How do you handle the problem of monitoring your backing track while recording your mic’d (extremely loud) guitar amp? I’m interested in tackling recording from my mic’d amp into my Ableton Live setup and was concerned about how I would handle monitoring. I have passive Alesis Monitor One’s driven by a 100w/ch HTR, and I don’t think this will keep up with the guitar amp when monitoring other parts while I play. You said headphones are not a good solution, so how do people generally handle this? Stuff the guitar amp + mic into the bathroom with a long chord(s) and close the door? Thanks for any suggestions.
I’m probably just over compensating for all the shit I’ve given or will give you in politics threads. It all works out in the end. 
On the Pro-Tools route: I have a good microphone, actually, from another project. I’ll use it, thanks.
Good work!!!
As for that Sunshine… I gave the wrong neck positions for the solo. Sorry bout that, but hopefully you get the idea - Clapton plays it in two different spots on the neck. If I had a way to “video’” it, I would show you myself.
E-Sabs - sorry if I missed it - did you tell us what kind of pickups you got and what you think is different about them vs. what was in there? Are they meant to be the same type of pickup, only higher quality? Or were you targeting a different style of pickup as well as upgrading quality?
What was in there: The cheapest possible sort of pickup one can make. Single coil, all three identically wound. Very weak. HORRIBLY weak. Ceramic, maybe? The new ones? Alnico V rod magnets with cloth wires, bridge is wound to 6K, mid is wound to 5.5K and neck to 5K.
I haven’t had much time to explore it, it took me most of the night to get things back in shape. But it barks now. It’s got authority it didn’t have. Notes ring. Problem is, it’s really out of intonation, and also the pickup heights are all wrong. I approximated, going to fix it later.
So both of them were supposed to be Stratocaster style single coil pickups. Just, well, the ones before were kind of faking it. This sounds like the good shit, and I wasn’t even using the Vox to test with.
Can anyone give me the one-string tabs for Sunshine? Or is it on that youtube video? I’m not good at following videos.
This has to be the world’s simplest tab 
:
12-12-10-12 7 6 5 0 3~ 0
Then the same thing on the next string up. Or if you really insist on using one string, just move the whole thing up 5 frets.
I want to practice moving up and down frets, so I’ll try that. Start on G?
It isn’t a one string tab, but in Post 736 I gave you the way I learned it way way back when Disraeli Gears was a new album. Try it. It’s simpler than it looks. Key of D.
I use the simple approach, my amp is in the hall outside the room I use for my studio. I run my amp at about 5 or 6 on the master (which is pretty damned loud) for recording and it sounds fine. I keep the door partially closed and adjust the monitor volume so that the mix is ok for tracking. Nothing fancy but it beats headphones and I don’t get any bleed.
Bathrooms can be good rooms, however they can also setup a lot of odd reverberations and you can get some wacky phase things going on. If you do try the bathroom route play around with the amp and mic placement a lot.
If there are issues with volume you can build or buy an amp isolation box. Basically a big old box that you put over your amp to lower the volume that escapes. I’ve never used one but know some people who have had good results with them.
For acoustic you gotta use headphones. I hate using headphones for some reason. Anyway, if you are going to do acoustic you need to buy some good headphones. The ones I use right now leak a lot of high end. The mic ends up picking up cymbals and hi-hats from the headphones. One of these days I’ll buy some good ones but for now it is not a huge issue unless it is a guitar only track. The problem with guitar only tracks is that the click leaks through and you don’t want that. My usual way around this is to record a scratch track with a click. I then record the actual tracks off the scratch track, with my headphones there isn’t really any bleed doing it this way.
One of these days I am going to turn a back room I have into a studio. I need to install A/C back there first. Once I get that done I’ll probably end up building lots of isolation walls. I might even build a booth. That should be interesting.
Slee
Slee -
Thanks for all the info about recording mic’d amps/gutiars. I’ve pretty much only ever recorded using some sort of direct input, never with actual mics + gear, so this is all new territory for me. The basics are easy to understand – mic your amp and record that, duh – but there’s a lot of devils in the details, especially with monitoring. Thanks for the shared expertise.
Okay, that was worth trying. No effects on the amp, and the first four notes sound perfect, with that weird “I always thought that was an echo” effect. Oddly, when I try this to go further: SUNSHINE OF YOUR LOVE TAB (ver 3) by Eric Clapton @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com it all goes to hell shortly, but that’s probably just me.
And it sounds very different on the humbucker. It’s not nearly as clear and bright. I think I’ve learned something. Dunno what, yet.
(For what it’s worth, this also counts as my first excursion past the first five frets - I havn’t gotten to barre chords yet. When I do, I kind of expect me to be posting about ‘You know, this kind of hurts.’)
