Recording: Tracking Electric Guitar, Part 1 of... many parts.

Recording electric guitar, to me, is one of the most fun and yet one of the most frustrating parts of recording. As far as most frustrating still remains recording the drum set, but we'll talk about that more at another time. 


Today was the first day of electric guitar overdubs for "The Drifter," and I was amped... no pun intended. After allowing both guitar amplifier and compressor to warm up (about an hour), placing the microphone at just the spot where the sweetest sounds seemed to be oozing out the amplifier, the guitar was tuned, and I was ready for a take. One take turned into two, three, four, then five. Before I knew it I was on take fifteen and I still wasn't performing the way I wanted to. I wasn't locked with the drums and just wasn't strumming very precisely. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. 


So I come to lesson one in guitar recording:
If it's not happening, step away from the guitar.
My hand was fatiguing fast and I was losing inspiration. Some people work very well plugging away at something until it suddenly works. I on the other hand cannot work this way. I can try only up to a certain point until I become demoralized. So in this case I just put down the guitar, put the amp on standby, and went out for a 15 minute walk. 


Once I came back, my fretting hand was rested and I had a clear enough head to dive headlong back into the recording process. Before I knew it, in less than two hours I had laid down over ten tracks of rhythm and lead/riffing guitar parts. What a difference a positive attitude and a clear head can make. 


So now onto the real purpose of the blog... fun tricks and tips for the electric guitar that I've come across in my little experience as an engineer.


Stereo Width: Using Different Guitars

 

Two Fender classics: Stratocaster (left) and Jazzmaster (right)

Standard rock arrangement usually calls for multiple tracks of guitars, but any popular song arrangement can benefit from multiple guitar tracks. 

I often like to record at least two tracks (two separate takes) of electric guitar playing the same exact thing to give the impression of thickness and substance to a guitar sound. My favorite method is to employ two different guitars with slightly different sonic characters to add a lush, three-dimensional sound. I start with a mellow or dark sounding guitar, which I then balance by recording a bright or chimey guitar. In the case of "The Drifter," I employed first a Fender Jazzmaster (mellow sound) complemented by a Stratocaster (brighter sound). This works too if you contrast humbucker equipped guitars with single coil guitars, or simply by using guitars that are brighter in character (i.e. Danelectro) with guitars that are darker in character (i.e. Gretsch).When panned hard left and right in the mix, the stereo field remains wide despite the similarities in performance and chord changes simply because the sonic character of the two guitars are different. 

Of course, no two guitars are exactly the same, so you can play around with whatever two guitars you have lying around to get the same stereo-widening effect. 

Production begins on "Roadwaves." (New full length album)

A momentous occasion in the world of DIY music... not really saying anyone has been waiting, but production began today for the "Roadwaves" album, the band's debut full length. We did a short session (about 4 hours) of drums, played by Mike, our drummer, which needless to say, did a great job. :)


Just like many bands, instead of going into an established studio, we've decided to record this album ourselves. Armed with my recent BA degree in audio recording (from CSUDH's Digital Media Arts program), a few microphones, a compact mixer for gain and a touch of EQ during tracking, an audio interface and Macbook Pro, it is a modest setup at best, but more than enough to make a great sounding record. And we would rather do it this way, anyway. 


Many will make the argument that recording at home will yield "less that satisfactory" results due to the sonic anomalies that exist in rooms found in a normal house. True, most rooms can adverse recording environments, with environmental noises, standing waves, room modes, flutter echo, etc, but if one has an honest expectation of the space and capabilities of pro-sumer recording equipment, a great recording can still be made. Just do not expect the recording to sound like it was done at Blackbird Studios or Ocean Way. That's just not going to happen. 


If you are a home recordist reading this, I'm not raining on anyone's parade. I'm not bummed that it won't sound like it was done in a legendary studio. Half the charm of recording at home is the sounds you can get at home, and only at home. And once a room is figured out: where to place instruments/performers and microphones, you can maximize the space the best you can. Great recording are to be made! Anyway, this is quite a digression. I just want every home recordist to be stoked about what they are doing.


So basically what I wanted to say was this:


-My band is called The Short Term Melody, if you didn't know that already.
-We're recording a new album called "Roadwaves."
-We're recording it ourselves, at home.
-It's going to sound great.
-My ears are totally ringing right now. I will now sit in silence for the rest of the evening.