PrestonRice
Joined: Oct 05, 2012
Posts: 1725
Austin, Texas
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Posted on Dec 22 2014 11:18 AM
One of my favorites so far has been "reprocessing". Meaning, taking a guitar, bass, or vocal track that was recorded directly into the computer, and running it through a signal chain, where you can tweak, add, remove, until you get the sound just right. This goes for mic preamps, effects pedals, and especially amps - You can rent one for a day, and it'll be good for all of your work to date.
Another favorite is miking two amps, and blending the two signals, or, if they're similar enough, sending each to one ear.
Anyone have any favorites?
— IMO.
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JakeDobner
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 12159
Seattle
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Posted on Dec 22 2014 11:46 AM
$30,000 mic on an acoustic and on a grand piano.
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PrestonRice
Joined: Oct 05, 2012
Posts: 1725
Austin, Texas
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Posted on Dec 22 2014 11:49 AM
Haha, I wish. $30,000 is probably a bit more than what I'd like to spend on a mic.
— IMO.
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Wombat
Joined: Oct 13, 2011
Posts: 251
Byron Bay, Australia
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Posted on Dec 22 2014 03:05 PM
I have been keeping it simple with live recording, using the the Sony HDR-MV1 (great for live recording of bands)
http://pdf.crse.com/manuals/4487532111/EN/index.html
If I have the time, once recorded I 'pull' the audio from the video track, run it through Cubase with reverb/compression/EQ/etc then put back on video track, then edit it with the mixed audio. Sounds polished for live video camera audio
— 'Surf Music Lasts Forever'
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eddiekatcher
Joined: Mar 14, 2006
Posts: 2764
Atlanta, GA
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Posted on Dec 22 2014 05:58 PM
Getting lucky enough to make it through at least one take with a minimum of generally audible goofs..........
That for me is a real trick.
ed the clums
— Traditional........speak softly and play through a big blonde amp. Did I mention that I still like big blonde amps?
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SURFmole
Joined: Nov 22, 2007
Posts: 901
Portland, OR
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Posted on Dec 23 2014 02:22 AM
Mic'ing guitar amps about an inch off center (toward outer edge of cone) from the dustcap and 0-1" away from the grill with a single microphone.
ORTF drum mic configuration for overheads.
Recording "live" with all instruments in the same room and no headphone monitoring required.
Recording the guitar with effects (reverb tank, delay pedal, fuzz pedal, etc) and NOT adding it afterwards.
Mixing in mono before tweaking the stereo mix.
— www.apollo4.com
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da-ron
Joined: Jan 02, 2009
Posts: 1299
The original Plymouth, UK.
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Posted on Dec 23 2014 03:10 AM
Do guitar cabs still need miking up? The amp simulators in Garageband and Logic seem so good, it hardly seems worth faffing round with mic placement.
— http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/
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JakeDobner
Joined: Feb 26, 2006
Posts: 12159
Seattle
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Posted on Dec 23 2014 09:34 AM
But you mess around with mic placement in Logic! It makes a difference!
I'm in love with Logic right now, they don't sound better or worse than an amp. It allows you to tweak your sound to wherever you want, which is very cool!
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PrestonRice
Joined: Oct 05, 2012
Posts: 1725
Austin, Texas
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Posted on Dec 23 2014 10:57 AM
You haven't lived though, till you've run an amp simulator(sans cab sim) into a real cab, and miked that up. So nice.
— IMO.
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da-ron
Joined: Jan 02, 2009
Posts: 1299
The original Plymouth, UK.
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Posted on Dec 23 2014 12:01 PM
JakeDobner wrote:
I'm in love with Logic right now, they don't sound better or worse than an amp. It allows you to tweak your sound to wherever you want, which is very cool!
+1 on that! I've just got to grips with it and it's awesome.
Me and Parker - we rock!
— http://thewaterboarders.bandcamp.com/
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Ariel
Joined: Aug 29, 2009
Posts: 1556
Israel
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Posted on Dec 23 2014 05:15 PM
I still haven't been able to achieve truly satisfactory results with amp sims, with guitar. I've tried a lot of configurations with ALL(!) the software for the last 2 decades. I know I suck, but besides that...
Bass OTH, a different story! Easy street! Perhaps because I lack the sensibilities of a bassist...
Gain staging and impedance matching are often the ignored aspects of DI recording. Some things I learned:
- Usually better to convert the impedance before the sound card, a good external active DI helps get rid of fizziness.
- Consumer sound cards' preamps aren't supposed to be driven at all! backoff the gain until there's no trace of digital clipping, then back it off so the preamp doesn't distort, then back it off even more!
- Watch input levels on the amp-sims as well, they are reactive and usually have a sweet spot.
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SURFmole
Joined: Nov 22, 2007
Posts: 901
Portland, OR
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Posted on Dec 23 2014 08:40 PM
da-ron wrote:
Do guitar cabs still need miking up? The amp simulators in Garageband and Logic seem so good, it hardly seems worth faffing round with mic placement.
My 'faffin round' takes about 10 seconds to place the mic. I haven't heard a amp sim that I like as well as a mic'd amp; maybe someday I'll change my mind. They're certainly better than they used to be.
— www.apollo4.com
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Badger
Joined: Nov 16, 2013
Posts: 4536
Wisconsin
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Posted on Dec 23 2014 09:37 PM
Not a pro like those here but, just in case some other duffer is just recording themselves in a simple fashion & maybe mixing with Audacity or something similar. Playing to a backing track as an example, I always let whatever it is (TASCAM in my case) sit in record for awhile with everything completely idle. Maybe 10-20 seconds just gathering "whatever" might be in the room, any amp noise or spurious things that are there that might not normally get a second thought.
It is so much easier to tell the software "this is my noise baseline - now go find it & make it go away" (longer sample the better). Even if your'e just doing a cover for youtube or something. The opportunity to clean up the signal as much as possible, as soon as possible, is huge for muy purposes.
— Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel
DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.
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