MrHaggis wants to know about the blues. Anyone feel like helping edumacate him up a bit?
I took a shot.
E-Sabs - if Sunshine sounded correct to your ear, you are getting a sense for what the neck pickup can do - and with the gain up and the Tone rolled down to get Clapton’s Woman Tone, you are pretty much at the extreme end of the tonal spectrum. Mess around and get a feel for how different things sound.
Now, switch to Bridge pickup, just as gained up amp-wise, on-board guitar’s Volume at about 8.5, Tone backed off to somewhere between 6 and 8.5. Play Smoke on the Water (link to youtube lesson, with Tab showing frets).
Hear the difference? How Smoke is hard and edgy, with more high-end, nasal bite and Sunshine is rich, warm, kinda “tubey” sounding (like you are making an “oooooo” sound with your mouth)?
A key decision when learning a song is figuring out what basic tone the part requires. If you start to be able to hear that, and adjust your settings accordingly, it can really help…
My tips for starting with barre chords, FWIW:
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Do not start with F, or any chord on the lower frets. A lot of people start with F because it is missing from the open chords that everybody learns (also I guess people are nervous of the uncharted territory of the higher frets). But the action is a little higher and stiffer down there close to the nut, and obviously the frets are further apart. Consequently, F is one of the hardest barre chords to play. It would be better to start with B or Bb, at the 6th or 7th fret. Easier to play, and still useful because it is another one that is missing from the open chords.
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There’s lots of advice out there about correct hand and arm position, how much pressure to apply for barre chords, and how to apply it. Heed that advice. Avoid getting into the habit of using a death-grip for barre chords. You will tire your hand out, possibly injure yourself, and grow to hate barres. I would recommend taking it slowly and being very particular about your technique. The advice I like is that your hand should be fairly relaxed, and you should apply pressure mostly by pulling with the stronger muscles in your forearm, holding the guitar to your body with the other arm.
Of course, like most people, I rushed it, and for ages could only play barre chords briefly before my hand started to ache. Mind you, that was an acoustic with .13 strings. Maybe I made it hard for myself.
Sure thing. You are right that the devil is in the details. Here are a couple hints.
For recording amps usually a SM-57 will do the job just fine. You usually want to place the mic about an inch or so from the speaker. Note, if you have a 2x12 try both speakers, sometimes one is better than the other. Anyway, about an inch or so off the speaker and you want it towards the edge. Mine is set about an inch from the rim. Play around with it a bit. The closer you get to the center the more boomy it is going to be. Also try putting the amp in different places/rooms. It took me a couple days to figure out what worked for me.
It is also a pretty good idea to find a placement you like, record some scratch tracks and then come back a a day or two later and check on how it sounds. You can get ear fatigue and something you think sounds brilliant will, a day or two later, sound like crap. I’ve had this happen more than once when recording acoustic stuff.
You can also play around a bit. If your interface accepts two mic’s at once, try one in close to the speaker and another 5 or 10 feet away. Try a condenser for the distant mic. You can get some awesome tone doing this but it does require paying a lot of attention to the mix.
For acoustics it is a bit more complicated, for me anyway. The best setup I’ve found so far is a 57 pointed at about the 12th fret with a condenser up at the headstock. The 57 gets most of the sound but the condenser can add some great higher end shimmery stuff. Acoustics can be a bitch, they are all a little different and there are tons of places you can put the mics. Screw around until you find what you like.
You also want to record with as little effects as possible. Get the best tone you can before you add any effects. The reason is pretty simple, if you add effects on the recorded track you can’t pull them out later. Some stuff you have to use, for example you might have a riff that relies on delay (think the Edge), but in general record the tracks as clean as possible. You can add the effects later on an aux track.
Slee
Thanks for the warm welcome, I admit I was a bit worried since they seemed such basic questions. I’ve just been really busy at work because it’s the end of the month and I need to get all my paperwork in by EOD. I’m not being intentionally rude and ignoring your replies. Again, just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to answer and even the encouragement.
In re: Shot From Guns’ Kindle, which I’m picking up, it occurred to me that a Kindle would be really awesome to read sheet music/tab on. Anyone ever tried it?
I forgot to wrap this up: I ended up keeping both the Distortron and the OCD. I really couldn’t part with either, especially after I tried driving one with the other – you can get some really cool, subtle tones doing this, esp using my Tele with it’s low-output pickups. The GT-500 however is back in Guitar Center’s glass display case.
I’d still like to get my hands on a ZVex Super Hard-on or Super Duper. The player reviews I’ve read practically gush about this pedal. But nobody carries the damned thing locally and it’s a $240 :eek: pedal.
One day, I will start mucking with pedals. Is it a bad idea if I start off by building my own from plans?