{"id":24557,"date":"2016-04-08T15:20:11","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T13:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/?p=24557"},"modified":"2020-04-22T16:24:49","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T14:24:49","slug":"recording-electric-guitar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/learn\/recording-electric-guitar\/","title":{"rendered":"Recording an electric guitar"},"content":{"rendered":"

So you just made a 6 string masterpiece and now you want to record it? It\u00a0couldn’t be easier! Presented here are various methods to capture the sound of an electric guitar.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

The\u00a0<\/strong>\u00ab\u00a0classic \u00bb\u00a0<\/strong>method<\/strong><\/h3>\n

This involves placing a\u00a0microphone<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>in front of the amplifier speaker.\u00a0This is the most commonly used method, but it\u2019s also the most difficult. The audio quality of the final result usually depends on the weakest link, therefore for optimum quality a good quality tube amp and guitar should be used. When studio space is limited, guitarists often opt for a small combo.<\/p>\n

\"Shure<\/a>To get the sound as direct as possible a dynamic microphone<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>is placed within a\u00a0few centimetres from the speaker.\u00a0For a brilliant and aggressive sound, you can position it towards the centre of the speaker;\u00a0and away from the centre, towards the diaphragm and suspension for an increased bass response. A good compromise would be to position the microphone at the edge of the speaker and direct it towards the centre.\u00a0Dynamic microphones<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>tolerate high levels of volume and are often used when close-miking.\u00a0A few examples: Shure SM57,<\/a> Sennheiser MD-421<\/a>, Sennheiser E906<\/a>, Beyer M88-TG<\/a>,\u00a0the t.bone MB75<\/a>,\u00a0Superlux PRA 628 MKII<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a>Ribbon microphones<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0are often fairly\u00a0expensive and fragile. Compared to dynamic microphones they produce a more refined and gentler sound, especially in the treble.\u00a0Their smoothness in the mids is much appreciated\u00a0particularly in amp recording.\u00a0Examples include Royer\u00a0R-121 <\/a>et R-122<\/a>, the t.bone RM700<\/a>,\u00a0Coles 4038 Studio Ribbon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AKG<\/a>When room acoustics are good, it might be interesting to add a\u00a0condenser microphone<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>a few meters from the amp. This produces a natural sound to the recording, but do beware of phase problems when recording several mics from\u00a0a single\u00a0source.\u00a0Most condenser microphones feature a passive attenuator or pad that trims the sound of an amplifier, adding clarity to the microphone.\u00a0Here are some\u00a0large-diaphragm condenser microphones<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Feel free to place multiple microphones in front of the amp to compare the differences in character, texture, color, etc.\u00a0An interesting solution would be to opt for a dynamic\/ribbon and condenser microphone in producing\u00a0a powerful, yet refined and natural sound.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alternative Methods<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Behringer<\/a>Direct box\u00a0(DI)<\/a><\/strong>: often used for bass guitars.\u00a0Some manufacturers have adapted this for recording guitar by adding a speaker simulation.<\/p>\n

\"Tech<\/a>Preamp<\/a><\/strong>: a popular choice for guitarists in the 80’s, similar to a guitar amp, but without the power amp.\u00a0It adjusts the low output of the guitar line level and allows for tone settings.\u00a0Some tube preamps offer excellent overdrive when pushed.\u00a0Preamp models with speaker simulation are the most popular among guitarists.<\/p>\n

\"Line6<\/a>Amp modeling<\/a><\/strong>: introduced by Line 6 in the late 90s, the multi-effect amp modeling is often used in home studios and sometimes even in\u00a0pro recording studios.<\/p>\n

\"Amplitube<\/a>Amp simulator software<\/a><\/strong>: Computers have become increasingly powerful and are able to\u00a0run\u00a0software and other plug-ins to\u00a0sound as good as real amps.\u00a0Products like AmpliTube IK Multimedia and Native Instruments Guitar Rig are some of the most popular and are able to record a “dry” guitar signal while post modifying the amp settings, speaker and effects during mixing.<\/p>\n

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Without good sound you won\u2019t have good sound production. Here are various methods in recording an electric guitar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":24587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tblog_post_audio_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-learn"],"category_colors":{"color_key":"learn","css_classes":{"text":"cat-learn","text_light":"cat-learn-light","bg":"cat-bg-learn","bg_light":"cat-bg-learn-light","border":"cat-border-learn","text_on_bg":"cat-text-on-learn"}},"reading_time":{"minutes":3,"formatted":"3 min"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thomann.de\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}