Recording guitars direct: give it to me.

[I'm Painting Again]

JR..I liked the XT..you just turn the knb till the guitar fits in the mix..briliant..you would have a tough time telling it apart in a mix from an amp in a lot of modern style recordings..

[Jeremy Garber]

All of my electric guitar recording to date has been direct. Some if it was recorded straight to the PC, and then I used plugins for the amp models and what not to get the tone I wanted. My bandmate has an old Pod and I've used that a good deal, as well as an old Digitech multi-fx floor board. Honestly, I've gotten pretty tired of recording direct. You can get some really nice clean sounds though. I think that's what's bothered me a lot lately, that my recordings are a little too clean - too much direct not enough air. I really want to go back to my primal basics and hook up the little Peavey practice amp and the good old small collection of foot pedals.

[paulknig]

Hi all, first post greetings from the Uk!

I use http://www.line6.com/guitarport/ guitar port from Line 6.

Some of the settings are a bit sh1tty sounding but for the money (I paid around 80 ?) you really cant go wrong.

The old fender amp models sound pretty close to the real I am.

[GooberNumber9]

After going through a lot of work on silent guitar recording, I've found something that works well for me:

Guitar amp speaker output -> Speaker in DMC Cab-Tone -> Speaker in THD Hot Plate (or to your regular speaker cabinet).

The Cab-Tone is a GREAT speaker simulator. I made an A/B recording of the Cab-Tone and a 57 at the same time and only one person out of about 20 even hazarded a guess as to which one was which. I highly prefer the Cab-Tone to a 57 any day, and of course the isolation can't be beat.

Also, the Cab-Tone and THD combo only costs about $300, and you can use it with almost any amp, tube or solid state (it has a line-level input for direct outs from amps).

Short of that, I prefer the sound of the Vox Tonelab overall, closely followed by the Fender Cyber-series of amps. There's something I don't like about PODs that I can't figure out.

You could always go direct with a Radial and then run it through an amp simulation plug-in.

Todd Wilcox

[Slider]

There is another great free VST amp sim called GSuite. I'd search for that on google and give it a shot.
I like the native instruments guitar combo. It has a decent AC-30 sim that I like quite a bit.
Recording direct guitar is never that much fun, but it can sound alright with some effort.

[inverseroom]

Yeah sure, the Simuanalog suite! I wish somebody would make a GUI for that stuff. I use the Rednef Twin and Marshall amp sim a lot for non-geetar effects, like "reamping" drums.

Aren't those models the basis for another, commerical suite? Amplitude? Or even the NI that you like?

Maybe I should just not buy anything and work more with the software. I have great DI equpiment and many fine pedals, so what the hell?

[dirk_v]

OK, if you're gonna tell me to go buy an amp and mic it, you can just go poop yourself.

OK, so what you should do, is go out and buy an amp, and mic is up.

{gone to change pants}.


Seriously, though, I have had good luck with both the Pod and SansAmp platforms. I use a POD Pro (the rackmount version) which have come down significantly in price, and are worth the extra cake over the kidney, IMO. Contrary to an earlier post, the PRO does run at a higher bit depth and sounds less grainy than the original POD I used to own. It also features more amp models and more programmability of the emulations and effects. Also the extra I/O options are nice, since you have your choice of balanced I/O on TRS or XLR, S/PDIF digital output (24 bit, can be externally clocked), and most useful of all, there is an impedance-matched line-level DI output which I always use to print an unprocessed DI in case I need to re-work a guitar track later (to re-amp, run thru an amp plug-in, create a doubled part, etc.), and a line-level input for reamping or processing other signals.

The last project I did I used it exclusively for electric guitars - they began as guide tracks, but we were happy with the sounds we were getting to the point that we never got around to re-amping or re-working anything, not to mention the awesome convenience of being able to recall a sound two weeks after the original session to punch in or change a part. The compromise is that the POD's sounds, while good, can't match the feel or depth of a real amp. Play an AC-30, then play the POD's version, and tell me which you like better. At the end of the day, we settled on convenience. When it came time to mix, I ended up cutting a lot of "harsh" frequencies (lots @ 2.5K, for example) out of the tracks, but I'm not sure how much of that came from the types of sounds that were chosen at the time. I also found the POD tracks generally short on dynamics, which can be a handy "feature" but also a drawback, depending on your aims. FWIW, we've committed to working more with mic'd amps next time around, and I'm looking forward to it.

