software

Hey all, I'm not sure if this is in the right forum, but I figured since it dealt mostly with amps that I would put it here.

My band and I have recently started recording some demos in our home studio and I was wondering what tips any of you could offer me in achieving the best possible recorded tone. this is my first time doing any serious recording and I am seeking a thick distorted tone with plenty of punch. But also a nice full and warm clean tone.

So here are the major questions:
Mic placement?
What types of mics? Shure SM57? Something better?
Multiple mics recording at once? ie one at the grill another a few feet away
Amp gain? How much should I turn it down if any at all?
Amp placement within a room?
What type of room? ie main jam space (nice and open) or vocal booth (no reverb)

Basically any tricks you have acquired over time could you please pass my way.

Thanks.

What I've found helped was that with any mic you use, use a tube preamp. It warms up the sound quite a bit and if you're recording digitally it really helps keep it from sounding sterile.

How are you planning to record? Do you have a mulit-track recorder or just a CD recorder? If so how many channles...how many tracks can you record at one time? Do you have a big 16 channel mixer? Do you want to build it track by track or record the whole band at once? Do you really want/need a stereo mix or is mono OK?

A quick and dirty way with a 4 track recorder and a good sized board....

1) Mic up everything and set levels so each instrument solo uses about 1/4 of the whole record level before before it clips. That should get you in the ball park 'cause as you add instruments the levels will combine and go up pretty quickly.

2) Try to get as much isolation between microphones as you can. Bass can be recorded via direct box so that keeps the bass signal completly isolated. Acoustic guitars can be recored via the pizeo signal providing good isolation there. If you have extra guitar cabs you can stick a satellite cab in another room and mic that while you monitor via the cab in the live room...gobo the guitar cabs and any other live cabs if you can to avoid excess signal that will leak into other mics. Keyboards can be recorded direct to keep them isolated.

3) If you record the band to two tracks and the singer to another track you can later replace the scratch vocal track with one recored later thus keeping the vocal free of interfearence from other instruments and give you the ability to ride the fader of the vocal to make it sit exactly where you want it in the mix with the rest of the band. Keep the scratch vocal as quite as you can in the room while tracking...just loud enough so the band can follow along. Better yet...if the band can perform just fine without the vocal(s) do it that way. Monitor with headphones and not cabs if you can. Take advantage of that POD unit if it gets the sound you need.

4) Recording the band live will require you to play a bit and listen...adjust levels to correct imbalances and try again. After a few passes you should be able to get a decent mix. If you have a sound guy he can perhaps ride some faders while recording to give say a guitar solo a bit of a boost when necessary.

5) record just the drums at first and pan the mics as you like to create a stereo spread. make sure you are not getting any unwanted phase issues with the drum mics. After the kit sounds good on it's own you should be good to go with trying a rough pass with the other instruments. But always listen for phase issues as you add other live room mics (if any)

As you can see, isolation of the sound sources is key. With direct feeds with DI for bass...DI for keys...piezo acoustic....POD guitar...monitor with headphones....record vocal(s) later. This leaves you with just the drums live in the room and no leakage at all!You can also get pretty good results if you have good room and a pair of small diaphram condenser mics. Recored live with the mics in an quot;xyquot; positon. If the band can play well as a unit and regulate their volumes well it can sometimes just be a matter of experimenting with just where to put up the mics!

Another quick and dirty option. Mic/DI up everything through the big board. Mix naked to a CD recorder. Listen...adjust levels as necessary...record again. If you can get your board isolated to another room and sound guy can monitor via studio speakers or headphones he can mix it on the fly. That way after one pass he should already have the levels set pretty well so the next pass just might be spot on.

Just a few ways of going about things.

SM57 close mic'd--near the grillecloth. In front of the dustcap is brightest, off center is less bright. I usually have the mic just inside the edge of the speaker aimed at an angle to just outside the dustcap. Condensers sound nice too, but the 57 is the standard for guitars. Drums: 2 condensers overhead with mics on the BD and snare/hat to help fill in as needed. I usually EQ those mics a bit to make things stand out/ simmer down a bit.

For guitar sounds, use a decent sized room. Small rooms (say a 3' x 3' closet) tend to sound phasey. A little bit of room ambience is good, too much will make things muddy. Aim the amp at an angle to the walls and or floor to reduce ambience if needed. Put the amp and mic on a piece of plywood to get some early reflections back if needed. That stuff is subtle but there are acoustic cues we percieve that tell us the sound was made in a big room vs a small room.

Amp gain: less than you use quot;in the room.quot; Some recording folks say you should be able to get a cleanish sound when picking as light as you can pick. And you may need to turn the treble/ presence down as well if you are micing the amp on-axis and you're used to hearing the amp off-axis.

homerecording.com has some FAQ info and a bbs (with the occasional all out flamewar...), and there's a set of forums which has Ethan Winer's Acoustics forum which has a recording bbs.

One SM57 on your favorite speaker in a good position, lower the gain and bass a little, and quad track it. 2 tracks panned hard left/right, 2 panned out 80%. It'll sound orgasmic!

Thanks so far guys. We actually have a 24 track board into Pro Tools set up. All the drums are individually mic'ed with pro drum mics and there are 2 overhead condensor mics. We've recorded the bass direct into the board.
I'm new to the band and serious recording and my other band members never paid much attention to their previous guitarist during recording because he was such a control freak. Thus I'm looking for all the tips I can get to acheive the best sound possible.
Thus far I have been pretty successful in getting the tone I want. I would prefer however, to thicken up my distorted tone.
I started with the 57 slightly off the outer edge of the speaker, but I'll try angleing it towards the center and see how that sounds. I'm also gonna try and record some stuff in the vocal booth to see if by losing pretty much all reverb/ambience if I can get that really punchy/aggressive tone.