Tips and Tricks for Recording Electric Guitar and Bass
Once you’ve decided which way you would like to record electric guitar or bass, there are ways to get the most out of each type of recording, whether it’s direct or a miked amplified speaker.
Compression is commonly used on both guitar and bass when recording to get the best SNR and sustain out of each instrument without clipping the signal. Just like with recording vocals, compression is best used before the signal reaches the amplifier or computer. In this case, a hardware compressor/limiter is definitely the way to go. You can also use a compression plug-in to record guitar or bass direct. For the best results when using this type of compression, apply the plug-in to the input signal as I demonstrated for recording a vocal in Chapter 5.
Compression may be applied sparingly or liberally depending on the style of music. It is often tricky to find the right setting because the effect itself can be a little hard for some to hear. Here are a few settings for electric guitar you can experiment with:
If you’re looking for a chunky rock rhythm guitar sound, try setting your threshold around −15 dB, the ratio around 5:1, the attack around 10 ms, and the release around 100 ms.
If you need some chimey, sustained guitar chords, try setting the threshold to around −18 dB, the ratio to around 10:1, the attack to around 150 ms, and the release to 950 ms.
If you’re looking for some Nashville chicken pickin’, try setting the threshold to around −30 dB, the ratio to 6:1, the attack to 1 ms, and the release to 100 ms.
For a clean jazz or R&B sound, try adjusting the threshold to around −28 dB, the ratio to 10:1, the attack to 50 ms, and the release to 40 ms.
If you’re looking for the perfect funk tone, try adjusting the threshold to −22 dB, the ratio to 7:1, the attack to 60 ms, and the release to 80 ms.
A lot of variables are going to affect how these settings perform (the type of guitar, the actual player, the compressor type, etc.), but this should at least get you started. Use your ear to help you the rest of the way. The same thing goes for bass guitar. When using compression on both electric guitar and bass, keep in mind that compression reduces dynamics and should be used only to enhance the sound, not so much to color the sound. If you’re having trouble finding the proper setting, choose a low ratio (4:1 or lower) and make sure that your signal peaks at or below 0 dB by adjusting the limiter to 0 dB or lower. Try to train your ear to hear the slight variations in the settings of the compressor. If you need more help with compression, try Googling “compressor limiter.”
One of the downfalls of recording electric guitar or bass in a studio environment is that players are probably used to standing directly in front of their amplified speaker cabinet. That can help them hear themselves better, and it can also improve their performance by changing the way they feel when they play at loud volumes. Unfortunately, the only way for them to achieve that feeling during recording is to play in the same room as the amp, which could mean deafness from the sheer volume of the amp. Feedback can get out of control. One substitute would be to have the guitar or bass player play in the control room while listening on the control room monitors, rather than headphones. By using the control room monitors, a performer can get a little more from the feel of the guitar and can also use the speakers to achieve effects similar to the feedback and harmonics they know from working in front of an amplified speaker. This technique should work whether you are using a guitar amplifier or recording direct into Cubase.
It’s quite common for electric bass to be recorded direct in the studio environment. It’s also somewhat common to record the direct signal along with a signal from the amplified speaker cabinet. A lot of times, these two signals can work well together when combined later in a mix. To do this, a direct box (see Figure 6.12) is often used for the bass guitar, and the signal is split from the direct box to the bass amp and to an input on your computer’s sound card. The balanced signal usually runs into a preamp before entering the computer, as shown in Figure 6.13. This configuration is much like recording an acoustic guitar using a pickup and a microphone. Because it can handle loud signals and works well with bass frequencies, a popular microphone to use when miking a bass amplifier is the Sennheiser MD421 II (see Figure 6.14). This same microphone is often used when recording acoustic kick drums as well.
Figure 6.12. The Whirlwind Director direct box.
Figure 6.13. A possible basic configuration for splitting a bass signal with a direct box and recording from two sources.
Figure 6.14. The Sennheiser MD421 II dynamic cardioid microphone.
When using amp-modeling software such as Guitar Rig, there are two ways to process the signal. One way is to apply the effect to the input signal, similar to the way I demonstrated for applying compression to vocals in Chapter 5. The other is to apply the effect to the track signal, similar to my approach to a reverb effect with vocals in Chapter 5. By applying the effect to the track, you will be recording a dry signal from the guitar and monitoring through the distortion. This method is the opposite of the way an amplified speaker is recorded, but it has several advantages. The biggest is that you can completely modify your “amplified sound” anytime after recording (just as you could change your reverb setting after recording the vocal part in Chapter 5). This gives you the freedom to later make changes you would not be able to make if the amplified sound were recorded on the track along with the guitar part itself. Using this technique, you can actually double one guitar part with multiple instances of the effect, as if several different guitar sounds were played at one time. To do this, duplicate the track and change the guitar sound for the new track while keeping both tracks active in the mix.
