Do you record guitars DI or mic an amp up?

[brentmagstadt]

unless I want natural feedback or to feel the breeze from my 4X10' cab flapping my bell bottoms.

Ha! That's a damn funny visual, Mojo...

I prefer a live mic myself. I do DI/plugs for demo'ing stuff, but have never had good luck getting the 'feel' of what I want in that regard. I guess for electric it's not a hard and fast rule for me and I could be swayed, if I had a plug that gave me what I wanted (I'm certain they're out there). But for acoustic guitars it definitely is a rule - I never do direct on acoustics (well, not entirely true, sigh... - demos...).

[fullbirdmusic]

unless I want natural feedback or to feel the breeze from my 4X10' cab flapping my bell bottoms.

Ha! That's a damn funny visual, Mojo...

I prefer a live mic myself. I do DI/plugs for demo'ing stuff, but have never had good luck getting the 'feel' of what I want in that regard. I guess for electric it's not a hard and fast rule for me and I could be swayed, if I had a plug that gave me what I wanted (I'm certain they're out there). But for acoustic guitars it definitely is a rule - I never do direct on acoustics (well, not entirely true, sigh... - demos...).

Yes, acoustics are an entirely different story. I would 100% prefer to use mics - you're gonna hear the guitar anyway, why not mic it?!

[mickanos]

Thanks for all the replies on this one. It's interesting reading how others approach recording guitar.

[manninghollow]

Guitar Rig 5 kicks butt. But I still mike up sometimes. Like a 57 and Cheap ribbon and Scumback speakers(they rock).

[jonathansorensen]

I'm a weird combination of new school and old school. I use midi and work in the box all the time but as a guitar player of 30+ years, I'm never really happy with plugin modeled guitar amps. Of course, I have a Matchless Clubman 35 that gets absolutely delicious warm shiny clean sounds when not driven and mad overdrive when driven. Put that puppy through an SM57 to the Great River pre, maybe through the Distressor depending and I just can't get that energy happening with a plugin.

I can get really warm punchy overdrive at reasonably low volumes. I probably couldn't get away with tracking for hours but 10 - 15 minutes of tracking here and there cures what ails me and reminds the neighbors that they're not the only ones who can stomp around, scream at their roomies, slam shitty 70s hits over and over and over and be generally unpleasant.

Anyway, I was posting over in another thread where someone asked about using midi vs. live drums and I guess I should just go all in and say, if it weren't for price and extra tracking time, I'd go for an analog instrument and a human performance every time. However, there are many instances where you need something to pad and you don't want big full, gritty human performances. I've even elected to DI my Taylor acoustic because I wanted all the string sound and attack and no body and warmth.

I'll go one further: I recently tracked a song where a key sound in my midi and loop library was the perfect sound and effect but I could never quite get it to stand up in the mix and take a bow. I ran it out through an analog compressor, reamped, sent it to my matchless and got a slightly noisier but WAY yummier sound that finally sat exactly where I wanted it. I guess I'm saying, I'm never happier than when I'm moving air around. And I don't believe any digital code or algorithm has quite learned to imitate that though it often comes remarkably close and in the future could very well surpass analog for warmth, punch and musicality. I mean, look at HD TV. It's actually more alive and vibrant than real life. If we're not careful we're going to get to the place where real life looks utterly dull because our technology has trained our brains to expect more than real life. Ahhghghghgh, Then we'll begin genetically engineering humans and instruments so their performances can be perfect imitations of digital. At some point we'll just pipe that experience directly into the human brain and in one horrible tragic moment, we'll accidentally create a feedback loop and everything that listener was thinking at that moment will manifest as reality. If it's a guy, the universe as we know it will metamorphose into some bizarre amalgam of Marilyn Monroe, Ana Beatriz (look her up), Scarlett Johansson, a cheeseburger and a football game. If the listener is a woman, things may be slightly more complex. And please consider, the latter may have already happened, which would explain a whole lot. It would also suggest that the creator is indeed a woman, as some people claim. However, given my inability to generate a red cent with my passion for music, this calls into question the compassion of said woman/god and I demand that we roll back reality to a point where imperfect humans played imperfect instruments with sublime taste and passion and it was received by a room of inebriated listeners who had no idea what you might possibly mean when you compare analog and digital.

Thanks for riding along: That's my two cents, spend how you like.

Jon
P.S. do you think losing sleep 3 nights running has effected me?

[mickanos]

A good night sleep might be in order

Thanks for your input, from what I can tell from this thread is that mic'ing an amp up, particularly
when you have a subjectively nice sound from that amp is always the way to go, but when you need to be pumping out heaps of recordings, as in the Production Music game, going DI and slapping a quality plugin preset on the dry recording is the most time effective way and the guitars
are still gonna sound great

[jonathansorensen]

A good night sleep might be in order

Thanks for your input, from what I can tell from this thread is that mic'ing an amp up, particularly
when you have a subjectively nice sound from that amp is always the way to go, but when you need to be pumping out heaps of recordings, as in the Production Music game, going DI and slapping a quality plugin preset on the dry recording is the most time effective way and the guitars
are still gonna sound great

You're absolutely right and somebody could, or may have said that but what's the fun in boiling it down right at the beginning

Jon

[cardell]

Thanks for your input, from what I can tell from this thread is that mic'ing an amp up, particularly
when you have a subjectively nice sound from that amp is always the way to go, but when you need to be pumping out heaps of recordings, as in the Production Music game, going DI and slapping a quality plugin preset on the dry recording is the most time effective way and the guitars are still gonna sound great

Yes, I agree 100%.

One aspect I find interesting is the question: How many people are really going to be able to tell the difference (especially in a mix/song)? 1 in 100 people? 1 in 1000 people?

I was miking my 12" speaker with a Shure SM57, until I realized that I could not tell the difference between tracks recorded in this fashion and those I'd done direct through my POD X3L's XLR outputs...

Yes, I agree Mojo! I feel that the real comparison here is to do with recordings. Not between how the plug-in sounds compared to (standing in front of) a real amp. It's about how the plug-in compares to a recording of a real amp.

[Not directed at anyone in particular]: It always amuses me that people say, "It doesn't sound as good as standing in front of my amp". Of course a plug-in won't sound as good as standing in front of your amp...because neither does a recording of a real amp.

Stuart

[markjsmith]

Both, depending on time and I have a laptop setup so if I'm mobile I DI. If at home it depends on the sound I'm going for.

[rnrmachine]

...unless I want natural feedback or to feel the breeze from my 4X10' cab flapping my bell bottoms. ...

LMAO

I use a number of sims... DI 90% of the time.