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Thread Need help recording distortion directly in computer

8 replies
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led

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First post

1 Posted on 08/17/2005 at 07:56:02

Hi,

I've been recording my guitar for quiet a while now, but I'm still having problem finding the right sound setting. The problem is that the sound doesn't seem to sound loud and clean when recording with this setup:

guitar -> fx pedal -> mixer -> computer

For clean sound it's almost perfect, but when it comes to distortion, everything just doesn't sound right. I recall recording with a mic and an amp a while ago and it was much better than this crunchy sound with too much noise around it. If I remove gain it sounds a bit better, but I lose some punch in the sound where it's more like a lazy sound instead of something tight and loud.

So, I'm wondering if it's possible to get a hard tight sound like a valvestate marshall amp&cab with only the pedal and the mixer. The answer may be no, but if someone have been doing this and know a way around to get a nice loud sound without the amp it could be really nice and neighbours could be happy too ;)

tnx

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Axeman

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2 Posted on 08/17/2005 at 07:39:47

led-

Rather than using your guitar and a pedal (I'm assuming some sort of distortion pedal here), you need to investigate a guitar modeller like the POD XT or the Behringer V- Amp. Both of these units (there are may others) have amp models built into them are a designed exactly for the purpose you need.

The Axeman (##(===> Cuts From My New Blues CD

led

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3 Posted on 08/17/2005 at 08:56:16

Funny that you say that, I have one of those VampX, but it's not as good as I thought. So the question is now, should I get a pod of 500$ to get a good sound? I understand that higher the price is better the quality should be (well, we can always hope) but every high-end pedal I've seen just doesn't deliver the sound quality of an amp cab itself.

Or are mic really better than the link between the pedal and the computer? I mean, amp -> mic -> mixer -> comp. Even with the amp head itself it doesn't sound good. So I'm wondering if recording the cab directly is really the only way to get something not to sound like 80s electronics.

Axeman

AFfectionate Poster

4 Posted on 08/17/2005 at 09:09:52

I have yet to hear any direct method that sounds as good as a mic'd up amp. That would always be my first choice. Fortunately, there's no sleeping babies in my family and I live in a house, so I'm not sonically limited. Apartment dwellers are at a distinct disadvantage in that area!

They do make isolation cabs for this purpose......

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/480371/

The Axeman (##(===> Cuts From My New Blues CD

Flash Murphy

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5 Posted on 08/17/2005 at 16:28:30

Hey guys,

Speaking from personal experience, you will NEVER get the sound of a miked amp with one of those amp modellers. It just ain't gonna happen! The only unit that I kinda liked and tolerated was the distortion sounds from a Boss SE70. But even that wasn't good enough for me. I think the Pod sucks personally.

What I did for my current studio was convert part of my bedroom closet into a vocal booth / guitar amp recording setup. Putting sonics on exposed walls helps cut down on reflections and also isolates the sounds from the outside world. The real trick is to cover the amp and mic with a really heavy blanket (or blankets). This really cuts down on the loudness and doesn't take away from the sound going into the mic. The amp doesn't really need to be blasting to sound good (well, I guess that depends on the amp

).

Of course, this setup doesn't work for a stack. A single speaker amp is all you really need for recording anyways.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck!

led

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6 Posted on 08/25/2005 at 13:29:07

%1$s a écrit The amp doesn't really need to be blasting to sound good (well, I guess that depends on the amp ).

Of course, this setup doesn't work for a stack. A single speaker amp is all you really need for recording anyways.

Hope some of this helps. Good luck!

Well... I got a Marshall VS102R, which have 2 speakers, and I only like the sound when it's higher than 3.5 (on 10), below that just doesn't sound right to me :/. But I agree that puting the amp in the closet can help, I'm going to try this when no one's at home.

Oh, and any tips on recording bass ? I don't have a bass amp currently, so I just record the bass directly from the mixer, and it's sounds acceptable, but I was wondering if recording from a bass amp could help getting a better sound, or do I need a special mic to get low freq sound?

Tnx :D

Flash Murphy

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7 Posted on 08/26/2005 at 09:04:23

%1$s a écrit Oh, and any tips on recording bass ? I don't have a bass amp currently, so I just record the bass directly from the mixer, and it's sounds acceptable, but I was wondering if recording from a bass amp could help getting a better sound, or do I need a special mic to get low freq sound?

Tnx :D

Yes, a bass amp will provide you with more bottom-end, and you would want to get a dynamic mic with a bigger diaphragm, like a D112. But I guarantee you're gonna piss off your neighbors if you decide to do this. Low frequencies travel through walls much more effectively (I wish my neighbor with his f*ckin' subwoofer knew that!!!) than higher frequencies.

If you want more lowend, I would recommend getting a bass with active pickups and (if you have the money) get yourself a Countryman DI. Of course this will not give you the sweet growl of a bass amp, but you'll get less death threats!!!

Another trick I use is adding a BBE Sonic Maximizer VST to the bass (insert) during mixdown. That's usually enough bottom-end for me.

led

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8 Posted on 11/20/2005 at 16:03:58

%1$s a écrit I have yet to hear any direct method that sounds as good as a mic'd up amp. That would always be my first choice. Fortunately, there's no sleeping babies in my family and I live in a house, so I'm not sonically limited. Apartment dwellers are at a distinct disadvantage in that area!

They do make isolation cabs for this purpose......

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=home/search/detail/base_pid/480371/

Hi everyone

I couldn't afford buying one of those, so I started making one on my own ! I don't know much about building sound box, but it's worth trying to save about 500$ CAN

http://www.icerealm.qc.ca/led/ib/

If you have questions or stuff to say about this (did you have any experience making one of those?) go ahead!

disound

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9 Posted on 03/25/2006 at 01:07:07

you can try this simple freeware thing https://GuitarFX.Net - gives really not bad distortion! Or you can try tens(!) PC software to make "software distortion", some sounds really cool, http://guitar-sound.info (several software are freeware). I mean you can record clean guitar and then do post processing on the recorded wav file using VST plug-ins and VST host.

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