The final video series on recording techniques from Recording Magazine is on electric bass guitar. This 4-part video demonstrates several microphones, placement and distance, combinations of mics, DI boxes and reamping.
CLICK HERE to go to the Recording Magazine video page for this lesson.
This 4-part video series from Recording Magazine demonstrates mic placement, types, proximity effect, reamping, and much more. Awesome videos, the only complaint is that the high-gain tone they got was absolute crap.
CLICK HERE or on the image below to go to the Recording Magazine Website.
Bass doesn’t always get the attention it deserves in a recording situation. I see a lot of home recordists rush through bass recording, only to later be frustrated with the bass when it comes time for mixing. It’s really too bad because it’s the foundation of the song. A great bass will groove tight with the drums and support the guitars. Fitting it in the mix will take minimal effort and you will be loving life.
A great recording starts with a great source. When it comes to tracking bass guitar, the source is comprised of many factors:
Musician:
- Technique and playing position – Playing with a pick or with fingers or thumb. Intensity, Playing close to the bridge, in the middle or close to the neck. Choose what is appropriate for the song
- What is played – playing bass lines that serve the song and don’t clash with the drums or guitars rhythmically or melodically.
- Tuning – Check the tuning often
Bass:
- Strings – new strings usually sound best and give you the brightest tone to start with.
- Electronics (Pickups and EQ) – The pickup selection and tone settings
- Wood and construction – The wood used in the neck and body really effect the sound. Maple and Ash are bright and punchy, mahogany is thicker and darker.
5 tips for recording great Electric Guitars with amps
Recording guitars can either be a lot of fun, or a lot of frustration. Here are a few tips for recording electric guitars in your home studio.
1 – Guitar and amp selection – All guitars sound different. A telecaster will never sound like a Les Paul, no amount of processing will change that. So if you need the sound of a Les Paul for this recording, your best bet is to have one available. There are some amps that do well in many recording situations but forcing your amp to sound like something it’s not will just lead to frustration. Both a Fender Twin and Vox AC30 sound great for clean tones, but they are drastically different sounds. Using the same guitar and amp for every part of every song gets kinda boring, have a few options available and choose what’s best in that situation.
2- Consider the room – Don’t underestimate the impact the room has on amps. Generally speaking, you want the amp well away from walls and up off the floor a little. If a small amp doesn’t sound big enough, try putting it in a corner to get more bass. A carpet in front of the amp will help keep reflections from getting into the mic.
3- Tuning, new strings and intonation – I mentioned this in the article about Acoustic Guitars, and it is just as important for Electrics. A properly set up guitar with new strings will allow you to play optimally with every note in tune. A guitar should be set up each season as humidity and temperature can really have an impact. Check the intonation whenever you change strings.
4- Mic selection and position – For electric guitar amps the two most often used mic types are dynamic and large diaphragm condenser. The dynamic mic will shape the sound somewhat and the condenser will be more true to the source, not always what you want (too much fizz?). Distance, angle and position across the speaker greatly affect what the mic picks up. Take the time to experiment and get it right, don’t just put the mic where it looks like it should be or the place that worked last time, always listen. Adding a second mic is another challenge but can be very interesting.
5- Double track – Record a double of each rhythm part. A double is the same part performed as closely as possible to the original. Every strum and chug in unison. The original is panned left, the double to the right. When recording doubled guitars you can dial the gain back a bit for each. You can leave the guitar, pickup, amp and mic selection the same, or change it up a little, not too much.
[this article was written for the Revolution Audio Newsletter]
Premiere Guitar Dot Com have a really cool series of videos going through 13 high-gain amps being played by Misha ‘Bulb’ Mansoor of Periphery and Ty Dietzler of Thousand Foot Krutch.
Here’s one of the 13 videos
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Head over to Premiere Guitar to see the rest of the videos and details on each of the amps.
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I’ve been eying the Jet City Amplification line for a couple months now. They are very affordable, great sounding, and attractive amps made by Soldano. I heard the little JCA20H panned opposite a Peavey 5150 and it was stunning. Look up how much they cost, I’ll wait.
They’re just too damn loud for this little home studio, especially with my baby coming in 4 weeks! So I forgot about them for a little while until this week when I noticed this cabinet in their lineup. This changes everything, and I’m GASing to get some Jet City gear more than ever.
I’m talking about the JetStream ISO12 Isolation Cabinet. You can turn the amp to eleven and not worry about waking the baby. Inside this sturdy box is a 12″ Eminence woofer and a gooseneck for connecting your mic of choice.
I fight to get decent guitar tones with software. When I get the rare chance to turn up and mic up someone’s big amp it just like hitting the EASY button. I don’t have to do any work to make it sound real to start with, and I find I don’t have to put much effort in to get things working right in a mix. With direct guitars through software, even with impulses, I’m sometimes doing excessive and sometimes counter-intuitive processing just to get things acceptable. Real amp into a real cab into a real mic into a real preamp at acceptable volume levels may just be the trick to stopping this hair loss that seems to happen when I want to record guitars.
Strangely the Jetstream ISO12 has an A/D converter and USB port for direct to computer recording. I can see understand the concept of wanting that in such a device, but that is some I personally do not want and kind of turns me off the idea of getting one. I have limited options and a very limited budget, these are about $400 and you can’t build something that works as well as this or looks as professional for any less. Seems like a good deal.
If you have experience with Jet City Amps or cabinets. Please let me know.
