What are some best practices to record a guitar in direct?

Use a DI or an input jack on your soundcard that is designed for "Instruments" (basically a DI contained within the soundcard). I don't know if the FA-66 has this feature.

Here's a original song recording I just did direct w/ distortion:
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6838884

I know the EQ and stuff is bad, but I also think the quality is bad at the source.

yepp, press "that" button..
I think "Revalver" comes with Sonar.. you might want to put that on your fx-bin..

Ok, I did the Hi-Z recording. It sounds better I think. Perhaps I just need a real amp plugin or something (the revalver does not come with Sonar).

Anyway, how does it sound? Any way to make some immediately improvements? I always think distortion sounds whiney and high-pitched. I tried and adjust the EQ. Doesn't sound like an album or anything though, because I have no idea how to fix it. LOL.

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6838884

What exactly are we listening to there? Just the guitar into the FA? How are you getting the distortion that's already there? Nice playing.

ORIGINAL: Frank Haas

sounds pretty good,.. nice playing,.. but where is that saturation coming from ?
I am pretty sure that the revalver is coming with sonar, you might need to install it 1st,..
[Revalver MKII (Revalver MKII Cakewalk SE)] that's how it should show up..
or try to download it here:
http://www.alienconnections.com/downloads.htm
(maybe that's what I did, I don't remember)

That's what I did I think. I can't find it in my fx folders. I just got the standard stuff everyone else has.

I'll try this MKII version. If it's the same as the MKIII, then I don't have to pay for it ;)

It appears that link is just a demo of MKII as well. Same thing, but MKIII Has a lot more options.

I'm really liking these clean settings. It seems to do a lot of EQ and other effects processing within the plugin, getting a great clean sound. It sounds much better than the plain direct sound. Man, with these we don't even need a real amp anymore... and no need to get a mic to mic it.

I uploaded another with the peavey mkIII. It probably contains bleeps, but oh well. Just to see how it sounds.

I thought 'direct' meant un-amped and no microphone too. I apologize for not having my terminology straight. I hope I clarified it in my other post.

Eh, I think it sounds good. The reason it doesn't sound 'pro' yet I think is that you have not done much to it. It doesn't blend with the drums at all because the drums has verb, and this has no verb. Give it a run through Perfect Space and it should sound better. Also have a go at layering it and doubling up on your left and right channels and it should take that kinda empty sound away and transform it into something huge. I think the quality here is certainly something you could work with and get a very good sounding track from.

As for the classification of direct, my view on it is, anything that is not miced is essentially direct. I know it's not 'direct' as such, but I like to run in through my amp, then take a line out from the amp and that goes into my preamp. Gives it some real amp saturation but it's still not the same as a nicely miced amp. Miced also gives you more flexibility in getting a mic position that gives you the right tone to fit in with your music. I'll never just find the guitar sound I like then put it into the mix, I listen to the mix first, then make the guitar sound fit into it via distortion choice, eqing on the amp and mic position etc. Buuut this was not about mics.... I'm just rambling now.

Anyways, I never record my guitar directly in, always mic it. I do always record my bass via DI, however. This is because micing a bass is just too hard to get good bass frequencies unless you have an awesome room. One day I might try a mixture of DI and mic for the bass. Just high pass the mic and low pass the DI and combine.

ORIGINAL: mattplaysguitar

Eh, I think it sounds good. The reason it doesn't sound 'pro' yet I think is that you have not done much to it. It doesn't blend with the drums at all because the drums has verb, and this has no verb. Give it a run through Perfect Space and it should sound better. Also have a go at layering it and doubling up on your left and right channels and it should take that kinda empty sound away and transform it into something huge. I think the quality here is certainly something you could work with and get a very good sounding track from.

As for the classification of direct, my view on it is, anything that is not miced is essentially direct. I know it's not 'direct' as such, but I like to run in through my amp, then take a line out from the amp and that goes into my preamp. Gives it some real amp saturation but it's still not the same as a nicely miced amp. Miced also gives you more flexibility in getting a mic position that gives you the right tone to fit in with your music. I'll never just find the guitar sound I like then put it into the mix, I listen to the mix first, then make the guitar sound fit into it via distortion choice, eqing on the amp and mic position etc. Buuut this was not about mics.... I'm just rambling now.

