GUITAR
Paul Kinman is a session guitarist from Vancouver, BC. He has toured extensively and spends a lot of time doing studio work.
He is endorsed by Prestige Guitars and Mission Engineering. www.paulkinmanguitar.com.
By Paul Kinman
A Solid Recording Set-up
for Session Guitarists
I
t used to be that, as a session guitar player, you would need lots
of different amps, cabs, and pedals to assimilate into various
playing styles and scenarios. Sometimes, you might have even
needed to hire help to deliver said gear to your session!
These days, though, as nice as it might be to have those tools
at your disposal, they’re no longer vital to your success. A lot of
my current studio work as a session musician comes from working over
the internet, often through a company called SoundBetter, playing on
demos, soundtrack songs, and songs for artists both big and small.
In my experience, thanks to the increasing power of computers and
digital modeling, here’s what you need to get started with sessions:
1. A Powerful Laptop
Many people may wonder why I said laptop instead of desktop. The
main reason is portability, and the fact that many musicians, even if
they primarily do studio work, are running around a lot, touring on the
side, or attending out-of-town events. And realistically, with laptops
like the 2019 MacBook Pro and many compelling Windows options,
such as the Dell XPS series, both of which can pack in 32 GB of RAM
and eight-core i7 or i9 processors, there’s a very low chance that these
laptops wouldn’t be able to handle your session workload with ease.
Now, if you were tracking or mixing film scores, that would be a
different story, but when doing sessions online, clients often send
you a single WAV file of their session. Then, you just record your tracks
and send them stems afterwards, so your session would rarely eclipse
20 tracks; maybe 30 on a large song?
So, although a powerful processor and a good amount of RAM
is still a necessity, you can be more than comfortable with even a
quad-core i7 and 16 GB of RAM, though more recent offerings will
definitely futureproof your machine a bit.
2. Quality Amp Simulator Software
Let me start this section by admitting that I have always been
an absolute tube snob. I own multiple tube amps and different
cabinets, and have always had a distaste for amp simulators;
however, over the last few years, hardware simulators (amp
simulators that are physical units) like the Kemper, Helix, and
Axe-FX, have become amazing, and software-only simulators
have followed pretty closely behind, making it easy to get quality
sounds even out of plugin-based software amp simulators!
At the end of the day, it is all about what suits your workflow,
and what you find that you can get a good sound out of. If that’s an
amp, then go for it, but I have found that software is very conducive
to online sessions, and makes it easy to change tones later on if the
client requests a different sound, and to get clients DI tracks without
running a splitter to a separate input in your interface.
Some of my favourite software amp simulators are the Line 6 Helix
Native, Schuffam S-Gear, all the Universal Audio stuff (especially the
Friedman and Fender plug-ins), and even the stock Logic Pro X amp
simulator plug-ins are good if dialed in correctly.
3. A Great Audio Interface
This is a really important one. If you cheap out at this stage, then
everything else is compromised. The good news is that there are plenty
of high-quality, portable options that won’t break the bank.
My fi rst recommendation is always the Universal Audio Apollo Twin;
however, I recognize that it isn’t exactly cheap, and there are a lot of
other aff ordable interfaces that musicians I know use with great results.
The main things are to look for high-quality preamps and
converters. The amount of inputs isn’t as important, as there aren’t
very many situations as a session guitar player where you will need
more than two or three inputs.
4. Quality Guitars
Although you can get by without using amps, if you are doing online
sessions, a great guitar will always be a necessity. The main thing to look for
here, as would be the case with normal sessions, is a guitar that intonates
and stays in tune really well, is versatile, and has a good natural tone.
I have a Prestige Guitars Heritage Premier Spalt Maple that fi ts that
bill for me, though there are tons of great options out there. At the end
of the day, everyone works diff erently, and what works for me might not
work for you; however, getting into remote session work is a great idea for
any musician. The allure of getting to play on a bunch of songs just using
an interface, my MacBook Pro, and my guitar in a studio or in my apart-
ment never really fades, and this type of work allows musicians from all
around the world to make some money and leave their mark on the music
landscape, even if they aren’t in a major market like New York, Nashville,
London, or L.A.
This is the democratization of the recording industry, and the power
is yours.
CANADIAN MUSICIAN 25