Ive been planning several podcast episodes and I need to be able to play some examples for you with my electric guitar . This is where the problem starts.
If I just use my amp and pedals, which is what I would normally do, t he sound would bleed into my podcasting microphone. Maybe overload it. It would just sound pretty crappy.
So, I need some way to play my guitar where it goes directly into my recording software, not from a speaker in the room.
I know what “My sound” is. It took Lots of experimentation to get to this point.
I am very happy with my amp and pedals. I have the right combo of pedals amps and speaker to get the job done.
Surprisingly what works for me is actually not very fancy or expensive, but it is what works. I know that if I go out to a gig I can get my sound very easily
Ive struggled with the idea of direct guitar and digital processors. I have had a love/hate relationship with direct playing and recording since 1985.
My usual pattern is that I spend a lot of money and am not very satisfied. Back to my amps and pedals. Here I am again with a new reason to dive into this topic.
Honestly I have never been very successful getting what I thought was “my tone” from plugging straight in. I know it must be possible though because I have heard others sound absolutely fabulous with analog and digital direct tones.
I need something that works great for this podcast, because I have a lot planned and an amp is just not practical for recording a podcast.
So today I’m going to do a bit of an overview of recording direct guitar in general. Then talk about my opinions of the pros and cons and what to look for if you decide to go down this route. I’ll touch on what the best products for direct recording are today, and I have a shootout with a lot of the direct gear I have on hand.
Sometimes when you are dealing with a topic that is big, complicated, and tedious, its smart to get a bit of perspective. So, lets start from the beginning:
Simply, it’s what you do to get your guitar sound without using microphones on an amplifier. Here are some different reasons why you would need to record direct:
In my instance recording a podcast and keeping the guitar sound seperate from the vocal mic
Listen to the podcast for examples of the direct devices I have. I like to keep my BB Preamp pedal on all the time. I turn the volume on my guitar down for clean and up for crunch. I am also using the looper from my Line6 M9 pedal.
I can use the stock impulses or I can use other impulses, like my favorite: Celestion Impulse responses.
I need your opinion on my tone test today. Also, have you had any success with direct guitar? What do you use? Do you keep giving up like me or have you found something that gives you your sound?
Give me a comment below or tweet at me @playguitarpdcst
This week I play you two song ideas that I have had for a while. I think these ideas are worth bringing back to add to this album of songs.
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