mannyr wrote: Also, should I mic electric guitars with my SM58 or Rode NT2? I would guess SM58...

BOTH! Use the 58 up close and intimate like, then throw the NT2 like 3, 6, 9 feet away but pointed at the amp. Godly.

mannyr wrote: Oh and for the softer guitar, should I use a semi hollow body?

That will sound belltone like and jazzy. Semi-hollow guitars have lower presence and the notes sound airy. If that is the sound you are going for then go for it.

A Les Paul (not sure about the Epi) has an awesome tonal range, from very jazzy, listen to Les Pauls own guitar work, to over the top rock, it has a lot to do with the pickup settings and even more to do with the amp and amp settings. You can always take a DI and run it through reamping or Line 6 Pod or VST in the box and get almost anything you are looking for. Using a semi hollow body guitar will also give you a nice seperation in guitar sounds.

Okay so wait, what's a DI and reamping.. and what the hells a Line 6 Pod? haaha Isn't a VST a virtual computer instrument?

Also do you think I'll get a lot of variation of the sound of the guitar by playing with the Tone dial and the amp's High/Low dials too?

DI (Princess now dead) no it is direct injection, in other words guitar signal straight into the recording device (interface, whatever.) Frequently done with some type of splitter device one signal direct, the other to an amp which is recorded in the usual fashion. The track that went direct can be brought back out of the computer and sent through different amps, settings etc. It is a little more complicated (not much) than that but it allows you to play around with a good guitar performance until you get whatever sound you are looking for.
The Line 6 Pod is an amp modeler (about $200.00) that allows you to choose between a wide variety of effects and amp types and settings. If you are good at this kind of thing it is hard to tell it from the real thing. It goes between the guitar and the recording device.
http://line6.com/pod20/
Then there are plug ins (the Pod comes with one) in which you take the direct recording of the guitar and run it through inside the software to get various amp sounds.

mannyr "Also do you think I'll get a lot of variation of the sound of the guitar by playing with the Tone dial and the amp's High/Low dials too?"
I am going to assume that you are not a guitarist and that is more than OK. I'm sure you are on some tight budget but let me offer you an idea. Hire a pro studio and talk to the owner about getting a session guitarist. I have friends that are session players and if supplied with a draft (scratch) recording could nail all the parts you wanted on one song in less than an hour. It helps them if you have a couple of recordings of things that are similar (like Eddie Van Halens solo in Thriller for example.) Getting great recorded guitar parts is a huge chain of different things, recording technique and equipment, high quality guitar, guitar amps,effects and of course and very important a great guitarist! Cheapest end to a means hire some talent. Just an idea, no offense meant.

You're right I'm not, I'm a pianist not a guitarist, but my friend can play guitar proficiently well. And I have no money at all nor am I willing to hire a professional guitarist to cut a demo for us. I think we'll make do, obviously not in the most professional way but in a way that suffices for a demo. I hope...

by the way, i have Kore's Guitar Rig VST plug ins that I can use to imitate a lot of amps and guitar effects.. but I'd have to use this by Mic'ing the guitar not DI because I only have an XLR to USB interface.. :/

will that do me good?

Using a DI box like this
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/IMP2
converts the signal to balanced XLR, it has a parallel 1/4" jack set up so your guitar can continue on to the amp. What are you using as an interface, an Icicle?

Yup, Icicle.. lol
So is Kore Guitar Rig good?

An Episphone Les Paul should be plenty good to get the job done, but if you really want the tune to come out great do what ever you can to rent beg or borrow a good real guitar amp.

If you get a good amp, the SM58 up close to the speaker is all you need to make it sound great.

RonanChrisMurphy wrote: An Episphone Les Paul should be plenty good to get the job done, but if you really want the tune to come out great do what ever you can to rent beg or borrow a good real guitar amp.

If you get a good amp, the SM58 up close to the speaker is all you need to make it sound great.

And if I couldn't possibly manage to get one? Should I use VST plug ins for an amp? I hear Guitar Rig is good... but no ones commenting on it yet lol.

But still the Epiphone LP is just one guitar.. it doesnt allow for a lot of variation as far as sound does it? I mean I guess thats the amps job and I guess the Guitar Rig VST's job.. but I just keep fearing there'll be a lack of variation of the different guitars since the song I'm doing has like 3 guitars in it and if they all sound like the same guitar it's gonna sound like one huge electric mess.

mannyr wrote: But still the Epiphone LP is just one guitar.. it doesnt allow for a lot of variation as far as sound does it? I mean I guess thats the amps job and I guess the Guitar Rig VST's job.. but I just keep fearing there'll be a lack of variation of the different guitars since the song I'm doing has like 3 guitars in it and if they all sound like the same guitar it's gonna sound like one huge electric mess.

