Going Digital

[Microstudio]

Well I finally am doing it! I am selling off my amp and mixer and going digital and don't kill me.. I am selling my drums to go digital... Roland style. The new setup will make it easy to jam on headphones 24-7 without bothering anyone and easy to get a good recording :)

[DavidandMary]

Congrats Matt! You will love it! :)

[andysharifi]

I went all digital and I never looked back. It's much easier to work, more room available since all major hardware is gone. I have DI guitars, DI bass, and e-drums. The drawback is that people who come in here think I'm a hack because I do everything on the comp. They ask where the mixers are, keyboards, etc. They assume more gear = more talent.

[dragoodan]

I went all digital and I never looked back. It's much easier to work, more room available since all major hardware is gone. I have DI guitars, DI bass, and e-drums. The drawback is that people who come in here think I'm a hack because I do everything on the comp. They ask where the mixers are, keyboards, etc. They assume more gear = more talent.

Do you mean to say you use synthesized guitars, basses and drums?

[andysharifi]

Do you mean to say you use synthesized guitars, basses and drums?


Hi dragoodan,

No I still use actual guitar and bass, but I don't mic amps. I do straight DI and use digital guitar software for processing. Same with bass. For drums I use a e-drum kit and I trigger drum software.

If I had the proper recording environment (good acoustics), I would record through mic's instead. But then I would have to learn how to do that, and it would take a lot of trial and error. Mic'ing drums takes a decent sized room, good acoustics, and the know how. Sometimes it's best to just go with drum software, unless you really know what you are doing to get good results. In my opinion, you get the best results by recording through mics, but you can get quick results through DI and software and don't have to spend a lot of time tweaking things.

[Microstudio]

The only thing I will be recording with a mic is vocal and my acoustic guitar, no amps or acoustic drums. I want a setup that will allow me to jam with drums, guitar & bass in the digital world on headphones... its so easy and sounds great.

[Cary B. Cornett]

... I still use actual guitar and bass, but I don't mic amps. I do straight DI and use digital guitar software for processing. Same with bass.
If I had the proper recording environment (good acoustics), I would record through mic's instead. But then I would have to learn how to do that, and it would take a lot of trial and error. I deleted the comments about drums, but I will start by saying that I pretty much agree with those. I consider the ability to do a good recording of a drum kit to be one of the "men from the boys" separators among recording engineers. I personally am not a master of that art, but I can do a decent quality capture of a good kit in a decent room.

By demonstrating it the hard way, I have satisfied myself that it is possible to get some pretty decent "miked" guitar sounds in a modest-sized room/booth. I will often record guitars direct (off the pickups) AND mic the amp. After the player has gone, I may "re-amp" by playing the dry guitar track through my guitar amp rig in the booth, which I can then adjust to taste and take the time to capture as I please. I will sometimes use 2 or more mics on the speaker cab, each to its own track, which I can then choose or blend for the sound I want (hint: reversing phase on one of two or more mics can bring some really different sound choices up).

The beauty of recording the dry guitar is that you can then take all the time you want to experiment/learn for creating a guitar sound without driving a guitar player nuts with all the waiting and tinkering.

I haven't tried experimenting with amp emulation software, so I can't give an informed opinion on the comparison between "fake" and "real", but I strongly recommend that you put some time into experimenting with mics and amp, particularly the re-amping trick. Yes, you CAN try this at home (I did).

[DominicPerry]

Hey Matt, good to see you back.
Of course, you've got to do whatever helps you write and record music the way you want it. Personally, I hate digital drums, both the feel and the sound, but I'm no drummer and your results may be different. And if you're recording in a limited space then it may well be the best option.
I have to say that for guitar, I have spent a lot of time (and money) with different stuff, and nothing beats the sound of a really good guitar straight into a really good amp (via a good cable). The differences between that and any kind of amp emulation or speaker emulation is very apparent in the room. Whether it's noticable in a 70 track mix is debatable. The sparse arrangements of the 50s, 60s and 70s showed up the talent of the players and the quality of their sound and the modern multi-layered, hyper compressed noise covers a lot of that up. Personally, I'd never let anyone record me playing electric guitar unless it was my guitar and my amp. But it's certainly loud in a bedroom.:D

Dominic

[dragoodan]

Hi dragoodan,

No I still use actual guitar and bass, but I don't mic amps. I do straight DI and use digital guitar software for processing. Same with bass. For drums I use a e-drum kit and I trigger drum software.

