Sevens

7 Quick Tips for Recording Great Amp Sounds

by Rich Tozzoli

Whether you’re recording in your bedroom or at a high-end studio, these very simple recording techniques can have a huge, positive impact on the sound you lay down.

1. Put the mic directly on the cabinet.

To get an in-your-face sound, try taking a classic Shure SM57 and jamming it right on the cabinet, just to the right or left of the cone’s center. You’ll get a little proximity effect, which is basically some added bass response. Use it to your advantage and try to keep the EQ’ing to a minimum.

2. Axis, Bold as Tone

By taking that Shure SM57 (or similar) mic and just slightly changing its angle in relation to the speaker, you’re miking “off axis.” The tonal character will change a bit; and at this point, experimentation is key. If you can, have a friend move it a little at a time as you listen on headphones or in the control room. You’ll hear that magic spot. When you find it, take pictures so you remember the exact positioning.

3. Change your tubes.

If you’ve got a tube amp, don’t just assume the tubes are good. You’d probably change your strings in anticipation of a recording, right? Give your tubes the same consideration. Always have a second set on hand, and unless you’re a complete traditionalist, try a set from a different manufacturer than your originals. All tubes have slightly different attack and breakup, even amps of the same type and rating. Use your ears and don’t get lazy.

4. Use more than one mic.

Even if you’re recording for yourself, don’t settle on using just one mic. If you have to, borrow an extra mic from a friend. It doesn’t have to be a vintage Neumann. Place the second mic either on the cabinet next to the first one or farther back in the room. Any functioning mic is worth a try. You’ll have more tonal options when it comes time for mixdown.

5. Compress the room.

When that second mic mentioned above is used as a room mic, place it at least 3 feet away from the cabinet —preferably even farther back. Then, when listening back, try applying a massive amount of compression to that room mic. Make sure not to compress the attack out of the notes; just get enough so that it squashes the peaks down a bit. You can always use the compressor’s makeup gain to get more volume.

6. Use wide panning.

When it comes time to mix your two amp-mic tracks together, pan the two tracks oppositely; that is, pan one hard left and the other hard right. You’ll notice the soundstage in the Left/Right field opening up. Then experiment with putting a very short delay on the room mic, around 30-50 ms. A very nice stereo image can be had using just two simple mics and a delay.

7. Use more than one amp.

If you’ve got the gear for it, split your signal (either with a stereo FX pedal or DI) and run your guitar into two different amps. Like having two mics, the two separate amp sounds give you more options at mixdown. When recording heavily distorted parts, try to minimize the distortion on a second amp and increase a bit of treble, which helps the pick attack cut through a dense mix.

Rich Tozzoli is a Grammy-nominated engineer, mixer, producer and composer. He has worked with artists such as Ace Frehley, Al DiMeola and David Bowie, among many more, and is the author of Pro Tools Surround Sound Mixing. Rich is also a lifelong guitarist and composer. His work can be heard regularly on FoxNFL, HBO, and Discovery Channel, and he’s recently released the full-length Rhythm Up.

Comment on this post | Tags: 3 feet, amp, amps, anticipation, artist, axis, bass response, ears, engineering, eq, greatness, guitar, guitarist, guitarists, guitars, headphones, ing, jamming, little at a time, magic, magic spot, mixdown, neumann, one mic, producer, producers, producing, proximity effect, recording, rhythm, s center, shure sm57, traditionalist, tube amp, tubes

Musings

Comment on this post
May 2nd 2012

Larry Carlton’s Blues Guitar Motifs

This guitar lesson is likely responsible for more blues guitar epiphanies than any other single guitar lesson on the planet. Larry Carlton shares insight and an ear-opening performance example for improvising blues solos with blues motifs off his 335 Blues course.

A short musical phrase or idea, a motif, can establish the foundation for an entire solo. This lesson illustrates how a solo can grow by working with a motif and then playing it in other positions, using other harmonies, and adding slight nuances. A good motif is like the first brick in a solid foundation. Put it in place and keep stacking bricks until you’ve built something beautiful. Of course, you don’t have to stay glued to one motif for an entire solo.

Get tab for this guitar lesson on Mr 335 TV or TrueFire TV.

