Yesterday I bought a PODxt Pro to sit on top of my V-AMP Pro. Initially I was a little disappointed that my "lowly" Behringer unit sounded better for creamy distortion tones but hours of tinkering later and I am now content wth the way the POD sounds, both through a FRFR (full range, flat response) system as well as recorded direct via SPDIF into Sonar.

After my search for devastating distortions, I will turn to trying out the re-amping possibililities with this unit. Essentially, you can monitor using your favorite patch while sending the dry guitar signal to disk. This later can be processed via the PODxt Pro or any other amp sim program such as Guitar Rig. Hmm... wonder if Guitar Rig has a demo!

Anyway, as stated before, the opportunities for recording the electric guitar today are staggering.

Actually, the reason I came back here this morning is that I remembered something I read in a book of interviews with recording engineers and performers when browsing in a bookstore recently about how to capture the 'golden moment' .

In his interview, Keith Richards mentioned that the way they got the guitar sound in Street Fighting Man was ... okay, are you ready for this? ...

He said that he had tried everything, and nothing was working for him.

So he played an acoustic guitar into a little portable Phillips cassette recorder and recorded it. The guitar so overpowered the little tape recorder that on playback it sounded ...

... perfect!

So they mic'd the little Phillips tape recorder, and that was the rhythm track around which they built the song.

So the answer to the question, "How do you record a professional guitar sound?" is:

Try everything you can think of, and go with whatever works for that song.

--thndrsn

So the answer to the question, "How do you record a professional guitar sound?" is:

Try everything you can think of, and go with whatever works for that song.

--thndrsn

True and final wisdom lies in those words.

Just a quick story from a real world experience I had last night..

I finally got the chance to install my new NI Guitar Combos software. As impressed as I was with the demo clips, I wasn not nearly as impressed using it last night. But ppart of the problem was that it took me about an hour of struggling with the authorization process before I could finally get it going, then a few more minutes setting it up and then another half hour assigning the "knobs" to my control surface so I could tweak in realtime with faders. Then it was finally working, and I was just past the point of inspiration. I think at that point, I wouldn't have sounds great through any setup!! I am not a great guitarist. I consider myself above average, but certainly not great. I've heard great players who could sit down with an unplugged strat and make it sing, cry, sream, just come to life. I get moments of that kind of inspriation, but the greats can do it anytime and can squeeze it out of just about any guitar and setup. I am confident that I will be able to get some cool tones out of the new software. The tones are avaialble in there, I just have to pull it out of there!!

I'm a NOOB here but I get really great guitar from plugging straight in to my Audiophile 2496 card and using Amplitube 2. I can't imagine I'd get any better sound micing an amp.

Of course, you have to just tweak and tweak for a long time to get the sounds you want.

About chinese guitars. I refuse to buy them. I spent about 6 months last year trying to locate a US manufacturer that still makes quality basses in the US. Yeah it took that long because I wasnt content to buy one online (for the reasons outlined above by thndrsn).
I personally have lost a good job to outsourcing. I am not going to contribute to the trend if I can help it.
I also like to buy instruments that are made by people that get the cultural idiom of that axe. Check out some Canto-pop videos and tell me if you can even see a bass guitar.
And yeah about the wood. All the Korean and Chinese basses and guitars I have tried out had really ugly wood. I wouldnt expect them to be very good 3-5 years from now when that wood has aged more and the neck has twisted. Japanese stuff seesm to be the exception. Even Sadowsky has his cheaper stuff made in Japan. The Japanese seem to get the guitar idiom, and their woodworking skills are legendary.

ps thndrsn, you should have spelt it bassically.

There's a reason all the good American made equipment is sold to offshore musicians via ebay. Much of it going to the Asian players/collectors markets.

I'll bet another 12 Silverface Champs shipped out while this discussion was going on. Get yourself a real amp while you still can.

best regards,
mike

collectors suck


leave the instruments for the players, not the wall hangers

ORIGINAL: calaverasgrandes
I personally have lost a good job to outsourcing. I am not going to contribute to the trend if I can help it.

A very good reason to stay away from almost all asian-made music-gear ( I prefer US or EU-made cars too - if there was any genuinely US/EU-made computers I´d only use those ) - if the buyers run out of jobs, who will the "american/european companies" producing in Asia sell to ? The chinese ? I think most of them have other priorities before buying "our" instruments. There are other political issues too, but I don´t think this is the right forum for that kind of discussions.

My only excuse for buying an instrument made in Asia is being "financially disabled" + that my older guitars are too valuable to me, if I lose my `59 strat I´ll never find another that I like as much ( the rest of my guitars are only worth a fraction of the ´59 ) even though it´s well insured.

Playing live outdoors when the temperature is below 10 minusdegrees Celsius isn´t good for any instrument, but I can afford to get another cheapo.

About the early `80´s low-budget guitars - I remember having a british & a japanese Les Paul-copy ( Sakai? ) which sounded very different, the brit´was pretty good, the jap´ was almost sustainless - when I took it apart, I discovered that the body was made of ( what at least looked like ) layered masonite, yuk I guess there are explanations for everything.....

ORIGINAL: pgw

A very good reason to stay away from almost all asian-made music-gear...

If, by my buying a guitar, someone keeps their job, that's cool. I have no preference as to the country in which they're working.

if there was any genuinely US/EU-made computers I´d only use those

... and pay twice the price ? I couldn't justify the expense !

About the early `80´s low-budget guitars - ... a japanese Les Paul-copy ... the body was made of ... layered masonite

Twenty years ago that was the case but these days ? Seriously doubt it. And further to the subject of cheap modern guitars, ask anyone with even a smidgeon of experience what they thought of almost all guitars (including the big names) made back in the 60's & 70's. Today, we've never had it so good with guitar manufacturing quality.

Now, pass me