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I spend as much time as any guitar player tweaking knobs to find great tones. Here are some links that have helped me in the quest: First, the effect of pickups on guitar tone: Even though we each have different ideas about our ultimate tone, I think we’re all looking for a rich sound – […]
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It’s easy enough to play with mic placement on your guitar amp, but it’s not always practical, especially if you record by yourself. This video highlights the main miking positions, and how each affects the guitar’s tone.
Read the full post ...Here’s a classic thread from Prosoundweb with some of the pros sharing their thoughts on getting a thick guitar sound: It’s a lot of things, but most importainly[sic] it’s the blend of guitars and bass in the arrangement. If you listen closely to your fav guitar sounds, the guitars aren’t really that big on their […]
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For a sales video, this “recording guitar” primer from Presonus is surprisingly effective, especially if you struggle to get a usable tone from acoustic or electric guitar:
Read the full post ...For a full band mix, restringing your electric guitar probably won’t, by itself, much affect the overall sound of your recording. Especially if the guitar’s a little crunchy. Ditto for changing the snare drum head. Or tweaking the piano’s tuning. But taken together, small changes like these add up, and can really bring a mix […]
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Some instruments, guitars especially, sound great when double-tracked and separated in the stereo image. Hard-panned electric guitars are a standard in modern rock mixes, and engineers have used the technique on acoustic guitars too for decades. Double-tracking is straightforward: Record a part twice, both takes as similar as possible, and pan one take hard left […]
Read the full post ...This interview with Chris Lord-Alge is short, but packed with tips on recording electric guitar and bass. you’re going to get a better sound recording electric guitars on analog than digital. If you’re going digital, you may want to use a bit more compression than normal, maybe dial more low-end because digital is like a […]
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How does one capture that transparent acoustic guitar sound? I like to record steel stringed acoustic guitars with two mics, one aimed at the bridge and one aimed towards the neck, just about where the neck meets the body. The mic aimed at the bridge will get the bright stuff and the one aimed at […]
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What is “harmonic balancing” and why should I care? (Or more appropriately, why should I ignore the hype?): Peaks and valleys in your spectrum don’t determine what’s “good” or “bad,” your ears do… And what causes records to sound different in different listening environments is a poorly balanced mix, again something you fix with your […]
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Recording harmonica: i’ve also had decent results with the harmonica player playing straight into an sm58/vocal mic, and driving (overdriving?) the preamp a little/lot. it’s an entirely different sound–more immediate and “direct” sounding (and can get brittle if you don’t watch out)……but one that may work depending on what the song/production calls for. Some thoughts […]
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Guitar players think of distortion as “that pedal I stomp on to add crunch!” But in signal processing, distortion has broader meanings and uses. Harmonic distortion, in particular, is of interest to recording engineers. Aural exciters, such as the industry-standard Aphex 204, use harmonic distortion to alter the sound of recorded tracks in (hopefully) pleasing […]
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Nashville tuning (or “high stringing”) a guitar involves replacing the heavier strings with a lighter guage, and tuning them an octave higher. Chord shapes stay the same, but the guitar produces some notes an octave higher (somewhat like a 12-string.) Without the lower strings, the tone lacks body, and as a standalone guitar track a […]
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In this clip from the Nevermind edition of the Classic Albums DVD series, Butch Vig discusses the track Drain You, which had more guitar overdubs than any other track on NeverMind: … a clean sound on the intro with Kurt’s vocal, as well as 1-2-3-4-5 guitars, 2 tracks of the Mesa Boogie, 2 tracks of […]
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