Comment on this post | Tags: blues, Blues Guitar, bricks, epiphanies, first brick, guitar, guitar lesson, guitars, harmonies, insight, Larry Carlton, motif, motifs, music, musical phrase, nuances, performance, performance example, playing, solid foundation, truefire

Musings

Comment on this post
May 1st 2012

Amps vs. Amp Simulators

by Rich Tozzoli

By now you’ve probably had a chance to run your guitar through one or more of the available amp simulators on the market. With hardware and software offerings ranging from the pioneering Line 6 POD to IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube and Digidesign’s Eleven, there are literally hundreds of amp models available at your fingertips. Want a ’64 Blackface Deluxe? A ’67 AC-30 Top Boost? How about a ’65 Marshall JTM-45 into a 4×12 cab loaded with Celestions? No problem, just dial it up.

Well, maybe there’s a little problem. You will need a fairly modern, fast computer and an interface to get the job done with software. Like their desktop and rackmounted counterparts, these simulators are all very well-suited to digital recording rigs, but if you want to use them as a preamp for a live setting you’ll still need to run them through speakers or a freestanding amp.

What happened to just plugging that ¼” cable into a good old tube combo and cranking it?

Amps and amp simulators. There is no answer to which one is intrinsically better, so the question becomes: What best suits your musical needs?

Live Rigs
If you’re mostly playing out live, a standard amp sure makes a lot of sense. However, more and more players are going the laptop route with interfaces such as the Stealth Pedal, which was built just for that purpose: live playing through a computer.

What are the benefits of a laptop for live performance? Well, aside from not having to lug your 50 lb. monster in and out of the club, there’s the flexibility of sound. You can call up a massive variety of amps, cabinets and effects to produce most any sound for any setting or style. That kind of Swiss Army-knife diversity would set you back a small ransom if you owned the actual hardware pieces. And who would want to hump all that gear on a gig?

On the other hand, there’s a great deal to be said for the simplicity and reliability of a conventional amp. It may not be a master of all trades, but it can be a master of tone. An amp (let’s say a combo amp) represents true, old-school plug and play, and troubleshooting is usually at a minimum.

Plus, you may not like the feel of playing through a computer. Even though many amp simulators sound amazing, they may not give you that sponginess or string attack you’re accustomed to as a player. That will in turn affect your performance — and we all realize what that leads to.

Another issue to take into consideration with a laptop rig is latency. Basically, latency is the delay (in milliseconds, or ms) that it takes for the sound to travel from your strings, through a computer’s processor, and out to a speaker. The current generation of speedy computers renders latency nearly a non-issue, but there are system/software combinations that are problematic. You’ll have to explore the options to learn which programs are most compatible with the computer you intend to use.

Recording
If you mostly work in the studio, an amp simulator can be an amazing tool to get sounds that are otherwise very difficult to come by. Recording a real amp comes with the complication of miking it properly (which includes owning the right mics), not to mention those volume levels when you’re working late at night. With a simulator you can put your headphones on and dial that JTM-45 up to blistering levels. Then, with just a few clicks of the mouse, instantly switch over to a small Fender Princeton.

Good as these simulators are, the sound of a real amp that’s miked up and dialed in just right is an incomparable thing of beauty. Sure, you have to get it set up just right, but that tone and feel can inspire great performances.

Some players throw in the towel on simulators, tired of working with digitized sounds that don’t meet their analog expectations. Some can’t understand why anyone would lose an hour of precious time moving around a room mic when great tone is a click away.

Suss for Yourself
In my work producing artists and on my own television tracks, I’ve found a combination of amps and amp simulators to be the best solution. No software can replace the sound of my ’62 Gibson Falcon, ’66 Magnatone M10, or ’91 MESA/Boogie Mark IV head. But none of those amps can provide me the amazing variety I get using my favorite amp simulator programs.

In deciding which approach works best for you, be sure to test both under optimal circumstances. That is, be sure to give each side a fair shake. Get the tubes changed in your amps and make sure they are biased properly so that when you plug in the sound will rock your world. But also poke around online and check out some cool amp simulators. Install the demos using sounds that grab you, and A/B them with your miked sounds. You just might change your thinking — and your tone — in the process.