Chill chill. There's things you can do with one guitar. For instance, play with the volume control, because even that will help you get a different sound. Roll it up and down and see where the tone sounds best for each particular part. Try rolling the 'tone' knob down for the rhythm parts and up for the lead parts, or vice versa. You've got a Les Paul so there's at least two pickups in there, try using either or both pickups to achieve different sounds. In the end EQ is your friend.

Guitar Emulation VST's are great...as the whipped cream and cherry to an already good sounding guitar track. Get the real guitar track sounding good and then worry about blending in the VST track.

listen dude- i think alot of your "guitar stressss" is pointless. not trying to sound mean...but why are you worrying so much? if you really want to go the vst route, then try it out. people have been telling you their opinions that they think the best bet would be micing up an amp. i agree, personally. i don't like the tone that i've gotten out of the vst plugs that i've tried. i just think it sounds more "real" to mic up an amp. i've learned that on my own from trial and error.
but...i've read that many "pros" do use guitar amp vst plugs from time to time. your asking if Guitar Rig is good. if you bought it, you know how much it's worth. so, if you insist on using vst's for guitar tone, i think you'll be fine using guitar rig.
you expressed some concern about only having one guitar create a big electrical mess....huh? many bands record all guitar parts with one type of guitar. just because you want 3 different guitar parts in your song doesn't mean you need 3 different guitars. why would you think that? just change the presets on your guitar rig software to the type of sound you want for each part.
different guitars do add different flavors...but nothing that i think you'll notice ...esp. if you're using a vst for a guitar amp.
just my 2 cents.
soooo i guess just try out what ever you want to try out. the others have expressed their opinions. the decision is now in your hands.
good luck...have fun!

Well.
There sure are a lot of sss's in your guitar stresssss to be sure.

Let's see if I can help you get rid of few of them. And I'll try to do it without sending you to get more.

If I'm reading it correctly, you have an XLR/USB as your interface, which implies (at least to me) that can only track one mic at a time, which means you can't use Guitarfreaks suggestion to Close mic/Room mic. Too bad, cause that does usually sound really good.
The good news is; even WITH tons of cool gear, this usually takes a bit of time and some experimentation, so as long you can jump in and get your hands dirty you'll probably wind up with something pretty cool.
First up, mess around with the amp (I LOVE Peaveys, you could do worse) and see if you can find some sounds you like. I presume you're looking for a nice 'clean', a 'dirty' and a 'dirtier'. So see how many the amp can give you. Say you like the clean and the dirty, but the 'dirtier' is a little lame, just record the 'dirtier' parts through the CLEAN setting on the amp and find the 'dirtier'-ness with the VSTs
Mic the amp with the 58 and track the guitars.

And for the record, you'll probably wind up finding the Epi/LP a little more versatile than you first thought.

Hope that helps, good luck

sean

Alright, we'll guys you've officially got me unstressed, so thanks so much for all the input.

I think I'll be alright, it's just I stupidly get mad when I listen to the songs I make in a day and then when I listen to professional songs... I just have to keep messing around with things I guess.

But anyway, thanks a lot!

mannyr wrote:

And if I couldn't possibly manage to get one? Should I use VST plug ins for an amp? I hear Guitar Rig is good... but no ones commenting on it yet lol.

But still the Epiphone LP is just one guitar.. it doesn't allow for a lot of variation as far as sound does it? .

I will almost always go for the amp over the digital amp sim. I really really hate what they do to mixes.

A les paul is great for extreme metal, blues, jazz, punk, americana... I think you will be fine.

RonanChrisMurphy wrote: [quote=mannyr]

And if I couldn't possibly manage to get one? Should I use VST plug ins for an amp? I hear Guitar Rig is good... but no ones commenting on it yet lol.

But still the Epiphone LP is just one guitar.. it doesn't allow for a lot of variation as far as sound does it? .

I will almost always go for the amp over the digital amp sim. I really really hate what they do to mixes.

A les paul is great for extreme metal, blues, jazz, punk, americana... I think you will be fine.

I see you didn't include pop in that list. :/ But if it's allpurpose then I'll be fine.

Pop ain't a genre.

It's just a reference to whatever genre is dominating the charts: it changes depending on culture and decade.

Currently I'd say it equates to hip hop and no one uses guitar sims for that....

Codemonkey wrote: Pop ain't a genre.

It's just a reference to whatever genre is dominating the charts: it changes depending on culture and decade.

Currently I'd say it equates to hip hop and no one uses guitar sims for that....

Pop not a genre? Cmon what would you call garbage like Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears? But then again I was using it very generally cuz you can have garbage and a good form of pop.

In the 60's the Rolling Stones were considered 'Pop', today they are 'Classic Rock'. In the 90's Backstreet Boys were considered 'Pop', today they are considered a 'Boy Band'. Yes much to your dismay pop is not a genre :D

Pop: "Popular music"
Also the onomatopoeic form of the noise made when one opens a bottle of bubbly.