How To Record Properly Options

[Christophe]

Hi guys

Since I have many lessons to do, and I'm now able to play them, I want to record them.

I only have Zoom G2.1Nu which has a USB port. I have audio programs such as Reason, Cubase LE4 or Audacity (freeware).


The problem is that, I don't know absolutely nothing about settings, I already tried to record myself not later than a few minutes ago but it was amazingly horrible xD, there was too much 'noise' and I couldn't hear distinctly the notes I played.


In brief, I need your help ! If you have any questions, tell me !

Thanks !

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[MickeM]

if you share with us exactly what your recording setup was like and post the soundclip maybe we can help

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[JamesT]

That's the first impression I got when I first recorded myself. Still even now when I listen to my takes at first, I am sometimes shocked at how it sounds. Nowadays though, I am much more comfortable when I hear one of my unpolished takes for the first time. I know that several things play a role in getting a good sound...

I'll skip the obvious regarding that it must be a well executed take to begin with, but what matters there is less about the tone than it is about the timing and tightness (in sync with the beat) of the playing. Once you get a take that you feel was played reasonably well, you can then proceed with confidence in getting it to sound good in a mix. These days, I record as dry as possible (without effects) only with the amp tone I want, no reverb, no eq, no chorus, delay, etc. I usually practice my takes with my favorite presets but for recordiing, I find that in the mix, my preset effects can be sometimes wrong for the take and once it's recorded, you can't change it. If you record dry, you can add the effects afterwards and tweak to your hearts content. The dry tone is very dull sounding compared to the fully effected tone of the preset, but that's ok for getting the take onto disk. I think the key point here is that your recorded take will sound different to your ears than you might expect, so don't let it discourage you from working on it. Get used to how it sounds dry and you can add effects during mix down. Most notabley, reverb, from subtle to cavernous, it's your choice, but add it during mixdown. I use reverb (on electric guitar) to "put the take into the same room" as the rest of the mix (preceived) whether that be a basement or a stadium.

There is definately an art and a science to recording, but starting with a dry track, being comfortable with how it's going to sound dry, and then excercising patience find out what works for you during the mix is the most important step towards getting better tone on "tape", uh, er, "disk".

Check out some of my youtube takes below for examples. I'm really into getting a variety of tones these days but the basic approach to all of them is as above.

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[Christophe]

Here are samples of the sound I get :

 High.mp3 ( 192.29K ) Number of downloads: 126
 Low.mp3 ( 548.21K ) Number of downloads: 96



And settings :






I sure understand what you're saying James but the fact is if I want to play some pinched or natural harmonics, I can't get it with clean setups :/ But this is a good technique I'll certainly use, thanks

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[MickeM]

Great!

Actually I don't think there's nothing more to expect from a recording in regards of quality. I think that's pretty much digital distortion for you ASSUMING you're using the Zoom (since the pic doesn't show)

As far as sound goes I think you have way way way too much distortion dialed in. The sound gets very fizzy.
What you could try is to record the signal clean and add effects after - like distortion. (look for free VST plugins, I do understand that's the next chapter for you)
If that feels a bit too much to start with now just lower the gain in the zoom.

Btw, I never got a nice distortion out of a zoom anyway. Very digital.




P.S And your guitar sounds a bit out of tune

P.P.S seeing you've got a blackstar HT5 you could line that to your soundcard. Still, be careful using too much gain.

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[Christophe]

Thanks for a such precision, I like it

Yes it is a Zoom as I mentioned in the first post, I believe I have too much distortion too. I'll try to diminished distortion and play about with VST plugins.

Note that my guitar is 1/2 step tune down, that's why it may sounds out of a standard E tune

Thanks for advices, I'll take care of them !

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[Bogdan Radovic]

Thanks for a such precision, I like it

Yes it is a Zoom as I mentioned in the first post, I believe I have too much distortion too. I'll try to diminished distortion and play about with VST plugins.

Note that my guitar is 1/2 step tune down, that's why it may sounds out of a standard E tune

Thanks for advices, I'll take care of them !

Getting a good distortion tone out of digital multieffects is not easy.

Try experimenting with setting and remember - less is more.
Your sound in the clips was not that bad. Try lowering gain and recording some more.
I'm sure you'll be able to dial in the sound you like.

You should also try to make a custom patch and start with no effects etc - just amp/speaker emulation and flat setting (12 o clock on the amp). Go from there.

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[audiopaal]

You have a Blackstar?
In that case, dial in a good tone. Use a regular jack-cabel from the emulated output into your soundcard.
When you hear the sound from your monitors/headset, dial in the tone again.
Easy on the distortion if you're going to doubletrack guitars.
Roll the bass back a little from the sound (if you're going to add bass and drums).

Add the Abbey Road Brilliance effect (http://www.abbeyroadplugins.com/product_about.aspx?pid=41016),
and voila, you're ready to record some hits

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[Ivan Milenkovic]

I would recommend using Cubase LE as your DAW software. Try opening an audio track and "practice" a bit,until you get a recording that is nice.

As some said, less is more. Don't overdo with the gain settings, because once you get it recorded, it sound like it has even more gain, especially when you add other instruments. In the case of too much gain, your guitar recording will have tendency to sound undefined and will lost in the mix easier.

From your settings I can see that you are putting too much gain on that fuzz pedal, and too much reverb in the mix. Be carefull with the reverb, it can drown your base sound. Put very little reverb, with a short time, and put instead a little bit of delay, again don't overdo it.

If you like the sound of your blackstar preamp, you can used that as well. Connect your guitar into blackstar, and then go from line out on the blackstar to input on your zoom unit. This way you will get a cool sounding preamp distortion that sounds more natural. Just make sure you turn OFF preamp modeling on your zoom unit and leave only cabinet modeling running. You can add effects, but don't add dist/overdrive effects of any kind. Make your overdrive on blackstar.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask

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