Rich Tozzoli is an accomplished engineer, mixer, producer and composer. He has worked with artists such as Ace Frehley, Al DiMeola and David Bowie, among many more, and is the author of Surround Sound Mixing for ProTools. Rich is also a lifelong guitarist and composer. His work can be heard regularly on FoxNFL, HBO, and Discovery Channel.

Comment on this post | Tags: amp models, amplitube, amps, artist, blackface, computer, conventional amp, counterparts, digidesign, digital, engineering, fender, fingertips, gibson, gig, greatness, guitar, guitarist, guitarists, guitars, hump, ik multimedia, line 6 pod, live, live performance, marshall jtm 45, massive variety, master, mastering, music, performance, playing, preamp, producer, producers, producing, ransom, recording, rock, simulators, software offerings, swiss army knife, tube combo

Sevens

Comment on this post
April 30th 2012

7 Things They Didn’t Tell Me When I Started Guitar

by Rich Maloof

1. There will never be enough guitars. They never told me, when I bought my first really good guitar, that other guitars would move me in a completely different way. It’s like falling for a girl and expecting you’ll never want another. There will never be one perfect guitar or even one fantastic combination of guitar/amp/effects that will deliver all the tones you will want and need. Even the guys who achieve great tone keep chasing great tone. It’s a moving target.

2. Music can be your greatest pride…and your complete undoing. There’s nothing I’d rather do than play and compose, but making music has not come with peace of mind. It has pretty much eaten my life. For every proud moment there have been another fifty occasions where I’ve heard something incredible and thought, Oh my God, I am a total amateur. I should have gone to dental school. In my experience, music has been completely fulfilling and utterly heartbreaking.

3. Playing under the influence actually makes it harder. Friends don’t let friends drink and jam. Not to be prudish (I dare you to keep up with me after my set is finished), but if you’ve spent a lot of time honing your skills, there’s just no way you’re going to perform as well snockered as you would straight. If you have any doubt, record yourself the next time you have one of those chemically induced moments of brilliance at 2:00 a.m., and see how it sounds after coffee clears the cobwebs in the morning.

4. It costs you something. If you’re going to be good on your instrument, you’re going to pay for it. It costs a chunk of your life. You will lose time, sleep and sanity. Some people will think you’re refusing to grow up. You’ll miss out on better-paying jobs and financial stability. It hurts relationships.

I once had a conversation with Robert Fripp and complained that sometimes I just wanted a job that paid better — that I was sick of living on a shoestring budget, always scraping to pay my bills, barely able to afford toppings on my pizza. “Forget the job and forget the pizza,” he said. “If you want to reach your potential as a musician, none of that means anything.”

5. Music beats the hell out of sports. There’s a long span of years, usually throughout high school, during which popularity and achievement all seem to be hung on athleticism. But everyone who plays knows that music easily offers all the camaraderie, exhilaration and pride that describe the finest experiences in sports. Wait 10 or 15 years after high-school graduation and then check in with the killer musician and with the star athlete from back in the day: one guy is playing all the time and still exploring his passion, while the other guy is stuck watching a lot of ball on TV. Don’t forget, you can still play guitar when you’re old and fat.

6. You’ll have to come up with your own definition of success.
If you’re fixated on getting a lucrative gig, being signed to a record label (do they still have record labels?), or having 10,000 fans on your band’s Facebook page, you’re pretty much sunk. It’s not that those things are unachievable, but they don’t satisfy the urge that drives a player to play. They don’t scratch the itch. You’ll have to redefine, time and time again, what you want to accomplish as a musician and what are your markers for success. Completing and recording a composition, improvising a great solo, collaborating with musicians who challenge you to be your best…these are the kinds of moments that take us to the top. And they’re fleeting, so you’ll always have to be ready to start again from the bottom.

7. There’s a lot of crap to carry. Shoulda played the sax.

Comment on this post | Tags: affordability, amps, artist, chunk, cobwebs, dental school, experience music, facebook, financial stability, gig, greatness, guitar, guitar amp, guitars, jamming, live, moments of brilliance, moving target, music, musician, musicians, occasions, peace of mind, perfect girl, performance, playing, pride, producer, producers, producing, proud moment, recording, rich maloof, robert fripp, roz, sanity, scratch, target 2, truefire, undoing

Guitar Lessons

Comment on this post
April 22nd 2012

7 Ways To Improve Your Tone for Free

by Corey Palmer

There are many ways to improve your guitar’s tone without running out to buy new gear. Start with these simple suggestions and you’ll surprised how much your tone can be tweaked for the better. And if you want to take your tone to a whole different level, be sure to check out our Kings of Tone course.

