trinityamps.com

I've heard some great clips on the web, so I was wondering. When you want to lay down some tracks to pass around;

What equipment do you use?
How do you do it?
Where do you do it?
What is a cost effective way to get some clips?
What's the easiest way to do a decent job and not set up a recording studio?
What's your favorite set-up? Mike placement?
Any tips for getting a good clip?

_________________
Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Cassette deck from 1979 on the floor in front of my amp.



I don't really count since I haven't posted any clips on the net lately due to my lack of practicing, but... I was once half owner of a small recording studio. Maybe that qualifies me to comment? Maybe the fact that it went under disqualifies me?!

Equipment currently in my music room:

1. All kinds of amps and fiddles
2. Either an SM57 or a Shure KSM27 large diaphagm condensor or both
3. Presonus TUBEPre mic preamps x2 $99 each
4. ART LeVLAr tube compressor x2 $99
5. M-Audio 2496 sound cards x2 $99
6. ART HeadAMP headphone amp $49
7. Yamaha RH-5 mA phones $149
8. Alesis M-1 MKII monitors $300
9. Monster mic cables and patch cables
10. Radio Shack guitar cables (no joke!)
11. Red Box Pro or Behringer G100 speaker emulators $99, $39
12. Furman power conditioners
13. Sonar 4 Producer
14. Acid 4.0
15. Vegas 4.0
16. Various VST and DX effects plugins
17. s2 preamps and pedals!

Method:

I usually mic the speaker with an SM57 about a foot away and slightly off axis. I also go direct in with a Red Box or the Behringer. The Red Box sounds darker, but both are pretty good. The combination of direct and miced signals gives me a lot of flexibity to mix the different textures for unique sounds. In a perfect, world, I use 2 mics on the amp with a dynmamic close and a condensor for room, but I haven't had a room large or quiet enough in quite some time. I'll try to record a clip tonight to show the difference between the direct and miced methods and with them mixed. I also like to record 2 or more amps at once to add complexity to the sound.

The key to digital recording is to get as much signal into the track as you can without clipping. If you hit zero on the meter, you will get some nasty sounds, which is completely the opposite of how real tape works. If you don't have enough signal, you are wasting bits and therefore definition. So, you want to try to peak at about -3dB consistently if you can.

I record totally dry except for a tiny bit of compression on rare occasion. In the digital realm, you have plenty of opportunity to add effects after the tracks are down. And, you can monitor wet as you record the tracks, so it SOUNDS like you have effects running, but they aren't being recorded.

_________________
--s2
www.s2amps.com
www.category5amps.com

Hmmm... I missed the point of your question before.

The fastest, cheapest, and easiset way to get some good clips is to get something like the Tascam US-122. They can be picked up for about $100 and have onboard mic pres and a USB connection to your PC. They come bundled with software, which isn't the greatest, but it works. There is also some open source software available, which is pretty darn good for what it is. Cakewalk has some very handy entry level software for dirt cheap as well.

That setup plus a good mic is a very good start. You also need some decent phones to see how things really sound.

This isn't the cream of the crop by any means, but it is better than any of the old 4 tracks we once paid big money for!

Mic placement varies widely based on a lot of variables. A good starting point is to put a mic about 6 inches away from the grill in the center of the speaker. Turn it about 30 degrees so it is pointng toward one side of the cone. This will help roll off the bright treble peak you get when close micing. For more bass, move the mic back to about 20" away from the grill. It is not an exact science, so you have to be willing to experiment. When you finally fall in love with something, be sure to get the camera so you can remember what you did!

I did some session work in Austin for a couple of years and one day I walked into the studio and saw Eric Johnson in the the big suite through the glass. He was leaning over a little Princeton Reverb fiddling with the mic. He would move it a tiny bit, play a lick, wait for the playback through the cans, and move it a little bit more. Rinse. Repeat. When I left after about 6 hours of recording, he was still leaning over that little amp. I sure would hate to see him picking out tubes!!! FWIW, it took me 10 minutes to get set up with the mics...

_________________
--s2
www.s2amps.com
www.category5amps.com

Hey, why do you need a recording setup when you have an lbet?!

_________________
--s2
www.s2amps.com
www.category5amps.com

Sound clips here:

http://www.s2amps.com/samples/noodle_both.mp3

http://www.s2amps.com/samples/noodle_mic.mp3

http://www.s2amps.com/samples/noodle_direct.mp3

These were recorded in one take (sorry for the poor playing) using my Lightning with:

Vol 6
Bass 4
Treble 3
Master 4
NOS RCA 12AX7s
NOS 6n14n EB power tubes
NOS KEN-RAD 5Y3 rectifier
West Labs iron
Silver Bell speaker

I'm playing a 2003 ash Strat Deluxe with Fralin Blues Specials through an s2 boost2 tube treble booster. Mic is an SM57 and DI is a Red Box Pro. I had to use a Mini MASS clamped down pretty tight since my kiddo is asleep, so the top is a bit squashed.