When you’re happy with the sound, bounce the dry guitar track along with the amplified sound so that the sound becomes its own fully processed guitar track. When you’re done, the original dry track can be muted and saved (in case you decide to change the sound again later). There are several benefits to bouncing down the guitar effects to a single processed track. It saves CPU power for your PC, and it gives you a more finished version of what you are hearing. Sometimes software plug-ins tend to create errors when your system is not performing at its best. These errors include dropouts and digital noise. When you receive a dropout during processing, you may actually hear the dry guitar sound in the mix of the processed sound. Most of the time, this is not the sound you’ll want to hear in the final mix. You can either try bouncing again or use some digital editing to fix the glitch before it makes it into your final mix. For more information on bouncing (or exporting audio), check out Chapter 9, “Mixing It Down.” For information on digital editing see Chapter 8.
Stomp boxes (guitar and bass foot pedals) are fun to play with and great at achieving a live sound in the studio, but Cubase’s digital effects and those that come with many of the guitar-effect plug-ins I’ve mentioned are far superior. There are several reasons for this. First and foremost, the digital technology of the software is usually far more advanced than that of a foot pedal, and that translates to higher-quality processing. Although pedals have characteristics that give them a certain charm, plug-in effects can also be automated so that your delays fall on the appropriate beats, the distortion increases or decreases, the chorus or flange speeds up or slows down, and the sound effects turn on or off without your having to jump up and down during a performance. For more information on automating effects in Cubase, refer to Chapter 9.
Note
Although it is possible to automate effects so that they change during a performance, I find that automating is easier after the guitar has been recorded. If you need to use several different types of effects during different parts of the song, it’s easier to overdub a new guitar track with a different setup for each part than to worry about changing effects in the middle of a track.
If you have to run a long cable from the guitar (in the control room) and a guitar amp (maybe in a closet or another isolated room), it’s much better to run a balanced cable than a regular, unbalanced guitar cable. Unbalanced cables tend to pick up more noise and lose their signal over great lengths. Unless the guitar amp has a balanced input, you’ll need to convert the guitar’s unbalanced signal to a balanced signal and then revert the balanced signal to an unbalanced signal once the cable has reached the amp’s unbalanced line input. There are several ways to do this. A company by the name of Radial has made this simple by introducing SGI (Studio Guitar Interface) (see Figure 6.15). The SGI consists of input and output boxes you connect with a regular XLR (balanced mic) cable. Whatever you do, don’t try to use a wireless system (such as a Nady, Samson, or Shure) to run the guitar into an amp in the studio. There are way too many complications with wireless systems, and you’ll be asking for headaches.
Figure 6.15. The Radial SGI setup.
It’s important to check the guitar or bass tuning periodically while you record. Often, guitars and basses get out of tune while they’re being played, and you may not be aware of it until you go to mix. Correcting the pitch of single bass notes in Cubase is not very difficult when using some pitch-correction tools or plug-ins, but correcting the pitch of a chord (multiple strings at once) can be next to impossible.
In Chapter 3, “Before You Record...,” I mentioned how to get rid of hums, buzzes, and other noises. Guitars and basses are notorious for hums and buzzes. Make sure you kill any dimmer switches, fluorescent lights, and, most important, CRT monitors and TVs while you’re recording. If you own a CRT monitor for your computer rig and you plan on recording a lot of guitar and bass, you should seriously consider buying an LCD (flat panel) monitor instead. You’ll save yourself a lot of grief.
On a final note, a lot of guitar amps and bass amps have what is called a direct out, usually on the back of the amp. While it is possible to run a line directly from these outputs into the computer, it’s not usually recommended. Although it may work with a lot of bass rigs, most of the time the sound quality is far below the quality of recording a guitar through a miked, amplified speaker or direct using plug-ins. The only possible exception to this rule is for amps with amp-modeling effects, such as those by Line 6, where using a direct out may not make any difference to the sound due to the nature of the amp-modeling technology. Bass players who are really happy with the sound of their bass head (amplifier) may wish to go directly out of the head for recording. Sometimes the built-in compression and EQ in a bass head is the ideal solution. If you have a choice of using a balanced XLR direct out and an unbalanced direct out line, always opt for the balanced output for a better recording.