[montydog]

Hi,

I'm just wondering how you people record electric guitar. Do you just run a lead from the guitar into your interface via whatever effects boxes you use or do you do what I do which is to put a microphone up against the speaker cabinet of my amp.

Thanks

Alan

[tone]

I prefer to put a mic against my amp speaker cab, but I've heard that if you're using some of the latest guitar modelling software, it's hard to tell the difference....

[Neil C]

Alan, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you're going to do with a plank and some electricity under your fingertips.
Anyway the short answer is both work. But unless you're after a v clean and compressed sound - think Chic, then given half the sound comes from the guitar and the other half the amp. So if you've an amp then as you say the traditional method micing you amp, say a SM57 will be fine, you may want to play around where you put it to the speaker so what works best. The other main option is to either something which pretends to be an amp - hardware like zoom or line 6 typically between your guitar and interface or VST software for your PC. Re the latter there's some freeware ones which emulate amps. One advantage of this is of course it doesn't annoy neighbours..
If you outline your recording set-up and what guitar/amp sound you're looking to record I see if I can be more specific.
Hope that helps

Neil

[Saeed AlSuri]

I think Neil said the most important question in the recording field ..

what sound you are looking for ?? .. from there the gears the setup begins ..

but if you want simply to get a clean sound to your recording unit then maybe direct will be the way .. if you want ambiance of the room the Amp is the way or mix the two track together there is no one rule to get it done every thing is possible .. all depends on the ears .. what you hear and what you like ..

Cheers

[Alan Starkie]

The best sound from a mic'd guitar speaker comes from an SM57 AND SM58 together.

One on the centre and one on the edge of the cone.

[Ramshackles]

The best sound from a mic'd guitar speaker comes from an SM57 AND SM58 together.

One on the centre and one on the edge of the cone.

Bold statement. I wouldn't be so definitive about it.

My favourite mic's for a cabinet vary between:
SM57
U87
GAP R1 (ribbon mic)

But I'm sure there are plenty of mic's that I don't own that are also outstanding (I'd love to have a Royer ribbon for example).

I've had great results from amp simulators and there are some excellent free ones out there...so many in fact, that I only have free ones.

IK Multimedia do a simulator called Amplitude. The free version comes with a variety of models and you can choose different heads, cabinets and microphone emulators..
There is also a guy that makes amp emulations called 'LePou Plugins'.

You need to make sure you are getting a really nice DI sound from the guitar to get the best results with emulators.

Since I started recording other people, I've done a lot of reamping; recording the raw DI signal and then running that out to an amp at a later date back home/at a studio/interesting room

[Alan Starkie]

The best sound from a mic'd guitar speaker comes from an SM57 AND SM58 together.

One on the centre and one on the edge of the cone.

Bold statement. I wouldn't be so definitive about it.

Not bold Ramshackles, just advice I got from a London producer through a manager I had back in the day.

[Boydie]

Like with most things about recording / producing there are NO hard and fast rules

If it captures the sound YOU are after then that is what counts - there are so many variables: the guitar, the strings, how you play, the amp, the amp settings, the speaker(s), the mic choice, the mic placement, - and this is all before any tweaking within the daw

However, the comments so far are great starting points

As a "workflow" point I would always suggest taking a DI feed along with your mic'd recording

It only takes up a track and having a clean option to re-amp later on is never a bad option

 I am a big fan of "in the box" amp sims and personally recommend Guitar Rig 5 and Amplitube

I generally use Guitar Rig for dirtier sounds and Amplitube Fender for classic clean tones

ALL of the songs I have posted here use these amp sims for electric guitar

I think the tone is close enough to the "real deal" when put in the mix and the convenience of just plugging in and playing FAR outweighs the alternative of plugging an amp in, finding a "family friendly" time to record, setting up mics etc.

The other advantage is that you can add parts weeks later by just loading a preset - the alternative is trying to remember amp settings, mic placement etc.