Anyways, I never record my guitar directly in, always mic it. I do always record my bass via DI, however. This is because micing a bass is just too hard to get good bass frequencies unless you have an awesome room. One day I might try a mixture of DI and mic for the bass. Just high pass the mic and low pass the DI and combine.

Thanks. You're right, I've done not a thing to it yet. There is L/R channels though. I guess I haven't done a good job spacing them out. LOL.

I'll try the perfect space plugin. I've never used it before actually. I have no idea what it does. I'll research up on that too! Thanks ;)

Unfortunately, I can't record with a mic. For one, I have an SM81, which is not the best mic for recording an amp. It's an acoustic mic. Also, a long time ago, my Peavey Stereo Chorus 212 amp fell flat face down on the ground while driving because someone didn't secure the amp in place in the back of the van. All the knobs and sound were ruined at that point and I never bothered to get it fixed. The amp isn't great anyway, but there's no way I can do any serious recording with that thing. Recording direct is pretty much my only option at this point.

ORIGINAL: mattplaysguitar

Oh yeah, I can hear the doubling up now! It is pretty narrow, but it may sound over the top with more spread, worth a shot anyways to see how it sounds.

Perfect space is a reverb plug. But it's a special one called a convolution reverb. It works by taking actual reverb 'samples' known as 'impulses' and using a complex algorithm to 'mix them' with the dry audio. You can take impulses from anything, a real space, or with a $10,000 reverb hardware unit. It is supposed to have a very high accuracy of around 90%-95% or more I believe. I think I read that somewhere, but it's all subjective. I promise that once you start playing round with it, you will love it. So you may want more impulses to get some new reverb sounds as extra to the ones that come with SONAR. You can get more from here.

Sucks to hear about your amp What guitar are you using? It sounds much nicer than my Ibanez rg170. I like it.

Yeah, I've been playing with the perfect spaces thingy. It's got interesting sounds. It sounds so pronounced though. I have to learn to use it sparringly to get the effect I want. Thanks for the links to more wav files. That'll be really helpful!

As for the doubling up, it's 85% pan to the left and 85% to the right using 2 tracks. It sounded better than 100% pan each way. I have no one-channel delay or reverb or anything like that right now. To be honest, I *really* don't know what standard mixing practices are for electric guitars (or anything for that matter - I'm new to mixing in general). I don't even know where to start to get a good sound. lol. I just pick up things here and there from people suggest or what I read about.

As for my guitar, it's an Ibanez JS Custom, same as this one:


My body is more sparkly than this one though. I love this guitar. When I solo with it clean, it sounds exactly like Satch ;) Mine could use some new strings actually. I did a first lead on top of this song already and there's a part that is very-satch sounding. I won't upload just yet because I'm not happy with the entire lead.

I'll keep messing around with it. Hopefully I can get the sound I want. Thanks for your help!

Here's an article you might find interesting...

* Direct Electric Guitar Recording Techniques

from the DigiFreq Music Technology Articles Library

Scott

--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of the Cakewalk Sonar and Sony Sound Forge Power book series. Get Sonar 7 Power & Sound Forge 8 Power - Today! Go to: http://www.garrigus.com/ - http://www.musictechshop.com/ - http://www.cooltechshop.com/

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So far, the best sound I've found is a crunchbox going into a pod x3 with a clean sound with no reverb or delay. Once I get it in Sonar I add only eq and reverb

I'd like to go gtr-->LA-610-->crunchbox-->pod x3-->Firepod-->Sonar but the LA610 has XLR out and it looks like i'll need a DI box to handle the plumbing.

ORIGINAL: s_barber

I went direct with my G & L Guitar for my whole CD. You can listen to portions of it here:

http://cdbaby.com/cd/lamejohnnycreek

I have a Fender Champ that I love but with the background noise in my neighborhood made me decide that going direct was worth a try. I used some freeware amp plug-ins most all the time that worked pretty well. Although it pushed my Laptop to the limit when the track count went up. I can't remember the name of it right now. I also used Spinner (More freeware) to get some Leslie effects on some of the strumming parts. I also used VC-64 tube amp effects and that helped brighten up certain parts. I was happy with the results.

I remember now. It's freeamp2 I think was the amp sim I was using;.