Hopefully you have already primed yourself by reading Recording Electric Guitar Part I and Part II. Now let’s dig into some more gear and engineering.
RECORDING WITH DI
There are two reasons why you want to record a Direct Input (DI) track anytime you record guitar. First, you can always go back and re-amplify your track and re-record the performance but this time you can adjust the amp or reposition the mics. Second, you can process the DI track through an Amp Simulator like a Kemper or just a plugin like Amp Room to re-record your tracks.
Re-Amping is a common technique used by Engineers that allows them to reprocess the DI signal through an amp stack that may be a slightly tweaked version of the original or a completely different amp.
Since the DI signal is captured right out of the guitar, it is sent to the DAC at instrument level. No pre-amps or amplification of any kind has been applied. So it can be easily routed directly back into your amp or the first pedal in your chain which is like plugging your guitar directly in again.
What you get with a Re-Amped signal is you playing guitar, but now you can move mics and adjust your tone however you like while the recorded you is playing the track. It’s an amazing technique for the perfectionist guitarist or engineer. Once you are ready, engage the mics and re-record away!
For more information refer to this video: https://youtu.be/wRLgtqRDLwY
Amp Simulators will also accept a DI track. In fact, they depend on an instrument level signal to work effectively. So with a DI track you can now port that signal through any Amp Sim you have access to and let it loop until your tweaking is done.
The nice thing about Amp Sims is they require very little hardware. In fact if you only owned a Digital Audio Converter (DAC) like a Scarlett, and a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) like Logic Pro, all you need is an amp sim. You basically plug directly into your Mac!
The downside of Amp Sims is they are a single capture of a single amp. Much like the recorded version of your own track. Which may not be what you need. And because of this, they can be somewhat of a let-down at times.
My experience with Amp Sims is they are good for some recordings, and not good at all for others. This all depends on the sound you are looking to achieve. Some amp sims I recommend are Rhino by Aurora DSP (amazing sound and totally underrated), Amp Room by Softube (excellent UI), and anything Neural DSP.
One final word of caution on Amp Sims and plugins in general: definitely don’t buy anything unless it has a demo. Plugins are sometimes just 99% hype. And $30 here and there tends to add-up - ahhhem Waves. So don’t think the next plugin is going to be the be-all-end-all without trying it out first.
GEAR YOU NEED
At a minimum, you will need a DAC with two pre-amps. The Scarlett 2i2 ($180) is affordable and quite sufficient for some applications. It is the product of Rupert Neve (founder of Focusrite), the godfather of Sound Engineering in my opinion.
I have an 18i8 ($420) which has four preamps, four additional line-in jacks, and four line-out jacks.
If you are planning to record with more than two mics, the 2i2 will not work. It will record two mics, or one mic and a DI, but that is all. It’s pretty limited. For a few dollars more, the 18i8 will work for up to four mics, or three and a DI input, and a Re-Amp output. All without requiring you to unplug everything each time you want to Re-Amp.
Of course you will need a PC or Mac to run your DAW. I use a MacBook Pro ($3,000) with Logic Pro ($200), but really any DAW will do.
And lastly you are going to need premium cables. Recording in a studio is not the same as playing live. Even a cable with a slight noise is going to drive you nuts. I suggest Hosa Pro cables (~$25 ea. for 15’) for your studio. Balanced XLR cables for the mic runs and balanced XLR to TRS (tip/ring/sleeve) cables for your DI and Re-Amp boxes.
Speaking of DI, you don’t need the expensive hardware either. I recommend the Radial ProDI ($130) and ProRMP ($130) boxes. They are passive, don’t require external power, and clean. No nonsense and very affordable.
POST-PRODUCTION ENGINEERING
We already discussed post production re-amping. But there are a few things I would also recommend for recorded guitar.
Gain Staging - Once a track has been recorded and you are committing to the comp or region, normalize the gain of each region. Doing this allows you to ensure the gain for each track is consistent. I usually use -23dB LUFS as a good starting point for any recorded sound like vocals, drums, bass, etc.
Compression - I recommend compressing any recorded guitar source. This type of compression is called “leveling” so we aren’t trying to do anything but present a consistent signal to the listener.
For more information see Compressors Demystified.
This is important because humans are predictably inconsistent. This isn’t to say you’re a bad guitarist, just that velocity is not going to be exactly the same with each strum. Compression allows you to manage any crazy peaks and present the listener with a very polished version of the recording.
For leveling, I typically employ a FET Compressor like an 1176. FET Compressors are very fast. They depend on electro circuits to detect the incoming signal as opposed to optical compressors like the LA-2A or other compressor platforms.
In Logic Pro, you can employ the Vintage FET Compressor for this purpose. Simply set the Attack at 0 and the release at 0 and adjust the Threshold until you see 3-10 dB of Gain reduction. Use your ears here. There is very little science in this technique.
EQ Moves - The EQ you employ on guitar can be pretty prescriptive. Generally speaking there are a number of frequencies that are commonly referenced and manipulated. This is not an exhaustive list, however. And depending on your sound and the recording, there may be some frequencies that actually need to be cut instead of boosted:
1.) Using a low filter, cut everything, gradually, below 90-120hz. There is little low-end information here for guitars.
2.) Cut using a fairly sharp bell curve (Q=2-3dBs per Octave) between 250-350hz. This frequency band produces a lot of low-mid “mud”.
3.) Boost using a fairly sharp bell curve (Q=2-3dBs per octave) at 1.5khz. This allows the guitar to cut through the mix. Careful here not to conflict the guitar with the vocals as this is primarily where the voice lives.
4.) Boost using a fairly sharp bell curve (Q=2-3dBs per octave) at 2.5khz. This provides aggression to the track.
5.) Boost using a medium-wide bell curve (Q=0.5-1dBs per octave) around 6.5khz.
6.) Using a high filter, cut everything, gradually, above 10-12khz. This will reduce unnecessary high frequencies or air from the track.
For more information, see The EQ Guide.
And finally, the clean-up. Cut any dead space between regions or sections. Do this by cutting and trimming the regions, not just using a noise gate. Ensure you have a fade-in and out for every region. This will avoid clicks in the playback.
Also, do not place time-based FX into the chain of the recorded track. Instead, use Effect Sends (see Foundations in Send Effects and Sub-Groups).
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