Amp Heads

off.the.walls

Is Recording straight from amp heads a good way for tracking and guitars and basses rather than going through a cab or speaker?

whats everyones opinions on this?

godfrey

It's not generally done for a few reasons. The sound a player choses and gets is the cumulative effect of the player, pedals if any, amp and the cab in a room or space. Ideally, the engineer and producer want to capture this sound accurately, or at least get a good recording of what the player wants and/or hears.

Now, having said that, it is common to also record the signal directly from the guitar (on a seperate track), in order to 're amp' for variety or other reasons, in the mixing process. This can be done with plugins (spare me!) or my actually sending this 'dry' signal to a real guitar rig. One thing this does not take into account though, is the interaction between a guitar pickup and the input stage of the amy. These variables, caused by the impedance of both the guitar and amp, cannot really be simulated, but it's not necessarily an issue.

Hope this helps ~

g

fitz

off.the.walls wrote: »

Is Recording straight from amp heads a good way for tracking and guitars and basses rather than going through a cab or speaker?

whats everyones opinions on this?

Turning on a valve head with no load connected (speakers) is a sure fire way of frying the power stage of the amp. You need a load box to do this.

off.the.walls

so general thoughts would be to get a cab?

godfrey

Yes, definitely, and fitz is corrrect. You need a cab or a dummy load on a valve amp, always. As for choice of cab, that's a musicians issue and not something I'd get involved with.

g

off.the.walls

was thinking about just getting a laney 4x4 cab or a line 6 4x4 cab

i57dwun4yb1pt8

dont mind these luddites

if your amp has a pre amp out / direct out or line out or
the effect loop send - you can direct record this into a line in on a sound card .

even the head phone socket can be used .

( SOME AMPS WONT LET YOU BYPASS THE POWER AMP - SO BE CAREFUL - DONT UNPLUG THE SPEAKER )

else use a load box as the speaker it should have a direct out for the sound card.

then using a plugin such as SIR or LE CAB or any convultion plugin you can add a cab simulator to the track .

hey presto = silent recording

else you can buy a digitech gsp 1101 and update it to use your own CAB ir's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cch5L1ApERo

( i use the redwire series ) http://www.redwirez.com/free1960g12m25s.jsp
i use this and its a pretty damn good alternative to a cab / amp setup.


also the kemper profiling amp does a great job, but is mad money .


if you want to stay in software - just use the guitar dry ( did ) no amp and use these to set up cabs and amps - they are great and free.

http://lepouplugins.blogspot.ie/


you can get close enough for home recording purposes / demo purposes with these methods without an amp / cab cranked to kill.

if6was9

You can record the preamp signal either using a preamp out or the effects loop send. Use a cab sim on these tracks to get the poweramp/speaker simulation to complete your chain.

The head will still needed to be connected to a load/cab unless the maker states you don't have to in the manual. If in doubt, err on the safe side and assume it needs a load.

If it's a cheap cab you're looking for to use as a load it's hard to beat the harley benton stuff loaded with celestions or get a used marshall 1960, you see them go for as little as 200€ if you keep your eyes on the classifieds sites.

Lots of guys going this way recently as bedroom/silent recording becomes more common and there's loads of free cabinet Impulse Responses available online if you google it. I prefer micing a cab but I recognise that not everyone has the means and I still use these a lot when tracking if I'm going to track DI's and reamp later or if I'm just jamming getting some ideas.

franktheplank

One of the first things you're gonna notice is a helluva lot more high frequency from a dry signal than from a cab.

Guitar speakers by design almost act like a low-pass filter set somewhere around 3-5k.

As the whether or not the nuances a guitar cab tone can be replicated digitally you'll find a lot of opinions either way. I'm skeptical myself especially when it comes to things like the position of different mics around the cab.

TroutMask

I rely on the speakers so much for tone i can't imagine just living off a direct out . Matching the speakers to the amp is integral to the tone. Don't even like speaker sim boxes like RedBox. Played Guitar Rig for a year then went right off it forever. A boutique or modded valve amp with custom FX - there is no other way for me - 1 close mic and one further back - find sweet spots - adjust for phase, and Robert's your mother's live-in lover.

Savman

Digital has come a long way, but still struggles in comparison to 100 year old tube amp technology IMHO. Most people probably couldn't tell the difference in listening to a track if the guitars were recorded digitally or analogue-y, but for playing and feel its analogue every time.

Back OT, using head without a cab is not recommended and not what most amps are designed to do, if its a Line 6 or something tubeless with a DI out then should be fine.

off.the.walls

Savman wrote: »

Digital has come a long way, but still struggles in comparison to 100 year old tube amp technology IMHO. Most people probably couldn't tell the difference in listening to a track if the guitars were recorded digitally or analogue-y, but for playing and feel its analogue every time.

Back OT, using head without a cab is not recommended and not what most amps are designed to do, if its a Line 6 or something tubeless with a DI out then should be fine.

atm I have two heads a line six spider 2 head and a marshal mb450 and use the headphone out on the line six and the di out from the marshal