1. Use your guitar’s volume and tone knobs.

A number of years ago I had a footswitch that died on me, so I could no longer switch between the amp’s clean and dirty channels. While the footswitch was out getting fixed, I had to rely on my guitar’s volume and tone pots to alternate between clean to dirty sounds. Dialing the volume knob back a bit, for example, was great for cleaning up the sound, and then I got a nice, natural gain when I pushed it back up. More than that, though, I was struck by all the different tones I could dial in just by playing around with my volume and tone knobs. Definitely something for everyone to experiment with. I’m a Strat guy and the knobs are nice and close to the strings, which makes it fairly easy to make changes while playing.

2. Tweak your pickups.

In case you don’t know already, you can adjust the height of your pickups to set them either closer or farther away from the strings. With some pickups you can even adjust each pole’s height under the string. Play around with your pickup’s height or the height of each pole and you may be surprised at how drastically it can change the tone of your guitar. Another thing you can try: If your guitar has humbuckers with the ability to do a coil split, flip the pickups so that the active split coil is in a different position. Just like treble pickups are near the bridge and bass pickups near the neck, small position changes to where the string is “picked up” can make a load of difference.

3. Listen to the rest of your band.

It never ceases to amaze me how a guitarist can sound absolutely great playing by himself, and then the same tone is terrible when he’s playing in a band setting. One reason for this is that the guitarist has not learned how to listen to the band he’s playing with. It is really important to dial your guitar tone in relation to the rest of your band. Find the tone that fits appropriately into the arrangement. Just like when an engineer tweaks the guitar’s EQ in a studio mix, you have to find an appropriate EQ pocket when playing live. A tone that sounds really harsh on its own might balance out perfectly within a band.

4. Experiment with your pedal configuration.

Changing the order of the pedals in your signal chain can influence your guitar tone. You may want to first eliminate any pedals that really add no value to your tone or aren’t used. Personally, I like to have as few pedals as possible, which for me means a tuner, a boost pedal for leads, and a wah — that’s it. Keep it simple. Keep in mind that each pedal will color the sound it receives from all the pedals that precede it in the chain. As a rule of thumb, distortion pedals usually come early in the line-up, and reverbs and delays at the end. You also may want to move your modulation effects (chorus, delay, etc) to your effects loop instead of routing them through the front of the amp.

5. Try different string gauges.

String gauges will impact the tone of your guitar, with higher-gauge strings (i.e., thicker strings) generally making for a warmer, richer sound. Note that changing string gauges may require a tweak to the truss rod since heavier strings increase tension on the neck. If there’s an impact on your intonation, your guitar might need adjustments made to the bridge or saddle. Some guitars may need a new nut cut to accommodate heavy strings.

6. Try different pick gauges.

This isn’t quite as apparent if you are playing with a lot of distortion, but for clean tones, using different pick thicknesses can give provide wide variations in tone (overdrive can mask the sound of the pick on the string, though you’ll feel it in your fingers). For example, when strumming with a clean tone, a light pick can add a trebly, percussive timbre to the attacks while a heavy pick makes for a tighter, more aggressive hit on the strings. Depending on your playing style the change in tone can be subtle, but those little differences are what separates a good guitar tone from a great one.

7. Learn your gear setup.

If you haven’t sat with your gear and really “learned” it, you aren’t getting the most out of it. Tweak all the knobs on your amp and see what kinds of different tones that you can pull out of it. On some amps you’ll notice a drastic change with small adjustments, while on others it’s very reasonable to dial a tone pot all the way up or down. Try different combinations of your amp settings and guitar settings (tone, volume knobs and pickup selector switch) and note how the two interact. It can be a tedious process but it helps you to learn how the gear works and how to derive the tones you want.

Like these tips? Check out our Kings of Tone course for even more.

Corey Palmer has been a guitarist for the past twenty years and has taught rock guitar lessons at his local music store in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Canada.