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Recording Tips / Gibson Skylark 1963


oneflightup

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Hey everyone,

 

I've got a 1963 Gibson Skylark amp, and I love it. it is just the most amazing little amp I've ever heard. What a tone!

 

Anyway, I just penned an article on my studio website about recording electric guitar. I thought people here might find it useful. There are many articles on the web on this topic, many more detailed than my article, but what I'm aiming for is a straight-forward guide for musicians to record themselves and get a great result.

 

5 Tips for Amazing Electric Guitar Recordings

 

In the article you'll find reference to my beloved little '63 Gibson Skylark, and a few photos too :)

 

Enjoy. Comments / suggestions welcome.

 

Nick

 

---

One Flight Up Recording Studios Sydney

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hey everyone,

 

I've got a 1963 Gibson Skylark amp, and I love it. it is just the most amazing little amp I've ever heard. What a tone!

 

Anyway, I just penned an article on my studio website about recording electric guitar. I thought people here might find it useful. There are many articles on the web on this topic, many more detailed than my article, but what I'm aiming for is a straight-forward guide for musicians to record themselves and get a great result.

 

5 Tips for Amazing Electric Guitar Recordings

 

In the article you'll find reference to my beloved little '63 Gibson Skylark, and a few photos too :)

 

Enjoy. Comments / suggestions welcome.

 

Nick

 

---

One Flight Up Recording Studios Sydney

 

....perhaps I should have posted this in the recording forum.... ;)

 

Nick

----

One Flight Up Recording Studios Sydney

 

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I'm an amateur home multitracker. So you mic the amp. How is that different/better than taking the headphones out from the amp directly into the audio interface?

 

it's way different actually. The speaker is going to physically respond to what the guitar is playing.

 

The headphone out, into an interface looses all that and you're now depending on speaker and cab emulation, not that it's a bad thing it's just not the same.

 

you also are missing the dynamics created in the room (natural resonance) of the amps sound in the recording environment. you can also try various micing techniques, up close, or push the mic back, or use two mics (close and far away), or one in front , another in the back of the amp if it's a combo.

 

Also when micing an amp, mic placement is always off center of the cone of course, most of time, you do need to find the sweet spot, that's why you will see masking tape onthe grill clothes marking the spot that was determined to sound the best when close micing.

 

I have even used a multi mic setup, one close, one about 15 feet away and a mic set away from the amp entirely, angled up against the glass window in an isolation both to capture the deflections off the glass. then we just would blend all the tracks together in the final mix down, one guitar times 3 tracks,, it sounded huge..

 

I'd much rather mic that go direct except if for the initial rhythm tracks, you have to..

 

then I'll redo the track(s) on my own time, micing the amp(s)

 

the over all results IME are much more organic.

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it's way different actually. The speaker is going to physically respond to what the guitar is playing.... now depending on speaker and cab emulation

 

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that. I was thinking it's the same signal, but you're right, it's going to sound different coming out of your amp than, say, computer speakers on playback, or in a car's stereo system. Learn something every day....

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The headphone out, into an interface... you're now depending on speaker and cab emulation, not that it's a bad thing it's just not the same.

 

I'm running through a Vox AD30VT, which models 11 different amps. Is that different than speaker/cab emulation?

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I had one of those, I can't remember if there is any cab/speaker emulation on this, I Think the cap/speaker emulation maybe part of the preset... As I recall that combo has a closed back cab with a 10" speaker, so I think it's just reproducing what ever the amp is set to and you can't alter it like you can on like a Fender Mustang for example.

 

either way, you can just mic it as you would any combo or speaker. You might like the results doing that verses a a direct/interface approach. You can get good results with either, but with micing, you can get a lot of different results with something as simple as an SM57 and just moving the mic placement around. it's definitely something that takes a bit of patience and trial and error to find the "right" position for each amp/speaker. but it's time well spent, as it does make a big difference.

 

if you have the tracks to spare, what would really be good is to use both direct and mic'd. the guitar tracks will get a nice round fullness to them that you may find an excellent technique for recording your "Stuff"...

 

the last recording project we did we had a lot of tracks to play with, I went straight into the board, and used pro-tools plugins for the raw tracks, then we used a Radial Re-amp box, sent the dry signal off the board back to my tube amps. then blended all the tracks, the results were the guitar tracks sounded nice and full.

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Thanks for the update!

 

...if you have the tracks to spare, what would really be good is to use both direct and mic'd. the guitar tracks will get a nice round fullness to them that you may find an excellent technique for recording your "Stuff"...

 

That brings up a very interesting point. But I don't think I could do it exactly as you say. If I take the line out from the amp (to the interface), I expect it's going to cut the speaker out, so I can't mic it. I can at least record a track each way and see which way I like best.

 

I guess I could record with my free-standing DR05 at the same time, then import that (stereo) wav file and see if I can sync them up. [unsure]

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Thanks for the update!

 

 

 

That brings up a very interesting point. But I don't think I could do it exactly as you say. If I take the line out from the amp (to the interface), I expect it's going to cut the speaker out, so I can't mic it. I can at least record a track each way and see which way I like best.

 

I guess I could record with my free-standing DR05 at the same time, then import that (stereo) wav file and see if I can sync them up. [unsure]

 

yes, I guess that's a limitation using the direct out options if it kills the speaker too.

 

The Vox AD30VT is a pretty nice little amp, but I guess there's some limitations in this regard.

 

Some of the newer modelers have xlr outs, and he ability to use USB to an interface.

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