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I’ve been thinking awhile about this post. What are you guitar players using for recording in terms of instruments, amps, amp emulators, acoustic guitars and mics. I, for one, am never satisfied with my sound, though I’m not sure, at times, what I’m looking for!
Right now I have a Fender VG (Virtual Guitar). It has some nice features with drop, alternate tunings and faux (very faux) acoustics. My goto amp emulator is Nigel on my UAD-1 card. Have NI Guitar Rig Lite but don’t particularly like it. Was going to purchase the AXE-FX II but that $2500 price tag is very steep. I recently tried out the demo of Scuffham Amps S-Gear (PC only) and for $75 it’s very nice.
For acoustic I have a Martin D-18 and use various mics. Neuman U-89, AKG-414 or Shure SM7. I never get an acoustic sound I’m happy with so any tips there would be welcome.
For a mic-pre I have the Manley Labs Langevin or sometimes use the mic ins on my MOTU 828 MK3.
So, what are all you guitar players using for your recording setup?
Up until last year I used a Mesa Single Rectifier combo, a palmer speaker load to get a rock sound, but since then I’ve had to downsize, and I was constantly frustrated with tweaking and never getting the perfect sound anyway, so I sold all that stuff and now use digitech RP500 which I’ve had for several years but didn’t use much. Now I use it all the time. Quite a variety of sounds, built in effects, balanced outs too. Turn it on, plug in the guitar, play. Love it.
Just wanted to share this regarding recording acoustic guitars. I like probably many of us have my studio at home. I live in a condo, and the room sounds great but I have a lot of external noise from outside, on the street so miking my acoustic can be a problem.
A couple of months ago I picked up a Fishman Aura Spectrum DI, and a Fishman Black Water pickup. Although the Spectrum DI is primarily used for live applications, it sounds great for recording, and has really helped with the noise issue.
i have also used it in conjunction with a mic as well. What I like is that the acoustic guitars sound very natural going direct without that “tinny” sound that acoustic/eletrics can sometimes get.
Highly recommend it.
BTW Gary, thanks for the heads up on the Fishman Aura Spectrum DI, and Fishman Black Water pickup. I will check them out.
As a side note to my acoustic guitar sound dilemma is that my AKG-414, Neuman U-89 and Shure SM81 are about 25 years old so the capsules are probably loaded with good old L.A. smog and other crud. I really should get those cleaned and/or rebuilt.
Hey Art, sounds like you need to borrow or rent a microphone and do some A/B testing!
Yes, I’ve thought about that.
One of my main frustrations is not having a good space to record in. I miss my studio! I built a great one when I was living in Nashville but needed to come back to L.A. Rebuilt my studio here then sold the house. Can’t wait to get into a house again so I can have a proper space.
Yeah, a good space is a plus. Good for you living in Nashville and LA at different times. More opportunities for you I’m sure. Funny thing, over the years Boston musician friends would announce they were moving to LA. 90% would return and usually pretty quickly.
P.S.- I’m not seeing any emails when new comments are posted today?
Hi Michael, Ironically most of the studio players I knew and worked with moved to Nashville and never came back. I never thought I would come back to L.A. but happy I did.
Thanks for the heads up on the comment e-mails. Been trouble shooting slow site issues and plug-ins have been getting deactivated and activated. Should be working now as I re-activated that plug-in.
Guitars……….. I have too many
For electrics I have a love/hate thing going on with both Guitar Rig & Pods. At the moment I’m finding guitar rig best for cleans and the pod best for OD. Though lengthy exposure to either of these tends to make me set up a real amp, break out the pedals and mic the whole thing. Which does take more time, but sounds much much better
Acoustics – I mic with either a sontronics condenser and/or a Rode valve mic, via a channel strip or valve compressor, depending on the mics.
An enjoyable addition to the MLR cannon.
I have a pretty dated and antiquated setup here in Japan which is partly due to the fact that if you tell your students here you are looking for something, it often turns up a few weeks later. So my guitars are a Tokai(well known for their Strats) Les Paul and a Morris (A Japanese budget range which at the top end and makes pretty good guitars) acoustic.
I still use Cubase SX1 and an Edirol UA700 Audiocapture interface with a fairly standard laptop.
For recording electric guitar I usually use the input on the interface which has modelling effects. They aren’t particularly good but work well in the mix on rhythm parts. For lead work I prefer something which cuts through and so I mic up my Fender Champ with a SM58 and/or a Rode NT2. (One thing that worked well was putting the amp on a small low fairly hefty table and miking it up and then covering it with quilts. The table resonated as well as the amp sound.)
I tried a tube mic but it was a bit too airy and clear.
I also tried the Johnson J-Station but didn’t feel it cut it.
For recording acoustic guitar I use the NT2 and I have a little trick to make it stand out yet work well in the mix. In Cubase SX1 their is a plugin called Craig Anderton Quadrafuzz (which might be available still) has a setting called ‘bright notes’ which is for bass but works brilliantly on acoustic guitar.
I do feel that even with a very basic setup, if you know your kit well you can still get pretty good results.
Cheers
Ian