7 tips to
Record Electric Guitars & Bass
in Home Studios
Recording Electric Guitars at home studios using our Audio Interface is always a challenge. Many folks tell me, “I don’t
get that Rock tone or Great Sounding Guitar at my Home Studio” This is a very common problem everyone faces and
particularly the starters.
Here are 7 Easy Steps to get great Sound from your
Electric Guitar
1. Use a Proper DI to record your Electric Guitar directly
into your interface. Most of your interface has built-in
DI. Set the switch to INST or DI and ensure your gain
levels are not crossing -10 dBFS in your DAW. This will
have enough Headroom for your post processing during
Mixing.
2. To record using the Guitar Amp, use a Dynamic
Microphone like the SM57 which is one the best for
Electric Guitar. Place the mic slightly at the corner of
the Speaker cone about 2.5 inches from the Cabinet. This
is not a written rule. Try to move the mic around this
area and stop at the Sweet spot. You will have a great
tone of the Amp sound in your DAW! The size of the
cabinet does not Matter!
3. To record a Bass Guitar at home, always try to record
directly using the DI or into the Interface itself. This will
avoid low Frequency when your room is not Treated
properly.
4. EQ on Electric Guitar - Always add an HPF ( High Pass
Filter) on your insert channel in your DAW and roll off
to 110 Hz as you don’t need that LOW rumble boomy
Sound in your mix. This will give you some space in
your whole mix for the Kick Drum and Bass Guitar to
set well in your Mix. Trust me, HPF is like a Magic wand
to your mix.
5. EQ on Bass Guitar - I would suggest you set your HPF
around 65Hz or 70Hz. This is just to remove some
unwanted LOW rumble noise in your Bass Guitar.
6. Compression on Electric and Bass Guitar - I usually set
my compressor around 3:1 and adjust the Threshold
not more than -15dB This threshold depends on how
loud or soft I want my mix. Have a Gentle -3dB of Gain
Reduction on your compressor and see how much
Makeup gain has to be increased in your mix.
7. If you have a treated room, try to record your Electric
or bass using two tracks. One with the Mic and other
using DI. Now add a Saturation Plugin in your DAW and
Guitar AMP simulator like the SANS AMP on the DI
Track. You can blend both the Track to get a good guitar
sound in your Song!
Author: L. Baba Prasad. He is the Owner and Chief Sound/Mix & Mastering Engineer at Digi Sound Studio.
He also teaches Sound Engineering & Music Production courses.
For more details visit: www.digisoundstudio.com / www.digisoundacademy.com
44
The
Score Magazine
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