Recording Guitar in Stereo on Protools

[SteveB]

This may seem like a stupid question. but.....

I cannot for the life of me figure out how to record my guitar in
stereo on protools. I do not have it going through a mixer. Just
straight into the back of the MBOX. Can someone please explain to me
what I need to do here? I am totally frustrated here.

Thanks so much.

[Federico]

"SteveB" > ha scritto nel messaggio
ups.com...
> This may seem like a stupid question. but.....
>
> I cannot for the life of me figure out how to record my guitar in
> stereo on protools. I do not have it going through a mixer. Just
> straight into the back of the MBOX. Can someone please explain to me
> what I need to do here? I am totally frustrated here.
>
> Thanks so much.
>

Since your guitar is a mono instrument, if you go straight to your Mbox
there is no way to have it really stereo.
But maybe this is not what you want to know.

You can do 4 kind of things:

1) Create a stereo track and assing the track input to one input only.
You will have a stereo track but L&R will be identical (it will sound as a
Mono track).

2) Record your guitar in a mono track, then put some stereo plugin, such as
a reverb, or a stereo delay. This approach can simulate a good stereo.

3) Record a mono guitar track, then record another guitar part, just as
identical as you can.
Put track A to the left, Guitar B to the right. It will probably sound like
a huge stereo guitar. But don't call this "stereo", at most call it "dual
mono".

4) Play your guitar through an amplifier. Put two microphones in the room.
Record them in a stereo track.
And you have a wonderful stereo guitar.

F.

[SteveB]

Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
I have been going nuts. If a buy a small mixer will it make the guitar
stereo?

[Romeo Rondeau]

No, stereo means that the left and right channels will be different. You
have only 1 channel output in the guitar. No amount of adapters from Radio
Shack or Guitar Center is gonna make stereo for you. Put some reverb on it
or something. If it's an acoustic/ electric guitar, mike it with 2 mikes.

"SteveB" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> Thanks so much. I really appreciate it.
> I have been going nuts. If a buy a small mixer will it make the guitar
> stereo?
>

[amp_noob]

....Or just record the same guitar part twice.

[Romeo Rondeau]

"amp_noob" > wrote in message
...
>
> ...Or just record the same guitar part twice.

That's not stereo, it's 2 guitars :-)

[Ty Ford]

On Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:16:45 -0400, SteveB wrote
(in article om>):

> This may seem like a stupid question. but.....
>
> I cannot for the life of me figure out how to record my guitar in
> stereo on protools. I do not have it going through a mixer. Just
> straight into the back of the MBOX. Can someone please explain to me
> what I need to do here? I am totally frustrated here.
>
> Thanks so much.

Adding a mixer will NOT help and will probably introduce more noise than
anything else.

Step away from the computer for a second and think about it.
(seriously, sometimes we get lost in the computer and lose perspective)

What do you expect to gain from recording "in stereo"? (and then there's the
whole thing about what's really stereo..do you need matched mics, blah, blah,
blah.)

If you have one mic or one pickup, you can only record one source. To record
that source to two tracks in PTLE, just assign the same input to two tracks
and record. You can to record it onto several tracks, but it's still the same
mono sound and it won't be stereo. You can mess with each track separately
and get some weird things.

To record stereo you need two mics, or a stereo pickup.

Regards,

Ty Ford



-- Ty Ford's equipment reviews, audio samples, rates and other audiocentric
stuff are at www.tyford.com

[Scott Dorsey]

SteveB > wrote:
>
>I cannot for the life of me figure out how to record my guitar in
>stereo on protools. I do not have it going through a mixer. Just
>straight into the back of the MBOX. Can someone please explain to me
>what I need to do here? I am totally frustrated here.

One mike goes into one channel, one mike goes into the other channel.
You record as two different tracks, then it becomes stereo when you
mix it and set the pans.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Bobby Owsinski]

In article om>,
"SteveB" > wrote:

> This may seem like a stupid question. but.....
>
> I cannot for the life of me figure out how to record my guitar in
> stereo on protools. I do not have it going through a mixer. Just
> straight into the back of the MBOX. Can someone please explain to me
> what I need to do here? I am totally frustrated here.
>
> Thanks so much.



Another way is to use the time-honored method of one mic close-up on the
speaker and another back off the cabinet 3 to 6 feet (try to find the
spot where you feel the air push or it sounds the biggest).

This way you can use the tracks in a variety of ways - either as a neat
stereo effect, or in mono with the combination of the 2 tracks giving
you adjustable ambience or "bigness".

--
Bobby Owsinski
Surround Associates
http://www.surroundassociates.com

Author:
The Mixing Engineer's Handbook,
The Recording Engineer's Handbook,
The Mastering Engineer's Handbook
Thomson Course Technologies Publishing

[SteveB]

Thanks. I really appreciate it. I think it was a combo of dealing
with the computer and not thinking straight. Anyway, I totally
appreciate everyone dealing with a very basic question and helping out.

You rock!!!