Lots of newb guitar recording questions

[jmoraragweed]

I've been recording guitars using the following setup -

surf guitar -> bug muff -> behringer eurorack mx802a -> pc (samplitude)

Somehow it doesn't sound quite as natural as I'd like it to. I've got a solid-state Peavey ~80W amp and a smaller Marshall 9v practice (toy) 'amp'.

Does recording live guitar make a difference? I'd read enough to know when recording, to mic the hell out of everything, e.g. put mics anywhere and everywhere. Does this make sense for recording guitars?

Or would I be better off by recording direct and then applying an amp simulator? If so, which one would you recommend?

I'm quite found of the 'wall-of-sound' thing popular in the early 90's. It that best accomplished by recording several different guitar takes at once, or simple reproducing (copying) the same guitar part with a small amount of delay applied per track?

Any recommended mixer settings for recording guitars on an mx802a? (Sorry, blatantly broad question.)

Sorry for posting so many questions in one thread. Let me know if I should split these up in the future. I'm tired of dumbing my way through recording!

Small steps indeed! ;-)

 

[jmoraragweed]

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[Kurt Foster]

J. Mora / noisy bumble
A few questions... This is all in the realm of subjective. All of the methods you described above are used. For distortion guitar, micing an amp is usually the best sounding way to go. A speaker produces a natural and gradual roll off the highs above 6kHz. For clean pristine shimmering guitar sounds you want to go direct. Sometimes a combination of both of these methods can work nicely. You mentioned surf guitar..Dick Dale is the forerunner in this genre and his method is a Twin Reverb with the 'verb cranked way up, in a really live room and miced close up with a distance mic about 6' off the amp. Play loud! Blend the two mics together and print to a track. Multiple mics (more than 2 or 3) is IMO a waste of time and can lead to more phase problems than it's worth. There are others that may feel differently than I do but that's my feeling on it.

Post back and give me an example of who the artists are and what recordings you are speaking of in your question regarding to "The Wall Of Sound" in the early '90's? Just for your future reference, "The Wall Of Sound" is a recording method developed in the '60's by famous (and infamous) producer Phil Spector. (he's my hero!) He produce a whole bunch of hits including "Soul and Inspiration" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' " by the Righteous Brothers
and "Be My Baby" for the Ronnetts. He also mixed and added finishing touches to The Beatles
"Let It Be". The wall of sound was accomplished by stuffing a sh*tload of musicians in a small room (like 14" X 20" for example) and recording them all at the same time to 2 tracks with a crap load of live room /chamber reverb. Many times there would be 2 bass's, 2 drum sets and 2 pianos. This created a huge rumble in the mix that came to be known as "The Wall Of Sound". ………………….. Fats

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It's my opinion, I'll play with it if I want to!

 

[jmoraragweed]

what recordings you are speaking of in your question regarding to "The Wall Of Sound" in the early '90's

I actually pulled that reference from another magazine I'd read, which referred to recordings by Smashing Pumpkins and the Pixies. It made sense to me at the time, but I guess the expression was used out of context.

Thanks for clearing that up! This board is great.

The surf guitar is a '64 Jaguar. I meant to get a JazzMaster ( :c: Dinosaur Jr.) but that's the closest they had.

 

[Kurt Foster]

Jazzmaster...cool guitars Shades of Elvis Costello! Love those things... The Jaguar is a cool guitar too. I have a Fender Six which is a Jaguar converted into a six string bass, longer scale..often reffered to as a baritone guitar..Talk about surf guitar.. Tone it up thin and add some verb and tremelo and all of a sudden you're Duane Eddy...way cooool..
Pixies and Smushing Punkins'.... they copied Phils tricks. He was one hell of a producer until he went beserk! Started carring a .45 and waveing it around at sessions and all of a sudden no one wanted to work with him any more! Imagine that!!! .. Fats

 

[warpharin]

Pumpkins

Yeah I heard that the pumpkins layered their guitars, Soma apparently has over thirty guitars in the intro (good luck tabbing all that out into a book that's under twenty bucks). I too am looking for that thick, in your face guitar sound, but I've had little luck getting what I really want. The only pedal that I've gotten a real thick sound is the Buzz Box, which was discontinued along time ago but I really think its worth having, but only on certain settings, otherwise it just sounds like complete crap. What I don't understand is what's actually played during the layering, the same thing over and over? apparently, but I guess it depends on the sound you want. Also are all the layers the same volume? I'm stumped, help!

 

[gdoubleyou]

I used to record direct, didn't love the results.

Now I record with a small amp with 10-inch speaker and dynamic mic.

To my ear it's warmer and adds a little air and ambience. That interaction with the room is hard to reproduce with effects.

8)