Guitar recording question

[lighthouse]

Hi guys, I`m about to start recording the guitars for my CD and the thing is that I don`t have a tube amp (I`m using a Marshall Valvestate 2000), but I do have a tube pre-amp, so I was wondering how can I warm up the sound with it. Should I put it before the signal going through the Valvestate, or should I plug my sm57 to it and then into the soundcard?

Thanx a lot for your answer!


Juan Pablo

[Tusker]

I think the mic and natural reverb is more important than the tube, unless the tube pre is something very special. I'm sure the Marshall sounds very nice. I'd put the tube after the mic, just for gainstaging. But for nice big guitars try putting the marshall in different environments (wood floor, bathroom, etc.) put the mike near (and maybe occasionally) far. Do 3-5 takes with these variations and pan them left to right for the wall of guitars. The natural reverb and mic compression from the 57 will do a lot of the thickening and warming that people use tubes for. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Hope this helps,

Jerry

[Tusker]

Also, doesn't the Valvestate employ tubes in the preamp section?

Best,

Jerry

[lighthouse]

Also, doesn't the Valvestate employ tubes in the preamp section?

Well.....I`m not sure about that, cause the amp is not mine, is from a friend and he`s gonna lend it to me while my recording......but I`ll check it out.....

And I`m gonna try the different environments you suggested....thanx a lot man!


Any other tips?....


Juan Pablo

[Tigerfolly]

Hi guys, I`m about to start recording the guitars for my CD and the thing is that I don`t have a tube amp (I`m using a Marshall Valvestate 2000), but I do have a tube pre-amp, so I was wondering how can I warm up the sound with it. Should I put it before the signal going through the Valvestate, or should I plug my sm57 to it and then into the soundcard?

Thanx a lot for your answer!


Juan Pablo

You can also use a plugin to help warm up that sound. Antares has a program called "tube" that does just that.

[lighthouse]

thanx dude.....I`ll look for it


Juan Pablo

[rutgerv]

I just recorded guitars for my band's new cd. We used a Line 6 POD XT, but in the signal path we had a tube microphone amp (MIC200, behringer). The guitar goes into this preamp, and then into the pod. This gave a very nice warm sound with some tube compression.

I suppose that you're valvestate already does something similar...it's a VALVEstate you know :). So preamp with a tube and poweramp without tubes (but solid state). So you actually have the tubesound, but not as much as with a complete tube amp. What i mostly use for warming up guitars is the PSP Vintage Warmer. A truly amazing tape-drive plugin. Makes it really warm along with great compression. Sounds great on snaredrums too by the way. I use it all the time :).

Btw...snaredrums suck, i just spent 3 ours listening to the snaredrum in one song and tweaking it, and i just can't get it right. It's either not "open" enough (a little on the dull side), or too much high (which emphasises the bleeding from the hihat in the snare channel). Does someone have the almighty "make it sound perfect" plugin for me?? :).

Anyway, gotta give my ears some rest now. Bit i'm sure you'll be able to get a amazing guitarsound with the valvestate...just take ALOT of time for experiments with different setups, rooms, effects, etc. It's really worth your time.

Rutger

[lighthouse]

hey.....thanx Rutger....I didn`t knewthat the Valvestate has a tube preamp...I guess that cause i`m a keyboard player is more less justified hahaha....anyway I`ll try the vintage warmer and the different setups for mic and amp! thanx again.

Talking about the snare...I recorded drums a couple of months ago, and the engineer made something incredible....he used a pro tools feature that "triggers" audio, not midi, so we recorded our drumer with a SM57, but after that we recorded just five hits with different intensities on the snare using three different mics on different positions and with and without the o-ring.....after that the engineer trigger all this sounds with the original snare the drumer recorded.......so at the end we had seven different snare sounds to choose from and to mix together......so if you can try something similar I recomend that.

Thanks again
Juan Pablo