Recording Guitar within Pro Tools

Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 4:09 pm

I've been working on a project and one problem that I continually come across is digital distortion. I'm running Pro Tools 7.3 and I'm using a Shure 57 and and Rode Nt -1a for recording vocals and guitar. Regardless of what mic I use for recording a tube amp electric guitar I seem to get some digital clipping. I can turn the volume down on the amp as well as the gain on the MBox and I can still hear clips here and there. With the exception of a real low volume clipping disappears.However I'm trying to retain a real warm guitar both distorted and clean I've tried various mic placements as well as dampening some of the room. If anyone has a suggestion to help with this dilemma it would help a immensley.

Posted: Mon May 12, 2008 5:34 am

If you are getting digital clipping, it's a gain and not a volume problem.

When recording, use just enough volume on your amp to get the tone/distortion that you want, but no more. Mic it with either the 57 or the NT1-A (to taste). Plug the mic into the Digidesign interface. Adjust the manual gain trim on the interface so that your loud playing gives peaks of not more than half the track display height in PT. This gives you 6dB headroom to allow for enthusiasm, and no clipping.

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