Hey All,
Can any one give me a few pointers on recording an electric guitar in Cubase, e.g
Do you record in stereo or mono, do you plug the line out of the guitar amp into an input of your interface(US122) or do you use a mic on the amp.
Any help would be great thanks.
Chris.
Heavy crunch rhythms I prefer a miked cab. Anything else I use either the line out of my Marshall, line out of my GT-8, or an amp sim. Always mono here for doubling or harmonies.
There’s a thousand different answers to that question, and here’s Some of them!
using a guitar amp.
You dont say what amp you have but I assume it has a line out and it’s most likely to be a mono line out, and a mono amp, unless it’s a posh one or has a built-in effects section. So I’d say, record in mono, unless your amp delivers stereo output, in which case record in stereo!
There are ways you can construct stereo guitar parts from mono ones if you want, either by doubling the part with an overdub (precise playing helps here) or doubling the recorded track and using some sort of subtle time/pitch/ eq processing to give you a “pretend stereo”
The line out socket
from some guitar amps can give you a rather thin and buzzy sound. This is because the speaker of your amp will colour the sound, rolling off a lot of the top end- the line out is not usually attenuated in that way so it sounds brighter and can be very waspish especially with distorted sounds. The line out socket will probably be mono, unless, as above, the amp has built in effects or is super-posh. Some amps with built in effects have virtual speaker simulation that you can assign to the line output(s). In that case you’ll get a good result from using the line out.
Using a mic
if you have a decent mic, using that will probably get you the closest to what you are hearing coming out of your amp. Try moving the mic around a bit and checking what’s going to the DAW with some headphones or a test recording, as mic position will make a big difference. There’s dozens of online guides to mic’ing guitar cabs which will help you.
Plugging your guitar straight into your interface is probably going to give you a not very pleasant sound, with little option for gain or tone shaping. However if your interface has a Hi Z (instrument) input, you could try using that and then some sort of amp modeling plug-in such as Cubase’s Amp Simulator. This has the advantage that you are recording a dry, uneffected signal. You then can work on the tone and modify it as your project develops. Useful, but it can be a a faff to set things up so you hear amp sounds and effects as you play, but they’re not printed onto your recording.
Using a Pod
You didn’t mention this but a lot of folk find it a good option - using some sort of multi effects amp and speaker simulating hardware package will get you good tones quickly and easily. worth investigating. Some devices will simulate a whole range of amps and effects, different speaker cabinets and even different mics in different positions and throw it all out of a stereo line out. Kind of similar to using a software guitar rig, but -err- hardware!
So there’s 5 answers! I’d probably start by trying recording from the amp’s line out and a mic at the same time, and comparing what you get. that will get you started at least!
cheers, at least I know where to start. 