Tips/Tricks -

what do you guys do?

What if I wanted that sparkly Hot Snakes sound?

Do you compress/limit to tape to keep the needle out of the red?

How do you like to compress guitars when the doude/doudette's using a distortion pedal with a lot of boost?

I've got to record guitars tomorrow - the kids really like that J. Robbins kinda sound - I was going to use a 61' Bassman, maybe a Spectra head, paired with Normal Cabinet #1, and he's going to use a distortion pedal. Any tips to get close to that sound w/ a couple dbx166's?

i think that type of sound is acheived by just driving the bassman into the distortion (if you can play it that loud) and compressing it pretty heavy with something like an 1176, which makes it seem more distorted than it actually is. i'd tell the guy to ditch the pedal.

slow attack/fast release usually works well for guitars for me

p.s. i was referring more to the j.robbins sound

hot snakes sound? a telecaster and an ac30 would certainly help. probably more than compression.

wiggins wrote:Tips/Tricks -

what do you guys do?

What if I wanted that sparkly Hot Snakes sound?

Do you compress/limit to tape to keep the needle out of the red?

How do you like to compress guitars when the doude/doudette's using a distortion pedal with a lot of boost?

I've got to record guitars tomorrow - the kids really like that J. Robbins kinda sound - I was going to use a 61' Bassman, maybe a Spectra head, paired with Normal Cabinet #1, and he's going to use a distortion pedal. Any tips to get close to that sound w/ a couple dbx166's?

Distorted guitar is already "compressed". Especially if you put it thru a pedal too.

I usually dont touch them as it doesnt do much unless you have an 1176 and you are changing the tone of the track.

Now if the dirstorion is just slightly crunchy (a mildly distorted Fender or AC30) then you have room to run it thru a compressor....but a full on JCM800/900/2000 doesnt have anywhere to go.

Good luck,
spoon

spoon wrote:Distorted guitar is already "compressed". Especially if you put it thru a pedal too.

I usually dont touch them as it doesnt do much unless you have an 1176 and you are changing the tone of the track.

Now if the dirstorion is just slightly crunchy (a mildly distorted Fender or AC30) then you have room to run it thru a compressor....but a full on JCM800/900/2000 doesnt have anywhere to go.

I was gonna say the same thing... "distortion" stomp boxes use clipping of the wave form, which necessarily results in some wicked compression. I might hit a clean guitar track with a comp or limiter, but if it's got some heavy drive, it's probably already as squashed as it could be.

What do you do when you're tracking guitar, and there's a disparity in the level of the guitar, either between the nominal sound and the with-stompbox-engaged sound, or maybe even just the difference in level you might get when playing through a tube amp that has dynamic capability to it... where maybe the clean sound with your volume knob rolled back and the distorted sound with your volume cranked up are a little bit further apart in level going to tape than you would like them to be.

This is also a much bigger deal going to a digital storage medium than it is going to tape. You definitely don't wanna hit digital 0, eh? So maybe your balls-out amp sound is gonna play in the -3dB range or so... and then your quietest clean sound is gonna be at -20dB or lower... maybe you want a clean, quiet guitar tone, but you don't want it to be dropping too low into the noise-floor of your tape or loss-of-resolution-area of your digital media.

I have no answer, btw. I have a compressor that I only ever use for tracking vocals. I don't think I would ever find myself compressing guitar.

I mostly use my compressors to make sure signal doesn't hit the roof... rarely to go for a 'sound'. And yeah, if your bassman is cranked and distorted, the tubes are already giving you some compression. A distorted bassman is a pretty great sound in itself... I would try and capture that rather than make it something else that it may not be.

Why chase a chicken when your face is covered in duckfat?

Mayfair wrote:Why chase a chicken when your face is covered in duckfat?

Because she dropped her wallet and you're trying to return it to her?

scott wrote:What do you do when you're tracking guitar, and there's a disparity in the level of the guitar, either between the nominal sound and the with-stompbox-engaged sound, or maybe even just the difference in level you might get when playing through a tube amp that has dynamic capability to it... where maybe the clean sound with your volume knob rolled back and the distorted sound with your volume cranked up are a little bit further apart in level going to tape than you would like them to be.

This is also a much bigger deal going to a digital storage medium than it is going to tape. You definitely don't wanna hit digital 0, eh? So maybe your balls-out amp sound is gonna play in the -3dB range or so... and then your quietest clean sound is gonna be at -20dB or lower... maybe you want a clean, quiet guitar tone, but you don't want it to be dropping too low into the noise-floor of your tape or loss-of-resolution-area of your digital media.

I have no answer, btw. I have a compressor that I only ever use for tracking vocals. I don't think I would ever find myself compressing guitar.

This is exactly my problem. The clean guitars go under the noise floor and you can't hardly hear them, and when they're 'stompt-on' theyre way in the red, especially with lower frequencies. It's not so bad going to tape, but its a little much sometimes, and the noise floor is much higher.

The band I'm recording thats using the bassman at the moment really digs that kinda crunchy, almost 'chewy' clean tone found on the following records:

and


I guess since I won't ever afford a couple of 1176's in the forseeable future, I should put it out of my mind, right?

If you have the channels/mics at your disposal, use the same technique that was discussed a few weeks or a month ago to deal with vocals that range from a shout to a whisper... set up one mic through one channel to do the quiet, clean sound perfectly, and the other mic/channel to do the stompy sound perfectly. Track both of them at the same time, and then mix to taste.

Maybe you'll end up doing what would basically amount to a digital splice, with one cutting out and the other coming in, with just a .001 second crossfade when the pedal is stomped. Maybe you'll wanna blend them at times, I dunno. One thing's for sure... that clean mic is gonna shit the digital bed when the pedal is kicked in. You'll wanna mute it.