I haven't set hands on a SansAmp in a few years, but I found it quite cool last time I tracked with one. The tone didn't scream 'mic'd cab,' but it had plenty of useable sound for such a small box. I also must say I much prefer the POD's user interface.

As I said, I'm looking forward to experimenting more with amp/mic techniques next time out, and if I had the money, I'd be investing in a power soak/cab sim box/es and some good amps rather than another digital amp sim.

-dv

[KennyLusk]

Yeah sure, the Simuanalog suite! I wish somebody would make a GUI for that stuff. I use the Rednef Twin and Marshall amp sim a lot for non-geetar effects, like "reamping" drums.

Aren't those models the basis for another, commerical suite? Amplitude? Or even the NI that you like?

Maybe I should just not buy anything and work more with the software. I have great DI equpiment and many fine pedals, so what the hell?

Also, sometimes, Tape Saturation plugs are just what the doctor ordered for thickening up guitar and/or vocal tracks and pushing them up front as well by really sweetening up the mids. There are times you'll find a tape saturation plug will kill some Amp Sim's. PSP's Vintage Warmer is a little plug for sweetening up guitar and vocal tracks. Anyone using sonar for some things might want to check out the native tape sim plug there.

[inverseroom]

Yeah sure, the Simuanalog suite! I wish somebody would make a GUI for that stuff. I use the Rednef Twin and Marshall amp sim a lot for non-geetar effects, like "reamping" drums.

Aren't those models the basis for another, commerical suite? Amplitude? Or even the NI that you like?

Maybe I should just not buy anything and work more with the software. I have great DI equpiment and many fine pedals, so what the hell?

Also, sometimes, Tape Saturation plugs are just what the doctor ordered for thickening up guitar and/or vocal tracks and pushing them up front as well by really sweetening up the mids. There are times you'll find a tape saturation plug will kill some Amp Sim's. PSP's Vintage Warmer is a little plug for sweetening up guitar and vocal tracks. Anyone using sonar for some things might want to check out the native tape sim plug there.

I actually have, and love, PSP MixPack. MixSaturator is supposedly different from VW, but I use it a lot, esp. on drums and bass. And it is indeed what I used to beef up the mids on my Tonelab'd guitar tracks!

I guess my interest in hardware amp sims is this: there is something EXCITING about a guitar through an amp, and the sound of it WHILE PLAYING can really add to the performance. I'm a mediocre player, so I depend on that excitement to make my performances appealing...processing afterward can make a track sound great, but it can't get me going while tracking.

[Radioaction]

I have a PodXT Live right now, and I think it's pretty good. I've used it on records for clean tones. I really like it for bass, too. You can now buy the bass models and install them on your guitar PodXT to turn it into a "Bass PodXT Lite". quote]

Where do you go to buy the bass models for the xt? how much are they?

Scott

[Radioaction]

I used to own a PSA-1 and I sold it. I think it makes a nice preamp going into a real amp and speaker, but I didn't really like it for direct.

I have a PodXT Live right now, and I think it's pretty good. I've used it on records for clean tones. I really like it for bass, too. You can now buy the bass models and install them on your guitar PodXT to turn it into a "Bass PodXT Lite". I definitely agree with RodC about avoiding the presets and rolling your own. There are so many frickin' choices that it might take a while to find the sounds that do it for you, but it's worth it.

Where can you buy the bass models? how much are they?

Scott

[Radioaction]

sorry for posting twice... now 3 times

[John Jeffers]

Where can you buy the bass models? how much are they?

http://www.line6.com/modelPacks/

The bass model pack is $99.

[djslayerissick]

For recording direct guitars, GuitarRig is my holy grail.

Native Instruments has their latest version of GuitarRig amp and effects software simulator - and it blows everything out of the water, IMHO.

I've been a hardcore advocate of Line6 products for many years now. Since I've discovered the sheer editing and customization power, sound quality, and just how convincing GuitarRig sounds, I've realized Line6 sucks.

The Line6 products always took me TONS of editing and customizing time - and then they still needed processing in the mix, lots of shelving and little EQ adjustments, and it still sounded a little fake.

However, every GuitarRig preset is usually good to go the moment I pull it up and requires nothing from me in the mix. They always sit perfectly. I just have to adjust the volume.

And its amazing on vocals, bass, and drums too. I'm getting sounds on accident I would have never done on purpose - and they are great.

I can't say enough about GuitarRig.

[inverseroom]

Does Guitar Rig actually have a DSP card in it? Or is it essentially software with a hardware controller? Latency is a real vibe killer...