Practice amps and recording-- WTF?

Glory_Morris · Post by **Glory_Morris** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:01 am

So I'm recording this band right now-- they're tracking as I write this...The guitarist shows up this morning with a Hartke half-stack. As a cab he has a little 15w Crate practice amp! Sounds like complete shit. They seem ok with it, just worried the whole thing will be blamed on me.

Did the best I could mic'ing the thing, but there's no low end AT ALL. Even at full volume. They're a metal band, so maybe it's ok.

Next up...the bassist. This guy has a Hartke practice amp.

Spark · Post by **Spark** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:08 am

Maybe also record the guitar direct and reamp later if it should change?

Glory_Morris · Post by **Glory_Morris** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:15 am

I would, but I just can't. This is a super-cheap demo thing I do on weekends. I have 3 Traynors here, all of them in great condition and I thought about trying that out, but Traynors aren't really suitable for metal. They have so much midrange, and midrange is a no no in metal

I would reamp it, but I'm not being paid enough to start over with a DI. 3 of the 4 songs have already been tracked. as it is I'll be working till 10pm or so. If it were a multi-session recording I would certainly do that.

I'm just sort of baffled by the whole thing. I'll have to ask them if they play shows with this shit.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:25 am

good luck. that hartke stuff....not so much.

if the band seems cool with it just go. are they young? ya gotta remember that what you consider good tone and what they do could be way different. if you've recorded loads of good players through nice amps your benchmark is gonna be a lot higher than a 16 year old kid who just knows what he has and likes it.

to wit: my set up when i was 16 was a kramer striker (floyd rose and everything. yeah it was the 80s. i'm old) into a boss metal pedal, all knobs all the way up except the treble which was all the way down, into a kustom PA head and speaker cab. i thought it sounded awesome. with 20 years hindsight i have revised that opinion somewhat.

Glory_Morris · Post by **Glory_Morris** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:41 am

yeah I know-- these guys aren't all that young-- I have had younger bands that also sounded bad (with line 6 amps and whatnot). I just asked the band if they had ever recorded before and they said no, so I'll assume that this will at least be preferrable to the home recordings they've done with one mic. I suppose they'll be pleased.

I need to start doing the DI thing though. The other terrible sounding band (with the line 6 amps) actually caused me to lose some work.

Glory_Morris · Post by **Glory_Morris** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:27 pm

Anyway, their record sounds like trash.

Drums and VOX sound great. Guitars and bass verge on unlistenable.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 7:50 am

oh we'll fix that in mastering.

*nods sagely*

housepig · Post by **housepig** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 11:39 am

TUBelectro wrote:Anyway, their record sounds like trash.

Drums and VOX sound great. Guitars and bass verge on unlistenable.

what does the band think?

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Mon Jul 17, 2006 3:47 pm

MoreSpaceEcho wrote:good luck. that hartke stuff....not so much.

if the band seems cool with it just go. are they young? ya gotta remember that what you consider good tone and what they do could be way different. if you've recorded loads of good players through nice amps your benchmark is gonna be a lot higher than a 16 year old kid who just knows what he has and likes it.

to wit: my set up when i was 16 was a kramer striker (floyd rose and everything. yeah it was the 80s. i'm old) into a boss metal pedal, all knobs all the way up except the treble which was all the way down, into a kustom PA head and speaker cab. i thought it sounded awesome. with 20 years hindsight i have revised that opinion somewhat.

Did your Kustom PA head have the same "princess and the pea" spring reverb ours did? Man, if you breathed too loudly the thing would go crazy.

MoreSpaceEcho · Post by **MoreSpaceEcho** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:08 am

my kustom was sans reverb. what did have reverb was the shure vocal pa the singer used. and i suppose my memory is colored by nostalgia, but man i remember the verb on that thing sounding awesome.

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Tue Jul 18, 2006 5:20 pm

TUBelectro wrote:Anyway, their record sounds like trash.

Drums and VOX sound great. Guitars and bass verge on unlistenable.

thats too bad. there was nothing you could do to make it somewhat listenable? Trust me, i've had plenty of my share with people bringing crap in, but luckily i've got options and ideas how to make it better. using my amps, reamping, hella eqing or wierdo mic placement. but perhaps it wasn't just the amps fault and down the line when the players get more experience they'll look back on this session as a important learning point.

Glory_Morris · Post by **Glory_Morris** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 9:19 am

I actually met with the bassist this morning-- we played with the mix some and made it sound a tiny bit better-- we discussed the practice amp thing. They plan on getting better equipment soon and returning.

The only thing I could have done was borrowed an amp for them. Next time something like this happens, I'll do just that. Fuck-- a Metal Zone direct would have sounded better. Unfortunately I rely on the musicians to be reasonably well-equipped-- and why shouldn't they? They're in a band for godsake.

farside · Post by **farside** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:32 am

Why would you say midrange guitar is a no no for metal? ...If anything theres excesive midrange these days and the bass fills up ALL the low end. Just check out the most recent Black Daliah Murder as an example.

chris harris · Post by **chris harris** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 11:12 am

So I'm recording this band right now-- they're tracking as I write this...

I guess that since the band was getting your "cheap demo thing" that you do on weekends, that they didn't mind that as they were tracking, instead of listening and thinking about ways to improve the sound, you were posting on an internet messageboard to make fun of them.

I just asked the band if they had ever recorded before and they said no, so I'll assume that this will at least be preferrable to the home recordings they've done with one mic. I suppose they'll be pleased.

lofty aspirations!

I'd recommend finding out BEFORE the session if it will be the first time the band has ever been in a studio. And, if it will, be prepared to help them understand how to improve their tone for recording.

Everyone has to deal with bad sounding gear from time to time. But, it's those times that you often have to work harder. It's definitely not a time to throw up your hands and log on to the internet while they're still tracking.

Glory_Morris · Post by **Glory_Morris** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:42 pm

I did discuess the matter with them-- about changing some things. I also offered to retrack the guitar parts when they buy/borrow better amps. FREE, so don't get all worked up about how guys like me just don't care.

I probably should spend more time thinking about how to make practice amps sound great while bands are tracking.

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Practice amps and recording-- WTF?

Practice amps and recording-- WTF?

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