Recording guitar: using outboard effects? no? yes?

[Ivor The Engine Driver]

I'm about to head into a studio and lay down the lead guitar tracks for my band's new albums.

 

When playing live, I've grown accustomed to using several stompboxes: mostly to get overdrive/distortion out of my AC30 at lower volumes; but occassionally use some modulation effects like flange and also use delay, tremolo and octave effects sparingly.

 

My question is: How much of this should I use in the studio? I understand that most effects can be added much more effectively in post-production, and give the producers/engineers/mixers/etc. much more flexibility ... however, I kind of count on those effects to produce "my sound" and in the past when I've tried to play dry without effects (especially overdrive, and occassionally delay) it throws me, as I depend on those effects to create the sustain, echo, etc. that I incorporate into my playing style.

 

Anyway, what is the conventional wisdom on this?

 

THANKS!

[The_Idiom]

usually for guitar modulation effects, if it will help your playing try to record with it...

 

the studio engineer may as you to do two takes one with and one without effects..

 

or maybe use your own flange, but he might want to use his own delay..

 

theres usually no rule from what i know

 

Brandon

[Phil O'Keefe]

Nope, there's no "rules", but I traditionally follow a few general guidelines:

 

If a particular stompbox effect is part of a guitarist's "sound", then I'll normally track with it. Things like graphic EQ's, treble boosters, stompbox compressors, distortion / OD pedals, and wahs all fall into that category.

 

Phasers, chorus pedals and delays - IOW, modulation and delay based effects, are on a case by case basis. If the guitarist and band are "playing off the delays", then I'll usually track them. If a chorus pedal doesn't sound that great and the guitarist isn't wowed by it either, I might use a different stompbox or save it for the mix... usually putting a plug-in on the track while tracking so they can get the vibe of it if they want / need that.

 

Reverb usually falls into the "I hardly ever track it" category. About the only time I might reconsider that is if I was doing a surf tune and the player's spring reverb was an integral part of the "sound". Otherwise, I'd rather either use natural room reverb or save it for the mix. I can always give them a bit of "confidence verb" in the cans or monitors (without "printing" it) if they want / need that.

 

Those are my general guidelines, but I wouldn't consider them to be self-imposed "rules" - as always, each situation is different. IMO, remaining flexible as an engineer / producer is important, and whatever gets you what you're after sonically and makes the client / artist play their best is fair game.

[Ivor The Engine Driver]

I meant a while back to thank you guys.

 

I start tracking our new Love Experts (link in sig) album Monday and am formulating my "strategy."

 

I think for the most part, I'm going to record dry, save for some overdrive I can't live without on a few songs. My live tone these days is pretty much clean-on-the-verge-of-breakup so should be fairly straightforward to get that on tape. I also just got an attenuator for my AC30, so easier for that too.

 

There are a few songs in which I play off the delays, so will probably use my Boss DD-20 (Tape Echo sim) for those... but otherwise I'll keep it simple.

 

I also am hoping I can get my stuff nailed in a few takes dry; and then have time to experiment with doubletracking it using different guitars, amps, etc.

 

Anyway, after my first session I may have some more questions and observations... but until then, THANKS!

[Eric Dahlberg]

You could also split the output pre-effects & DI one side. That way a clean recording would be available for re-amping later.

[EngineGuitarist]

 

Originally posted by Eric Dahlberg You could also split the output pre-effects & DI one side. That way a clean recording would be available for re-amping later.

 

 

+1

 

i agree with phil's position. but i have had experiences (1 in particular comes to mind) where the guitarist has some stompbox that just cant be recreated. ok, maybe it could but i dont work wtih people that can afford spending hours trying to replicate a sound, yet. the example i'm thinking of is some weird delay/verb stompbox. i spent like 20 min. trying all kinds of different stuff and nothing even came close to the sound of this box. so we used the box and all was well.

 

i should add that this particular time the song was cut to a click. so we solo'd the click and the guitarist and got the effect exactly in time. All problems solved. if we hadn't done this or hadn't cut to a click i'd bet anything there would be a spot where the timing got screwed up and was totally noticeable.

[where02190]

I'm pretty much with Phil on this one, if it's an intregal part of the sound, and you are certain you want it on the tune, track with it.

 

For guitarists that track with alot of effects, I always take a DI right off the guitar to a separate track. This allows me to later during mix to use a reamp interface if the guitar tone or effects doesn't work to my or the artists liking and rebuild the guitar tone by running the DI track into an amp and whatever fx desired.

 

I do the same with bass, track only a DI, and during mix reamp it for improved/additional tone. Saves tons of time trying to dial in a tone when doing basics that may or may not work with the entire mix.

[CN Fletcher]

I'm from the school of "play it great and be done with it". When "mixing" you can [and many often do] get into a paralysis of analysis where every detail is gone over in microscopic detail until the overall picture is way too difficult to discern.

 

I'm all about "get the sound, record the sound, make sure the performance is great, move on"... and while I love the convenience of 24 tracks... the fact of the matter is that damn near all of my favorite records were make on 8 or fewer track recorders [though they may have like 40 tracks of information or maybe more].

 

I have found, right or wrong, that making a decsion you're stuck with generally leads to the little things that make a record special. If you're forced to "mix as you go" then you're really forced to make decisions that make it far easier to keep a handle on what you're doing so you don't let the process become more important than the product [which is a palpable problem with far too many records that are being released these days].

 

Just one assholes opinion... YMMV.

 

Peace.

[Ivor The Engine Driver]

Great points, everyone! Thanks!

 

I'm wondering about compression ... jangle is a key component of our sound, and usually use stompbox compressors to get us there live. But what about in the studio? Should we go without compressors at our feet, counting on the studio magicians to use the probably much better quality compressors to jangle-ize the performance?

[Eric Dahlberg]

Use your pedal compressor. It sounds different when you hit the front of your amp with one than if you use a compressor after on the recorded part. That's assuming you're using a tube amp, of course.