Stressing the Importance of the Source and Minimal Gear

[lolzgreg]

This is a sample that I A/B'd with an Underoath song "Breathing in a new Mentality" off of "Lost in the Sound of Seperation."

I think that this is a pretty good "cover" (despite the lack of vocals) to illustrate the fact that GOOD SOURCES are the key to a good sounding recording:

Interface: Presonus Inspire ($150)
Microphone and Cable: Shure SM 58 and no-name brand cable ($100)

Well, that's my recording chain.

Gear:

SX Jazz Bass Copy ($179)
Ibanez Joe Satriani with a Dimebucker ($350 used)
Revalver MK III (Bassman Setting for Bass)
Peavey 5150 II through 5150 Cab ($1799)<-- the guitar amp makes it or breaks it, folks.
Superior Drummer 2.0 for overheads-
Steven Slate Samples for drums.

No fancy mixing tricks here people, just a little parallel compression and transient filters for the drums.

Tell me what you think.

-Greg

[lolzgreg]

Anyone, comments?

-Greg

[brandondrury]

Sounds bad ass, dude!

Well done!!!

Brandon

[magno]

It scared the cat.
I liked it.

[lolzgreg]

Sounds bad ass, dude!

Well done!!!

Brandon

Thanks so much! Now I just need to get all my recordings to sound like this

I think I need to bus the guitars and use a stereo widener in conjunction with the original track to open them up more.

How could I improve this though?

[lolzgreg]

It scared the cat.
I liked it.

This is good news. XD

-Greg

[Sloop]

I agree, Quality in first!! Regardless of the style of music.

Here is a piece I recorded of our local symphony with a guest pianist.

3 microphones.. direct to CD..

[guitargod09]

I agree, Quality in first!! Regardless of the style of music.

Here is a piece I recorded of our local symphony with a guest pianist.

3 microphones.. direct to CD..

What mics were used and on what sources? wow this sounds amazing for 3 mics. great example! beautiful

[PeterPav]

I think it sounds exactly like the equipment you have, a 1700 dollar guitar amp is hardly saying "look what I did on the cheap". If I heard a female voice clear as a bell, and you said "this was done with a 60$ microphone, using a 14$ soundblaster card" I'd get your point.

[lolzgreg]

I think it sounds exactly like the equipment you have, a 1700 dollar guitar amp is hardly saying "look what I did on the cheap". If I heard a female voice clear as a bell, and you said "this was done with a 60$ microphone, using a 14$ soundblaster card" I'd get your point.

This "shoot-out" was about THE SOURCE. This was my point exactly: If you put a $100 mic through a $150 interface micing a $1700 halfstack, its going to sound great. If you mic a $100 amp through a $1700 microphone and a $1700 dollar interface its going to sound like a radioshack amp. I'm arguing that what REALLY matters is whats in front of the microphone, not what preamp, AD/DA converter or microphone (assuming it's not a total piece of shit) you're using. The entire recording signal chain used was under $300.


-Greg

[flmason]

Hey lolgreg,
Any chance you can do the same but use an amp sim like GR3 or the Line 6 stuff in place of the 5150?

[lolzgreg]

Hey lolgreg,
Any chance you can do the same but use an amp sim like GR3 or the Line 6 stuff in place of the 5150?

I've never had great results with GR3 or Line 6.

Revalver could likely nail it though. They have the 5150's circuit simulated.

-Greg

[nippecraft]

Now that's a mean guitar! I liked it very much! But I have a question, for those of us that cannot afford an $1800 amp, is this tone still achievable?

[lolzgreg]

Now that's a mean guitar! I liked it very much! But I have a question, for those of us that cannot afford an $1800 amp, is this tone still achievable?

I would think so. Consider the following:

Tone comes from several places...

1. THE PLAYER
2. The Guitar
3. The Amp (more important IMHO (I play a $120 dollar guitar with new pickups and it gets the job done, period).
4. The microphone
5 The preamp
6. The engineer
7. The AD/DA converters.

In my experience, the first 3 seem to matter most.

Not hyping myself up as a player, don't worry:

Experiment with different amp choices and simulators. If it sounds good, it is good.

-Greg

[flmason]

Wow, what guitar, and more importantly, which pickups.

I've always believed this as well. Back in the 80's I had a rig with several stomps and 2 tube amps. The difference in sound between my Flying-V, Fender Stratocaster and two cheapies, a Univox LP clone, and a Montoya Strat clone was negligible. FWIW a buddy's Gibson Sonex (the particle board Les Paul, LOL!) was within millimeters of sounding like my '71 V.

With the digital amp sims, I'm beginning to believe they are way more affected by the guitar and pickups than real amps.

On the other hand, I've heard some great tones come out of the old POD 2.3 and it's JCM800 simulation. But apparently the really modeled a hot rodded 800 there. And it's missing from their later sims. Most notably the plugins, so I've been frustrated somewhat by the digital amp sims for the most part. (At least for classic hard rock sounds. Seems guys everywhere can get the new drop tuned metal to work, and cleans are fairly good with all the sims. That 80's EVH to Hair Band sound escapes me though.)