Recording guitar
Now you’ve recorded your singing, time for the next most important instrument…
01
Before you record a note, there are several things to check when recording guitars. For acoustics, worn out strings might give you a deader sound while strings that have not been worn in might sound too bright, so take these into consideration. With electrics, a far bigger problem can be crackle and noise, so check connections and cabling to avoid any noisereducing pain later. 02
Are you aiming for a particular kind of guitar sound? Is your guitarist known for one? Do they have an amp that they always use? If so your recording options are greatly reduced… which is a good thing! Your DAW will have almost too many options here so having a fixed sound in mind will save you time as you don’t have to wade through all of those distortion plugins. But if you are in any doubt… 03
Record it dry. As with vocals, this can be the best option with recording guitars, because you can easily layer effects onto your recording later. DAWs like Logic, with its Pedalboard, are festooned with guitar effect options, so if you are in any doubt over what you are aiming for, stop wasting valuable recording time and get a dry take. 04
Got just one microphone? Well you can get a pretty decent result for both electric and acoustic guitars using it, so don’t worry. With an acoustic guitar you’ll be looking at a condenser mic to get all of its intricate detail, whereas with an electric guitar you should consider a more robust dynamic mic to capture the bigger, rough and tumble sound. On an acoustic you should point the mic at the 12th fret, around six inches away to start with. Move it closer to the guitar sound hole to get more guitar body and closer to the actual guitar to get a fuller sound. One mic with an electric is just as easy: point it at the centre of the amp for a brighter tone and towards the outside for a more rounded one. 06
As they say, though, two mics are always better than one, so if you can afford it, double up. With an acoustic, this affords you the option of having one mic placed at the soundhole and one towards the end of the fret to mix a nice balance between mellow and bright. The mic pointing at the soundhole will also give you a more detailed capture of any picking sounds and body noise – not always a bad thing and particularly useful for more realism in your acoustic recordings. 07
With an electric guitar setup you can use two mics to get you the classic combo of amp and room noise. The dynamic mic stays in the same place on the amp, but add a condenser – placed a few feet away and on an arm – to pick up some of the room noise created by the amp playing in a space. This adds a lot more atmosphere to your recording, but because you are recording both room and amp, you can then blend them to taste later in your DAW. 08
We detail in later pages how two mono recording takes can be combined for a bigger sound, but this idea can be explored further with guitars by introducing a slight delay between takes – around 30-60ms, but do experiment with these figures – to thicken up the overall sound. 09
This isn’t the only tip semi-nicked from vocals but recording everything is a great idea when it comes to guitarists (as well as vocalists). That comp-in feature in your DAW is an especially brilliant one for gluing perfect acoustic notes together so keep it all flowing and record it all – practice sessions too. 10
Like vocalists, guitarists have egos, so the same rules – ie making sure you have a relaxing recording environment, and being constructive and encouraging – apply. They can play guitar, you can use a DAW (both equally important). Respect one another’s space and… marvel at the results!