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Hey, i've been recording for about a year now, so i'm still learning a lot everyday. I invested a lot of money last year for high quality equipment (I am going to college next year for sound engineering) to get started early and to record my band. I've been getting great quality drum tracks and sweet vocal sounds, but I just cannot get any decent guitar sounds. I've tried almost everything with adjusting my brother's great sounding Marshall tube stack w/ les paul. I am using an Audix i5 through a Universal Audio LA-610. I positioned the mic at least 10 different ways, but my sound simply sounds like a horrible basement. I am recording in my basement, but the drums and vocals sound great. I have GIK acoustic panels as well. I'm simply confused because i was expecting a great tone after positioning the mic. (by the way, the strings are not old on the guitar) So, any ideas? Thanks a lot!

-Skylar

Comments

BobRogers Mon, 02/26/2007 - 18:05

I'm sure that people who know a lot about this will chime in soon, but my first reaction is "too much amp for the room." Recording electrics is not my main thing, but I've only recorded guitars on small, low wattage amps, and so far been very pleased. Try recording with a smaller amp to see if that helps. If that works, I think there have been threads on disabling speakers and you can consider that along side a smaller cabinet for the Marshall.

UncleBob58 Tue, 02/27/2007 - 08:53

BobRogers wrote: Try recording with a smaller amp to see if that helps. If that works, I think there have been threads on disabling speakers and you can consider that along side a smaller cabinet for the Marshall.

Small amps cranked to "11" often sound better in the studio than larger amps. I had a client who used a classic (tube) Champ amp that way and it sounded awesome.

Try a good old SM57, about 3" off axis from the cone; tried an true.

Using any pedals? Try recording without them and process later.

Using any compression, etc.? Don't! Not using any pre-processing? Try some!

Try tenting a sound blanket over the cabinet to eliminate the room sound.

Experiment, experiment, experiment!

anonymous Wed, 02/28/2007 - 19:12

Davedog wrote: Have you tried turning it down? Are you trying any of the other speakers in the cabinet? Have you tried using LESS distortion? Have you tried the mic right on the cone?

Call back when these things have been done.

I'm sorry, i forgot to specify, but i'm finding it much more difficult to get a decent clean sound first off. Any pointers on getting a good clean sound? Should i still do the blanket technique?

Thanks to everyone who responded. I greatly appreciate any input!