Everything is dry except for a bit of stereo verb (maybe too much) on the guitar buss during mix down to give it some space.

The "mic" clip is mixed with the miced channel only. The "direct" clip is mixed with the Red Box channel only. The "both" clip is--wait for it--both channels mixed together.

I realize there is some background noise in there. I have very noisy power at my house and I think I may have also been picking up the power supply on my computer through the pups. I haven't lived in this house long enough to find all the sweet spots so to speak.

So, who likes what? Or none of the above?

_________________
--s2
www.s2amps.com
www.category5amps.com

Well, you're correct, with lbet to help, I don't really need a set-up! but I thought it would be an interesting topic for those who want to give it a try!
Everyone should be able to post their clips if they want to and they can't always have a studio at their disposal.

_________________
Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

What equipment do you use?
-SM-57, Various apex dynamics, Apex Large Diaphram condencer mic. I mostly use the 57 for close miking and the condencer for "room" miking
- I use a small mackie VLZ board for preamps.
- Sound card is a M-Audio Delta-66 (I am i ever pissed that protools does not support it!!!!)
- Big ass pentium 4 PC with lots of disk and memory.

How do you do it?
- I pretend I am in a big analoge studio...just like the old days. I use the pc as if it was a 24 track machine. I spend a LOT of time with mic placement for guitar sounds.

Where do you do it?
- Basement home studio. I had it build last year. Should have made it bigger.

What is a cost effective way to get some clips?
- Use one of the many backing tracks on the net and experiment until you like the sound.

What's your favorite set-up? Mike placement? Idea Any tips for getting a good clip? More on that later. Can't give away the family secets too soon.

Can't listen to the clips. URL is down. I'll try again later.

_________________
Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

lbet, I wouldn't be ever so pissed that protools doesn't support your sound card. I had to use protools for a couple of years because of cross-compatibility with other studios and I hated it. It was expensive, limited, and all the add-ons were expensive--up to 5 times as much as the same exact thing in VST or DirectX. The workflow was a bear. For instance, if I wanted to add some verb to the mix so the singer could hear it through the cans, I had to create a separate buss just for that. With Sonar, I can just add it to her track with a few clicks.

I've used Sonar since version 3 came out and I love it. I will never look back if I can help it. Before that, I used Vegas.

Whatever you do, STAY AWAY FROM THE M-BOX!!! It is the poorest excuse for a recording solution I have ever seen unless you just want to record 2 tracks of a live show. It is totally useless otherwise.

Coco, I don't know why the clips aren't working for you. They work for me here...

_________________
--s2
www.s2amps.com
www.category5amps.com

I use a Shure SM57 or a Sennheiser MD 441
Place it about .5-1" away from the grill.
In between the dust cover of the speaker and the cone, almost no tilt to the mic
completly perpindicular to the speaker magnet.

Into a preamp of some kind. I have used Art cheapo pres to AMEKs
The Arts are not so bad.

Into a reel to reel or DA88 then into a regular cheapo soundcard.

Some may call this a little much but, as long as you have a 128x64x16 board you are set!

Wow - that's a mic collection. Lesse, there's a Coles/STC 4038, a Shure Beta 57, a Sennheiser MD-421, a Sennheiser MD-409, a Stedman N-90, a Neumann U-87 or U-89, and the mystery two in the upper left - is the top a Beyer M-201?

Bear

Any one of those would probably a good job all by itself!

_________________
Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Where did you get that pic, lbet?

_________________
--s2
www.s2amps.com
www.category5amps.com

It is a thread from The Gear Page. I saw the picture and laughed a tad. Thought you might like it.

TGP Thread on HUGE guitar tones

I

LBethune,

Do you have any site in particular that you recomend for backing tracks? I have not found anything worth downloading yet.

Ok , here are what i do when recording .
Turn the amp up loud no guitar plugged in , put on your ear pones.
Then you just move the mic around till you get the sound you like.
This is a nice way to do it and is fast.

PMK

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Are there any real benefits of the M-Audio Delta-66 over the M-Audio 2496?

I am a newbie and would ike to start via the SM57 -> mixer > audio card -> software of some sort.

I see some new devices that take a line input and use firewire to connect to the PC; as a novice I don't really know if that would be a way to start off in the realm of recording simple clips (moving to backing tracks eventually)?

I just received a Lexicon Lambda with Cubase LE, an SM57, mike boom stand and cables.

It's pretty daunting but I did get a short test done.

Ned some expert help now!!

_________________
Stephen
Web: www.trinityamps.com. Facebook: facebook.com/trinityamps. Twitter: @trinityamps

Ah ha! I knew you'd cave! Nice work.

I'm picking up my first high-end guitar tomorrow - a Gibson SG standard.