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Brian:
Here's some advice from an old analog tape guy who made the
switch to digital recording.
1. A decent mike would probably help things. Something
like a the good old standbys: Shure SM 57 or Shure SM 58.
Even Realistic (RadioShack) makes some decent SM 57 and SM
58 clones that are easy on the wallet and probably work
better than what you have right now.
2. your Showman shouldn't be too loud: maybe 3 or so.
Also, you might consider recording two tracks of guitar
(through two seperate microphones) for better sound. Place
one mic fairly close in to the speakers, and place the
other much farther away for some cool ambient reverb and
treble shimmer.
3. Wearing headphones? Ears work better than eyes when
recording. (and judging levels)
4. Lower your microphone input gain. Make sure you leave
plenty of "headroom" on your live recording channel to
accomodate "transient volume spikes"...in other words,
leave room before clipping for variations in your volume
due to playing technique and note (low E vs. hi E for
example) variations. Digital recorders are not forgiving
when your input level hits the clip ceiling. It's awful
sounding. On tape, "hot" input levels would "mush out" and
produce pleasing distortion. On digital its just harsh pop
and crackle.
5. Got a pre-amp on that mic? Maybe try a nice cheapo
pre-amp (one of those 12AX7 Blue tube pre-amp pedals work
well for me) ands a nice amount of tube-gain, and warms up
the sound immensely. Can add some noise though, so use
sparingly. If you have a PA or a mixer with phantom power,
you might try that as your mic pre-amp.
6. Turn up your guitar track volume DURING MIXDOWN. Even a
weak-ish recorded guitar track can be tweaked during
mixdown so that the volume level rides nice and high in the
mix. Get the best you can while capturing, and then tweak
it later on when you do your final mix. You can also tweak
the effects (like adding even more reverb)during mixdown,
if you desire.
good luck
a fellow home-recordist
dp
--- Brian Neal <> wrote:
>
>
> So I'm screwing around trying to record some guitar parts
> with my
> digital 8 track recorder. I'm a total novice with this
> stuff. I got a
> microphone with the recorder as part of a package, so I
> am sure it's
> just an el-cheapo. I am finding it very difficult to get
> my levels to
> sound right. I've been experimenting with mic placement,
> volumes, and
> the trim control. Here is what I am finding:
>
> It's very easy to overload the digital recorder and cause
> it to clip.
>
> It is very hard to get the guitar to sound "loud" on the
> recording.
> I've got the showman just edged up to 4, just to where
> it's starting
> to get slightly painful directly in front of the amp. I
> have to pull
> the mic away from the speakers a bit and just turn down
> the trim a
> hair so it won't clip. Even so, on playback, it has lost
> a lot of the
> immediacy and the "in your face" edge as the sound coming
> out of the amp.
>
> Any suggestions? Get a better mic? Recommendations? Do I
> really have
> to crank the amp to get a good recording? If so, I'll
> have to wait
> until the family leaves the house, I'm already pushing
> things as it
> is... :)
>
> Thanks for any advice.
> BN
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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