Hey,

Can anyone give me some opinions on better sound quality? Direct vs
Mic?

It seems like to get good sound quality from direct, i'd need to get an
amp simulator?

Or, suppose I mic'd and got a shure 57 mic.

As of now, I go direct, but, my distortion sounds on my lead guitar
tracks do not sound exactly like my live playing out of the amp. i'm
wondering if it has to do w/ recording direct or w/ my soundcard?

what do you people think?

It really depends on your amp. The simulators are just that
simulations...
There are so many variables when it comes to recording an amp even how
the guitar is held affects the sound, but I'll stick with the amp for
the moment.
Set up the amp the way you think it should sound first, then leave the
guitar down on the stand, volume still up. Set up a mic infront of the
amp and with a set of headphones listening to the mic signal move the
mic around infront of the speaker untill you hear the fullest amount of
noise through the cans. You may need to turn stuff up loud to hear
properly so be very careful!!! I find this gets me into the ball park.
Try make any tonal adjustments by changing the knobs on the amp or
moving the mic. And old boy I used to assist used to put a piece of
plywood beside the speaker to brighten the sound, basically the least
amount of eq etc you use in getting a sound the better.
I use a long speaker cable somemes too, and have the head in the
control room beside me and the speaker in the room, and use the head to
dial in the sounf from there.

Soundcard quality etc. is another kettle of worms.

So, you think mic'ing is the way to go? my amp now is a cheap 15W
practice amp. i wish i could go direct, but, i dont know if it's my
soundcard or if the junky distortion sound is from going direct

wrote:
So, you think mic'ing is the way to go? my amp now is a cheap 15W
practice amp. i wish i could go direct, but, i dont know if it's my
soundcard or if the junky distortion sound is from going direct

How do you "go direct" now? What are you connecting to what? Be very
specific.

If you use a microphone into a preamp into your computer and experiment
with mic placement, what you record will sound pretty much like what
comes out of your amplifier. If you can get a good sound with that 15W
practice amp, then you'll get a good recorded sound. If your amp sounds
like crap then your recording will, too.

You won't get good results connecting your guitar directly to a
built-in sound card, but there are some computer audio interfaces (most
commonly USB or Firewire devices these days) that have guitar inputs
that will at least let you record a clean and quiet version of what
comes from your guitar pickup. Then you can play with amplifier
simulator plug-ins to make it sound something like what would come out
of an amp.

Or you could get a hardware "guitar processor" that goes between your
guitar and a line level input on the sound card and will give you some
amplifier-like effects as well as (usually) things like reverb, chorus,
tremolo, etc. If your sound card has a decent mic input (most don't)
you could use a Direct Box (DI) between the guitar and the mic input.

Lots of ways to spend money. Not many good ways to record a guitar
without spending money.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey,

Can anyone give me some opinions on better sound quality? Direct vs
Mic?

It seems like to get good sound quality from direct, i'd need to get an
amp simulator?

Or, suppose I mic'd and got a shure 57 mic.

As of now, I go direct, but, my distortion sounds on my lead guitar
tracks do not sound exactly like my live playing out of the amp. i'm
wondering if it has to do w/ recording direct or w/ my soundcard?

what do you people think?

There is nothing like a speaker. Simulations have gotten a lot better, but
they aren't there yet. The distortion sounds you get from the amp are only
part of it; the rest is the behavior of the cone, which a direct feed
ignores. So mic it.

Peace,
Paul

Paul Stamler wrote:

There is nothing like a speaker.

Close, Paul. Dame... there is nothing like a dame... some dames are a
lot like speakers...

--
ha

wrote:
Hey,

Can anyone give me some opinions on better sound quality? Direct vs
Mic?

It seems like to get good sound quality from direct, i'd need to get an
amp simulator?

Or, suppose I mic'd and got a shure 57 mic.

As of now, I go direct, but, my distortion sounds on my lead guitar
tracks do not sound exactly like my live playing out of the amp. i'm
wondering if it has to do w/ recording direct or w/ my soundcard?

what do you people think?

If you want it to sound like the amp, you have to learn how to
record a guitar amp well. The simple method is find the good sounding
speaker and find the spot where it sounds like what you want the mic to
pick up. Record a bit, listne back and move the mic in or out
depending on how much room sound you want. If you want less high end,
try angling the mic off axis a bit.

And I'm guessing you have a "Modeling" Guitar amp, right? You
know even a tiny 15 watt Fender Champ tube amp will kick the butt of a
Line 6 Modeling amp as far as pure tone goes? Which is what people
discover when they try to get a decent recording out of one. You may
discover on playback that your tone isn't as awesome as you thought it
was. It is not unusual for people to find out such unpleasant
realities when they begin to be involved in the recording process
either - I have seen inexperienced bands extremely stressed and even
break up over such things.

Will Miho
NY TV/Audio Post/Music & Live Sound Guy
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

In article .com,
wrote:

Hey,

Can anyone give me some opinions on better sound quality? Direct vs
Mic?

It seems like to get good sound quality from direct, i'd need to get an
amp simulator?

Or, suppose I mic'd and got a shure 57 mic.

As of now, I go direct, but, my distortion sounds on my lead guitar
tracks do not sound exactly like my live playing out of the amp. i'm
wondering if it has to do w/ recording direct or w/ my soundcard?

what do you people think?


Use both.

--
Cyrus

*coughcasaucedoprodigynetcough*

Can anyone give me some opinions on better sound quality? Direct vs
Mic?

Depends on what you mean by "better". The fact that you say you like the
distortion sounds suggests you're playing rock or rock-influenced
electic guitar... and in that environment, part of the sound of the
guitar is the amp and speakers. (One of those places where a "bad" piece
of equipment may actually be good because it's distorting the sound in
ways you happen to like.) Much as I hate having to deal with it at the
board, sometimes the right thing to do really is to point a mike at the
guitar amp to capture that. (You can make the sound tech's life much
easier by letting him point your guitar amp _away_ from the audience, so
he can better control how much of it they're hearing...)

On the other hand, lots of folks do go direct. That's probably more
common in the folkie end of things, where the guitar is mostly supposed
to sound like an acoustic guitar and effects are use much less
frequently and less intensively. But it's also a matter of spending too
much time auditioning effects to find the ones that produce the sound
you want.