I have never been obsessive about chasing "tone' as I feel most of the magic is in the fingers - the results I am getting from my amp sims far exceeded my expectons and the convenience of just plugging straight in to my laptop is ridiculous

[montydog]

Alan, and I'm really looking forward to hearing what you're going to do with a plank and some electricity under your fingertips.
Anyway the short answer is both work. But unless you're after a v clean and compressed sound - think Chic, then given half the sound comes from the guitar and the other half the amp. So if you've an amp then as you say the traditional method micing you amp, say a SM57 will be fine, you may want to play around where you put it to the speaker so what works best. The other main option is to either something which pretends to be an amp - hardware like zoom or line 6 typically between your guitar and interface or VST software for your PC. Re the latter there's some freeware ones which emulate amps. One advantage of this is of course it doesn't annoy neighbours..
If you outline your recording set-up and what guitar/amp sound you're looking to record I see if I can be more specific.
Hope that helps

Neil

Thanks Neil, that's very helpful. I have a Yamaha Pacifica electric guitar, Marshall AS 50 acoustic guitar amp, Line 6 Pod (which I don't use), SM58 and SE 2200a mics recording into a Yamaha AW1200 digital workstation which I then transfer into Cakewalk for mixing and mastering. I basically want as clean and as natural a sound as possible. The electric guitar sound on "Jump First" which is in the WIP section was achieved by putting the SM58 against the Marshall amp speaker and recording it clean with a little reverb on the amp. Sounds OK to me but I'd be grateful for any suggestions you might have.

[Neil C]

Alan,
Two thoughts. The easiest way is to get the Pod out and plug it in between your guitar and the workstation. It will have lots of Fender and Vox's amps and Cabinets. I'd try something like a Bassman, Champ or an AC15 or AC30 and keep the gain down. You could decide to add fx's there or let do it on Sonar later, the former might be easier but you're then committed.
The other approach would be to actually use Sonar and apply a VST amp such as the free ones Ramshakles and Boydie mention. Depending on what version of Sonar you use you may already have a simple but workable with Sonar. If you look in your Plugins you should see something called Cakewalk Amp Sim. Its not pretty but it does the job.



and chose from presets and tweak to taste.  I'm assuming you record your guitar direct into the workstation and then apply the Amp Sim at mixdown. The downside is you wont hear what it sounds like when you're record which may or may not be important to you. 
Do say how you get on and just ask if you need anything else.
 
Neil

[Boydie]

If you have a half decent PC and audio interface you can play directly into the the DAW and hear the effect on the guitar as you record

In SONAR you need to have "input echo" enabled, which is the small wave form symbol near the end of the track name (after Mute, Solo and record)

The amount of latency you get on this sound will be down to you PC/audio interface specs but you should be able to get a workable set-up going

[Ramshackles]

If you have a half decent PC and audio interface you can play directly into the the DAW and hear the effect on the guitar as you record

As long as your audio interface has a DI input (just to be clear...)

Yup, most DAW's I know of have monitoring possibilities...
But, for the time lag to be un-noticeable you really need a total latency of <10ms... so your pc needs fairly good specs.

[seriousfun]

I never mic up my electric. I always have some sort of effect on it and to be honest I never  know what effect I am going to end up using so I DI the thing running it through a dbx 376 channel strip to get a nice clear signal and just throw a plugin effect on it that approximates what I want then. When the song is completed I can simply go back and tweak it so that sounds exactly as I want. If I have recorded it with a mic off my amp that flexibility is immediately almost lost completely.

I have about 10 amp sims on my system, mostly free, but I find myself reaching for the same few everytime and they are the purchased ones

Guitar Rig
Amplitube
GTR Solo
and the waves One Knob plugins.

If I cant get the sound I want from those then I'm basically screwed lol.

[Stephen Palmer]

Another vote here for Amplitude.

Latency can be an issue, but, as mentioned above, if your computer is running at a decent speed it's almost negligible.