Recording my first Guitar into a track. N00B alert.

gemini · Post by **gemini** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 12:45 am

I'm going to be adding a guitar to my first completed song shortly.

What advice would any of you give me with regards effects etc. I read in another thread about using 2 or 3 guitar tracks and panning etc. but to be honest I don't really get it. ima N00B!

Briefly, the guitar comes into the piece around the 2/3rds mark and is intended to supercharge the piece or shift gear etc. Its roughly speaking an industrial track. I'd really appreciate any advice, things to try out, ways to get a heavy powerful sound etc. All recommendations will be considered.

cheers.

Aequitas123 · Post by **Aequitas123** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 1:08 am

this really depends on the track and what kinda guitar line youre doing.

one key thing is getting the raw input track sounding as good as it can or as close to what you think you want. you can't record a shitty sounding guitar track and expect to fix it with effects.

best thing to do would be record several takes with different sounds and then figure out which you think fits best.

billphreets · Post by **billphreets** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 7:58 am

personally i record guitar direct/dry now.. i use 2 tracks : one panned hard left , one hard right (or 4 tracks and alter panning slightly on each to create a bigger sound)
and then i add effects , ive had some really great results using the amplitube vst`s lately
of course if i had a fender twin reverb and a couple of nice microphones things would be different lol

gemini · Post by **gemini** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 6:25 pm

Thanks guys!
I'll check that out.

But before i go any further, what exactly is the principle behind panning? Is it just a way of shifting the weight from R to L? or is there more to it?

Aequitas123 · Post by **Aequitas123** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 12:30 am

i often do the same as bill, record two identical tracks and pan hard left and right to give it a big wide sound.

even if you duplicate a track and pan one left and one right and then add a few milliseconds of track delay on one you can obtain a widening or thickening effect

Walkingmachine · Post by **Walkingmachine** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:30 am

panning just helps place things in the stereo field and makes you mix wider and clearer so your not looking at a one eyed monster

as a VERY generally noob rule, i would stick to keeping the kick/bass in the middle (there's a really cool effect called monomaker that gets things dead center and really kicking) and duplicate and pan hard l/r other things like guitar, piano, pads

of course it depends on the track, definitely make sure you get as clean of an original recording as possible, you can use a gate effect to help cut out some buzzing if needed

JoshR · Post by **JoshR** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:31 am

I also record directly and use amplitube 2 or some of ableton's effects. One side note: sometimes I find that too much distortion can muddy the guitars so that I lose some oomph. In general I try to listen to the guitar in the mix, not on it's own, and cut back on the distortion. Listen to some pro recordings and you'd be surprised, if you focus on the guitars, how little they're actually distorted.
Also, I'll EQ quite a lot out of guitars, so that they may sound tinny and weak when soloed, but they sound fine in the mix and give other instruments some room.

gemini · Post by **gemini** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 6:17 pm

fantastic advice everyone. Many thanks.