Can you use an electric guitar directly without having to use an amp, and then add one digitally?

[Cary B. Cornett]

Can you use an electric guitar directly without having to use an amp, and then add one digitally? Yes, that can be done, but the player needs to hear the interaction of the guitar and amp (whether the amp is physical or virtual) to guide his playing technique whenever the intended final sound involves the use of distortion... which probably covers the majority of guitar tracks recorded these days.

[andysharifi]

Cary, I am interested in recording with amp to mic. I always told myself that I wouldn't bother messing with amp to mic until I can record something I can stand listening to more than once. Now that I finally got there, I want to try it out.

I still dont understand the concept of re-amping. My understanding of what I should be doing is, record a dry distorted signal (if I wanted distortion) amp to mic, and then use plugins for reverb/delay etc? I don't have guitar pedals to output to and then route back to SAW.

Thanks

[Trackzilla]

Reamping is most commonly done by recording the dry UNDISTORTED signal from the guitar...the 'nuttin but guitar' track can then be played back out through whatever you want to experiment with, real, virtual, amps, effects, whatever combo you like, until you come up with that magic tone that makes it impossible to scrape the smile from your face. then record THAT as your final track.

[Cary B. Cornett]

Trackzilla has given a good "short version" description of the process.

I thought I'd give an example with a bit more detail from a session I did.

The client was bringing in a guitar player to get some rhythm and harmony tracks. The player brought in a Line6 combo amp that he liked. I put 2 mics on it, one with more low end and one with more top end, each to its own track. The guitar was plugged into my Countryman DI and looped through to the Line6 amp. I cut 3 tracks each pass, one of the dry guitar (dry means no amp, FX, etc., "nuttin' but pickups") and one for each of the mics on the amp.

The parts we recorded used feedback, and the player's amp was on a setting I call "full shred". After the recording was done, the client was less than satisfied with the guitar sound we had, so I got out my "reamp" box (basically a transformer and a volume pot) and fed the dry (DI) guitar track to my custom amp rig, which I dialed in for more of a "heavy blues crunch" tone. I used the same mics as before on my speaker cab, recording them to 2 new tracks.

When I was done, each guitar pass had 5 tracks: the dry DI, hi/lo on the Line6 amp, and hi/lo on my custom rig. The DI track was not used in the mix, just a blend of both amps (with some gating and EQ tricks).

What I did is certainly not the only way; There are lots of variations possible.

HTH

[andysharifi]

Cary, I wouldn't know what to do with 5 tracks of the same guitar pass, lol. That would be a mixing nightmare for me. I think if I do amp-> mic, I would use one mic and then use a doubler plugin after I achieve the sound I want, although I haven't used one yet.

I'm sure after awhile, after I get more experience, I will try different ways. One problem I have right now is mixing the guitar correctly in a mix, which is what I don't use much guitar other than in intros.

[Microstudio]

Update! I did not sell my drums... I am converting them to eDrums this is so cool! I'll post pics soon.

[Iain Westland]

When Recording i quite often go guitar -> Di -> computer and put a vst on the multitrack for their feedback. Drums, 2 guitars, bass live in the room but only the drums are mic'd (singer on my side of the glass)

If any of the takes are tight I can always re-amp it later (I made my own DI's and re-amp box), if not its down to over dubs, but again with the DI - just in case

Iain

[Rabbit]

I always track guitars with a DI if I can, aside from the normal mic'd track etc, that way reamping using a clean guitar track is an option if I need it. I just don't put it in the fold back so all they're hearing is the mic'd one. that way no one gets confused and I get what I want... well hopefully.