E-Guitars, how is your recoding approach?

[melodea]

Was wondering if you go for modeling stuff like AXE FX, Kemper etc or do you do the real thing with amp and mics? I struggle mostly with clean tones. Disto and crunch tones are awsome with the AXE, but the clean sound lack of debth.

[Kolstad]

I mostly do tube amps with load box and IR cabinets. That way I can record silently, and still have good control over my sound. Sometimes I record with a silent cabinet, and I can mic up a 2x12. But most of the time; tube amps - load box - daw. Sounds great.

[melodea]

Thanks, any tip for a load box?

[Cameloide]

For a while I was running guitars into a splitter sending one signal to different tube heads connected to cabs mic'ed up in a separate bed room and the other signal right into the interface instrument input for amp sims. But lately I've gotten my latency low enough to be satisfied just running straight into the interface instrument jack and using mostly Neural DSP amp sims or occasionally Guitar Rig6. It's just such a time saver and honestly, it pains me to say this but, the results are better than what I'm able to get out of my real amps anyways. Plus I don't have to worry about bothering other people in the house or neighbors.

The Neural Dsp Cory Wong is usually my go to for clean sounds.

[Ted]

For a while I was running guitars into a splitter sending one signal to different tube heads connected to cabs mic'ed up in a separate bed room and the other signal right into the interface instrument input for amp sims. But lately I've gotten my latency low enough to be satisfied just running straight into the interface instrument jack and using mostly Neural DSP amp sims or occasionally Guitar Rig6. It's just such a time saver and honestly, it pains me to say this but, the results are better than what I'm able to get out of my real amps anyways. Plus I don't have to worry about bothering other people in the house or neighbors.

The Neural Dsp Cory Wong is usually my go to for clean sounds.

+1 on the Neural DSP Cory Wong. It really excels at clean "funk" style tones. The Nolly and Plini also have some cool atmospheric cleans too-- they seem to have a unique pick attack sound. The new Tim Henson has an interesting acoustic amp simulator-- I did a trial of that one and I'm contemplating buying it for that sound alone-- you can get free 14 day trials on all of these. Their new Soldano is nice too.

Aside from the Neural DSP stuff, I'm usually using IK Multimedia's Amplitube 5-- all kinds of great tones. A large amount of cleans (and other types by category) can be found in the "legacy" presets in the menu too. I especially like the Fender collections for clean sounds.

I also use Native Instruments Guitar Rig 6 for some things-- I think where it excels is super ambient, heavily effected cinematic washed-out/delayed tones.

I just noticed your post said "E-Guitars" and I don't know if that means real guitars recorded into a DAW or something like Guitar Pro MIDI re-amped through an amp or virtual rig; but these are what I use for recording real guitars-- and I know some people who don't play physical guitar use these systems too.

Cheers

[melodea]

Thanks, guys for the in-depth replies! Yeah, I mean real guitar into DAW! So none of you works with tube amp signals into a load box into the DAW?
As you said Neural DSP seems to deliver good clean tones which is for me the weakest link in AXE FX ) haven't tried the new one AXE FX III though!
I'm using tons of different tones (since I'm producing in different styles) and IMO all the stuff from Funk, R'n'B to Jazz is
not satisfying me so far.

[Cameloide]

So none of you works with tube amp signals into a load box into the DAW?

I had considered that years ago, but instead I ended up collecting some variable watt heads instead so I could use them live as well, like the Egnater Rebel 20, which can go from 1 to 20 watts and anywhere in between. It also has 6V6 and EL84 tubes and allows you to use either or blend them together however you like. Pretty cool. But these days I just plug right into the interface and record DI using amp sims. It saves me a lot of time and gives me the option of tweaking or changing amps all the way through the mix stage.

I know a lot of great guitar players do use the Axe Fx. Devin Townsend has used it extensively on his albums since it came out (including a lot of clean ambient sounds) and raves about the efx, routing options, and how much time it saves him. I consider his last album "Empath" the album of the millennium so far, so I think the Axe Fx is probably good enough.

I'd be skeptical about getting great results if you're talking about skipping the load box into a mic'ed up cab instead going right from the load box into the DAW. You'd probably need some kind of cab sim in that situation for it to deliver the goods.

[melodea]

Thanks for the replies! Very useful stuff.

[crs7string]

I have a lot of success getting clean, warm tones with The Amp from Milkman Sound:

https://milkmansound.com/collections/am ... ts/the-amp


I produce a fair amount of jazz guitar tracks and The Amp gets the right tone with an archtop or semi hollow body.

You can also dial in a nice overdrive tone.

xlr output direct to my Fireface 400. The Amp does not require a speaker load.

My jazz tracks have been played on Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee and Young and the Restless with the guitars recorded with this approach.

[melodea]

Cool, never heard of that one! Thanks.