The basic approach to record the tone of a guitar is to record the miked sound of the guitar amp. An alternative to this is to plug the electric guitar directly into the mixing console employing what is known as a DI box, particularly if a clear sound is preferred. The DI box improves the electric guitar output signal to complement the required level for the mixing desk. Another approach was to employ a speaker simulator that connected straight into the amplifiers outputs. Circuitry within the simulator copied the noise of the speaker cabinet to ensure that recording could be carried out at minimal noise levels.
Recent times have seen the introduction of amplifier simulator equipment and software. There's a huge range of products implementing technology in order to re-create the sound as well as tone associated with traditional miked amps. This has been a tremendous help to guitar players who have been able to record a guitar sound that during the past may possibly only been possible by using an expensive amplifier played at high sound level. While these kind of systems seem incredibly believeable, the purists will always demand the first-class warmth and presence of sound blasted out of a loudspeaker.
Getting a superb sound from a miked amplifier can involve slightly different strategies. To start with, it will be standard to employ a dynamic microphone ( a less expensive style of microphone powered by way of a magnetic field) for close proximity miking of the amplifier. Dynamic mics such as the Shure 57 and Sennheiser MD421 will handle the substantial sound pressure levels blasting out from the speaker. Condenser microphones (More pricey, hypersensitive and demand a power source) can also be used, but are more generally arranged a greater distance back from the amplifier and capture the sound and ambience from the room or space where the recording is taking place. Different cabinets are comprised of various numbers of audio speakers, ordinarily 1,2 or 4. The actual speakers may sound marginally different, so it's worth experimenting by listening to the sound of each miked independently .
The commonplace method to employ dynamic microphones is to set them anywhere from quite close (more or less touching) to up to a dozen inches from the speaker, typically directed at the middle of the speaker cone. It is advisable to experiment by means of moving the microphone along so that it faces several places over the radius of the speaker. Room ambience, genuine reverb and also other noise is harnessed the further away the mic is situated. It's also seriously worth testing by just setting the microphone marginally off axis to observe what sort of sound is captured. Condenser Microphones are typically set no closer than six inches from the loudspeaker, and often up to a number of feet away. Because they are much more delicate than dynamics, they will grab way more of the room ambience. A good number of pro's work with a mixture of condenser and dynamic mics in combination.
Being equipped to control the actual degree of your inbound audio is of upmost relevance. This will be why virtually any top quality mixing console will have a gain control. This is actually essentially a volume control which usually is responsible for the actual level of an inbound signal so that it is suitable for the mixing console. This is valuable as the various models of mics and outputs from musical instruments typically have varying signal levels. There's also a control referred to as a Pad Switch which helps lessen the level of incoming signals. This is crucial for microphone inputs where assorted styles of microphone will possess extensively different signal levels. You want to avoid clipping, which is where the signal distorts because it has surpassed the level that the recording console can cope with. This is especially true of digital recording.
A great recording technique for guitar players to learn is what is referred to as doubletracking. What this essentially means is that they record an identical rhythm part on distinct mono channels and then mix them in unison as a single track stereo panned left for one take and right for the other. If the two parts are in sync as well as performed in time, they'll seem very rich, for the reason that subtle variations in the audio will harmonically improve the sound. This sounds superior to a single electric guitar part recorded in stereo or a single mono track replicated and then panned.
Dropping in, often called Punching in. This allows recording of a particular segment effortlessly together with pre-existing music on a channel. By way of example, you could have a certain rhythm guitar piece that goes for 8 bars. Perhaps out of eight bars, just about all are great except for bar 6. Rather then re-recording the whole 8 bars, you can actually Drop in and start recording at the distinct start of bar six, after which you can punch out on the exact end of bar six, so you have got a piece of sound which sounds just like it was completed in one take. This is widely applied to fix blunders in studios.
Best wishes with your guitar recording endeavours.
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