Gonna play catch up. here's the recording days I've had so far, with a brief description of what got tracked that day & what the setup for the day was.
July 2, Tuesday - Other Guitarist Leads
Tele Baritone > DI > SuperDuper2in1 clone > ABY
A - Mesa Mark V head > 2x12 with EV12L > SM57
B - RRR > Timefactor > Rockerverb > PPC212 with V30 > AKG414 & sm57
July 6, Saturday - Me Guitar Leads/Rhythm
Tele Baritone/LP > DI > Timefactor > Modfactor > ABY
A - Englishman > RRR > Hiwatt DR201 > 2x12 with EV12L > SM7B & sm57
B - Silverrose/Elements > SpaceFactor > Mesa Mark V > BlackShadow 12" > M160
July 7, Sunday - Me Guitar Leads/Rhythm
Fender VI > DI > Timefactor > Modfactor > ABY
A - Monarch > RRR > Hiwatt DR201 > 2x12 with EV12L > SM7B & sm57
B - Silverrose/Elements/SFT/HyperFuzz/Moth > SpaceFactor > Mesa Mark V > BlackShadow 12" > M160
July 9, Tuesday - Other Guitarist Rhythm
Tele Baritone > DI > SuperDuper2in1 clone > ABY
A - Orange OTR120 > Ampeg 810 > RE20
B - Timefactor > RRR > Rockerverb > PPC212 with V30 > 441 & sm57
July 12, Friday - Me Synth
Nord Lead 3 > DI > shitfuck various pedals > DI > ABY
A - Hiwatt DR201 > Bergantino NV412 > AKG414
B - Mesa Mark V > 2x12 with EV12L > AKG414
July 13, Saturday - Bassist
Rick 4001 > Silverkiss > DI > ABY
A - SVT-VR with DBX 160 compressor in effects loop > Ampeg 810 > RE20 & sm57
B - MXR Blowtorch > Hiwatt DR201 > Bergantino NV412 > AG414
July 14, Sunday - Bassist
Rick 4001 > Silverkiss > DI > ABY
A - SVT-VR with DBX 160 compressor in effects loop > Ampeg 810 > RE20 & sm57
B - DeviEver SilverRose > Hiwatt DR201 > Bergantino NV412 > AG414
boring Itinerary every day seems to go, show up around 10, pick what amps & pedals are going to be used. find a good spot to put them in so that they're not blasting us too badly, and not blasting each other either. get them cranking and tweak them until we like how they sound. there's obviously the usual setup but I like to add a 2nd amp to that for some variety, find a tone that compliments, do some experimenting a bit. pick some mics - sm57, 414 & RE20 are my fav go to mics for guitar amps, the M160 ribbon is nice but only when the volume isn't too high (yet most of the time everything is spitting crazy volumes due to the nature of the tube amps I have and where they sound good. The mark V i can turn down the wattage, so the M160 sounds great on there). but I also like to mix it up with the mics so that I don't have the same mic on 50 guitar tracks...
I'm recording into Logic pro on my macbook with a
motu 896MKii sound card. i've got one studio monitor at the practice space for checking tones, but seeing as there's no control room, amps have to stop during playback to listen closely to the tone. I want to capture on the mics what I hear in the room. There's lots of fidgeting with mics at this point. I'm checking the phase on the mics and the amps, switching polarity where I need so things are as much in phase as possible. nudge a mic over 1/4" and it's phase relationship gets better, but the tone changes. I use a correlation meter in Logic to test this, solo two guitar tracks and pan them opposite to each other. for mic placement I try to get things as close to +1. if it's at -1 I can just flip the phase and it'll jump to the opposite side. the problem when is when it's in the middle, no phase flip can fix that (it's 90degrees out of phase at that point), so that requires a mic movement. this stuff is really important for mixing later on
I try to get everything at least at about 80% (right below the word "peak".) to the left of that is no good...
come 1-2 oclock we're getting hungry - time to eat. maybe we'll track one song with the setup. not a perfect performance but just a quick pre-warmup. eating and talking about the tone and setup is always good too, get everything sorted with confidence. the extra amp setup always bring excitement, keeps the sound fresh for the recording performance, what gets used in the mix is to be seen later anyways.
3:00 start tracking. I turn off the monitor at that point and I have a small headphone amp that I use for whoever is recording that day, I plug directly into the soundcards headphone out. I listen to exactly what they're listening while we track. the amps in the room are so loud there's no need for any of that in the mix. I'm kind of a jerk but I send them the shitty midi parts, just enough so they're following - but the focus is on following the click track. everyone is tracking separately, so we've all got to follow it. depending on the part I'm either a nazi about getting it tight or letting it sway knowing that other things are going to keep the mix together.
I double track everything. that way if there's something I miss during the takes I can grab it from somewhere. Some places the bpm is constant so I could steal a missed riff from the repeating verse without fucking everything up. double tracking everything is a good incentive to top your previous take... and once you've topped it to go back and give me a 2nd one as good as that one. I'm pretty quick with stopping the recording when mistakes happen and backing it up 4 bars and going again. with everything on the grid it's easy to make splices afterwards and merge the track as if it had been one perfect take. and if you do it quickly enough, as a musician you keep the groove & your pick attack and a whole lot of details that might get lost. I always zoom in for the note attack and splice a dozen sample crossover, I'm very zoomed in. it's also very helpful to be able to hotkey switch between snapping between bar, beat, division & sample. learn your hotkeys in logic! program your own! if you find yourself doing something more then 5 times in 10 mins, make a hotkey for it.
Ihe mix ends up so thick maybe none of that is even close to necessary.
in contrast I use a keyboard stand with a guitar case on top as my work station. the chair I sit on isn't even worth the 5$ it cost. that's how pro this recording is gonna be!
