General question about guitar recording.......

[Mike Barresi]

soundcloud.com/mikebarresi

There are 3 tunes there " experience this ", "road worn" and " The good life".

Can you tell which are amps and which are software?

[CHuckmott]

Nice job on the tracks. Hard to twll, but my guess is Experience this is digital. The Good Life as well. Road worn is amp .

[cardell]

I think the first two are software and the final one is real. Mainly 'cause of the AWESOME feedback tone you get around 1:05 in "The Good Life". X 100

But, you may have done it with an E-Bow like I do sometimes.

[Mike Barresi]

And the answer is..... (drum roll please)..... lol!!!

Road Worn: Guitar Rig

The Good Life: Waves CLA Guitars ( the feedback happened naturally with the combination of room volume while recording, a little magic the present has, and a slight pinch while playing. Unusual for digital sims)

Experience This: 100 watt Marshall JCM800 (close mic'd with a Shure 57 and and Sennheiser 421)


My take is that in a controlled environment you can make amp plugins sound like the real deal with some easy tweaking. I've been fooled by people's recordings many times and I've been playing for a long time. Generally plugins are a little more forgiving in that you can switch up a sound at anytime during the recording and mixing stages. Not so with micing an amp. You have to be a little more careful with mic placement and amp tweaking initially when recording an amp.

With that being said, using plugins or a real amp for me takes the same amount of time because both require a good amount of tweaking and processing.

I think the big difference is when in a live situation. For me, solid state and digital modelling amps can't compete with tube amps. When you have a great tube amp behind you on stage, and you have to compete with the rest of the band (aheeemmm drummers), and you hit that magic spot where the amp begins to sing, it's like your guitar and amp become one and those notes come out with such ease.

[CHuckmott]

Hence my bias as I have been doing the cover band thing with tube amps for many years. And grew up listening to guys who mic'd them .

[playagibson]

Hence my bias as I have been doing the cover band thing with tube amps for many years. And grew up listening to guys who mic'd them .

I use a 100w plexi live so I know where your coming from.
Plugins do work and they are easier to use for home recording.
A great amp mic'd properly is always best.

ps; remember the great sounding guitars were recorded in great sound studio's with equally great engineers behind the board.

[Hookjaw Brown]

I have pretty much gone to just using Cubase 6 VST amp simulators. I can get the same sound from session to session and get a rich variety without a time consuming adjusting of stomp boxes, mike placement, blankets etc. I can still amp up everything to get some air and heart thump.

[feaker66]

Hi chuck

Glad you posted this in that I didn't think many actually played guitar anymore:)

I play thru my line 6 to a mackie mixer and then the puter.

I tried a good mic live and failed.

I am also a bubmbler so take that with a grain of salt.

Nice to meet you.

Sincerely

Paul

[johncimino]

I use Amplitube also. You have to tweak it a bit, but there are some quality sounds available. Another thing I've found is that you're better off mixing your guitar on the dry side than loaded up with effects. I didn't get to listen to your tone, but that is something that gets critiqued a lot. Make sure the guitar is sitting in the mix nicely.

Good luck!
John Cimino
www.twojohnsmusic.com

[sguiles]

I think there are so many elements that make great guitar recording:

Fingers
Guitar
Pedals
Amps
Effects
Mic Placement

Look at Jack White. He'll take a board and strap some wire on it with nails and make cool sounding music.
I think it comes down to the player and how he or she uses the tools available to them at that moment in time.

/two cents