitarists use the pedalboard/amp designer plug-ins in Logic.

 

Thanks

[Recording Headaches]

Thanks Tom, and yes it helps.

I think what I need to do is get some songs posted and heard by people other than my own immediate family/ friends. Maybe in the future I could buy some studio time to get some songs recorded properly but for now maybe videos of me live from my bedroom will suffice. Actually, that sounds rude - good job there was no mention of my organ, I mean synth!!!

[Recording Headaches]

John,

I guess my expectations may have changed slightly with the advances in technology but I always felt there was an expectation to get my songs to a certain production level in order to demo to people in the business. And while I've been toiling away on something that is not my strongest skill, it appears the landscape has changed and people are pitching their work themselves, via you tube, Facebook and sites like this.

Really, what I'm trying to get at is that a web presence seems to be an alternative to the old way of sending demo tapes out (I may be wrong as I never even got to that point), and if that is the case is their a standard in production that needs to be attained, or like you say, should I go for live recordings with a single instrument accompaniment?

Tom,

The main problem is probably drum tracks, not that there aren't enough loops to choose from in Logic (or on my synth for that matter), but getting in and breaking up the rhythm so it doesn't sound...well, looped.

And indeed, the list goes on for other problems, especially where to place different tracks in the mix and getting the levels right. I don't have anything I finished with too many tracks but I might have a simple three track song I can post if I can find it.

Anyway, thanks for the replies

Darren

[Recording Headaches]

I seem to have been stuck on the recording merry-go-round for a good few years. I've tried four-track, garageband and now Logic and it seems the more options an application has the more hampered I am in trying to produce a satisfactory recording.

Obviously there's a real craft to producing multi-tracked songs, but I'm wondering how detailed I should try to go in getting an adequate demo as I haven't produced one I'm really happy with yet (and I have quite a backlog of songs to get through).

I've often wondered what would be better: a straight live video recording of the track on either piano or guitar, or trying to persevere with multi-track recording?

Any suggestions would be gratefully received as I'd like to maybe set up on you tube and even post something on songstuff to get critiqued.