>>could you explain exactly what you did - e.g. I plugged my Strat straight into my XXX sound card, recorded it into YYYYY and applied ZZZ settings with Amplitube.<<

Mind you,one's medicine is another man's poison. ;)

Glad that you achieved a good sound with it,Cosmo. Convincing,too :)

I myself use a GX 700 for that...but it's always a drag to get some good sounds out of these things(FX processors,or software emulated for that matter)....compared to the instant gratification you get from your own (favorite) amplifier. Lots of twiddling to get the sounds right instead of plugging in and blast away .

How does it do for clean sounds ?

Gerard

Heinz - agreed on the hassle of twiddling and twiddling to get a good sound. I too prefer to plug in and blast away.

Setup - I plugged my 1989 Kramer Focus 1000(stripped, rewired with Dimarzio Fred and a Fender Lace Sensor) into my Carvin SM162 board and went to straight from there into the pc via an m-audio delta 410 card.

The signal was weak, plain and dry. The Amplitube thing has many perset sounds, many many sounds. Most of them suck in my opinion! I think I started with the "Jimi and the Wind" sound and then changed the model to SS and cranked the gain. Makes no sense - you're right. I hate solid state....but this is NOT a real amp!!! If you want, I'll post the exact settings later....I'm at work now.

One note - that tone is great while playing. As soon as I would stop, it would howl like I was standing in front of 10 stacks maxed out.

I also put a Sonic Maximizer on that group....

We use a Jensen splitter while recording and record a clean signal before the guitar goes to the amp. The clean track we will sometimes run thru amplitube, or www.simulanalog.com plugs or UA preflex/nigel

one thing surprising about amplitube is that even adding it later on, the artificial harmonics the player meant to have but usually only heard whikle standing IN FRONT of a good amp came thru clear as day, AWESOME!

Yeah, I'll agree with you about the harmonics for sure. I did say it squealed terribly but neglected to mention the quality of that squeal! Good point! I kinda like the idea of a direct-to-tape dry signal to play with later.

How do you guys track heavy guitars? I play through a stereo rig from a Soldano preamp....through an analog stereo chorus unit to satellite 2x12s spaced about 10 feet apart. I love how big it feels in person. Recording however, I don't like micing each cabinet and running one signal left and one right, though in theory it shold reproduce if you mic it well. I prefer to go mono and dry as hell and then record the track twice. Then pan each take one hard left and one hard right. Sure it's a little tricky trying to mimick the exact line I played, but I think the results are really good.

So how do you guys do it? You had some great tones on that demo track, PiplelineAudio...care to share?!

thank you! Here is the way I normally default to, except that lately Ive been doing both this and taking a split at the transformer for possible Amplitube-ificaton later on

http://www.recordingproject.com/articles/article.php?article=25

Hey Pipe, I understand and like your theory, but personally prefer to find two distinctly diferent mic tones, and mess with them (and the phase ) after the fact. For monitoring, normaly pan each mic hard left and right. Normally use a 57 and an LDC (normally a groove tubes mic).
Anyways my question is about the splitter. How much does this 1) degrade
2)attenuate
the original guitar signal?
My normal chain is guitar>cable>amp. (various guitars, canard cable, fender deville or hot rod deluxe amp). Very, very occaissionally, marshals.
Steve S.

yeah, things are different today since we can move tracks around in time...

Any of the REALLY high impedance transformers from www.jensentransformers.com will be cool, and have a negligeable effect on the his of the guitar

More worried about the transients and clarity. Respect your opinion (I actually did read your interview and was impressed with the sessions you've been a part of (happens rarely)). Personally deal with more dynamics (jazz etc.), but would be interested in playing with a splitter, just looking for an honest assessment.
Steve S.

The JT-DB-E isnt much money and if it doesnt work, will make an AWESOME bass di box. You could try it and see how much it will dull your guitar signal. I wouldnt be able to tell how much transients get whacked out of there, but this is normally for more hi gain stuff, where it wouldnt matter so much, one time we did do some really surf-ey stuff with it and it still spanked and sparkled at the end. Hard to tell

wow...that's intense Pipeline. The article that is. The only thing you didn't mention(or I missed) was the size of the room the amp is in. It sounds to me like when you say to "move your head around the room until you find the sound you like, and stick a 57 there" the mic could end up miles away from the speaker. Or several feet. I've never attempted to mic a cabinet at any more than 8-10 inches. Hmmm...

So since I'm just a chump recording at home in a spare bedroom turned studio, I'm wondering what a pro might do in that situation. How would you mic my guitar if you were me with my equipment and space?
Room: 10'x14' and 8 feet tall; Mics on hand - (2) 58s and 1 Behringer 3035; Soldano SP-77, Marshall 9005, Carvin Legacy 2x12 cab with Celestion Vintage 30s.

It seems to me that for an advanced method such as you speak of, I might need better mics or a tighter room? I guess I'll have to try it. I can't help thinking it'll sound like it's in a submarine!

Somewhere in the original article, maybe it got edited out, I mentioned that I assumed we were talking about close micing. You more than certainly have the gear to do it. The 58's have a kind of *present* sound to them that will be a little weird compared to a 57, but they will still work. The working distance for this technique seems best around 1/4" to 2" away from the speakers for me. Sometimes I have to take the grills off of cabs to make it work best.

Chances are that owning a soldano, you will have the attention to detail needed to pull this off, and vintage 30's are the PERFECT speaker for it

I often back a large diaphram condenser off about 3 to 4 feet to collect better room tone, and have a 57 right on the grill. But I phase align after the fact.
Of course it all depends on the song, the gear, the room, the player......
Steve S.