E-FFECT-ED in the STUDIO
Going into a well equipt studio can be a dream come true for a guitarist, all those lovely rack FX's, cool mic's and a whole host of other things that we read about, thinking, "if only I had use of that I could do something really outstanding". So why do so many guitarists come away from the experience feeling frustrated.
One of the biggest reasons seems to be a lack of understanding about what the studio has to offer. Guitarists end up trying to get their own pedal's to recreate the sound (and feel) that they are used to, then feel disappointed with their guitar sound because it doesn't match the quality of the whole track. Couple this with an engineer that doesn't really understand 'YOUR' guitar sound and try's to inflict their own technique on you :) You end up at a brick wall that can take a long time time to get around. Instead of going for something better than usual the guitarist is often relived if he manages to get something that comes close to his normal standard.
Let us look at some way to improve the quality while still maintaining the feel that we want and are used to.
Don't hold on to trying to make your pedals sound like pro FX. Examine what each pedal does for your sound, and replace it with something from the studio.
Some of the things that we get out of our pedals might not be as straight forwards as you may think, i.e. A distortion/overdrive pedal is often used to boost the guitar signal before it reaches the amp, or a delay or chorus pedal may be used to add compression (this is achieved by raising the input signal and lowering the output on the pedal).
In many cases the whole daisy chain of effects act's like a compressor/expander. As the live type of daisy chain method doesn't work well in the studio, we will have to add more bits to obtain similar effects.
Getting into the system
Into the desk
There are two main paths you can follow for the first stage.
The first main method of getting into the recording system is (the engineers favorite:) to run the Guitar straight into a good DI box then into the Desk. I would not advise this unless you want a flat clean sound.
Now that we have a signal coming into the desk, we have to look at how to route the FX from the channel on the desk.
The second method is to just use the pedals before the pre-amp (i.e. between the guitar and the amp's inputs), and mic up the amp from the speaker, then add the other FX's at the desk.
If you are not mad about the sound of your speaker, or power amp, you can run into the front of the amp then run the pre amp out (the send in the amp's FX's loop) to the desk.
To improve the responsiveness of the guitar (i.e. uneven sounding fretts), you can plug straight into a compressor/gate, by plugging the guitar straight into the studios patch bay, then get the engineer to give you the line out from the compressor via a 1/4 inch unbalanced jack. (Make sure his is at line level, NOT AT MIC LEVEL!) to go straight into your amp's inputs.
Then get the engineer to mic up the amp (or take a line out from the send in the amps FX loop) to a channel on the desk.
Mic's
Don't let the engineer fob you of with an SM58, instead get them use one of their vocal mic's. i.e:
AKG C414
Geffal
Neuman U87
Rhodes
Groove Tube
etc.
If the engineer says something like "well sm58's have the right frequency cut for guitar", remind him that he can EQ and compress the sound at the desk!
If you are using a non valve amp, try using a valve mic.
Also remember that you can use more then one mic, you can use different mic's spread around the room. i.e. one near the speaker one a few feet away and one across the room etc. To avoid ugly phase clashes you would have to keep moving the mic's around until you got the right sound, even a couple of centimeters can change the phase between the mic's.
INSERTS
Compressor/gate
First we have to gate and compress the input (this would be second mono compressor/gate, not the same one that is between the guitar and amp).
As the track can be gated on play back it would be more advisable to use a very safe setting now and a stricter setting on the gate on play back. Compression is not something that should be added in the Mix (even if the engineers says so), as it alters the way you play and you should hear that as you play.
Personally I prefer to use the gate fully at that point as I find it tightens your playing to the groove of the track and provides much more inspiration. but this can be risky as you can't alter the gate's release and attack times after recording.
This compressor/gate should be as an 'insert' in the channel, that is to say that the whole sound coming into the desks channel is sent back out to the compressor the outputs of the compressor are sent back to the desk. This is different to an FX send (which is how we are going to add the other FX's, such as delay, chorus, ect), where you are splitting a bit of the channel to FX units then mixing the return from the FX back with the channel.
You may also want to add a touch of an enhancer at this point if your strings sound a bit dead (This would also be as an insert).
EQ
Here you may want to use the desks EQ (if it's a good desk) or you may want to use an outboard EQ, (If possible use a valve EQ). i.e.
Focusrite
Tubetech
Groove tube
Digitech
etc.
If you are using an outboard EQ this should also be as an insert.
SEND AND RETURN
The following FX's can come off the sends from the channel on the desk (if the studio has a limited amount of FX's I would use their best ones, and tape them on a separate track along side the guitar track/s (as I am sure that the engineer/producer would want to use these for the Vocal and drum tracks in the mix).
So what should we use ? Again think of your pedal set up.
Delay
You will need a good delay, look around for a :
TC electronics
Sony
Lexicon
AMX
Digitech
Zoom
etc.
Remember that delay pedals often have a very limited frequency range, so you may want to cut the treble and bass of the studio delays so they fade away with a nice slope (simillar to that of a pedal).
Don't forget to get the engineer to set the ms (delay time) to match the BPM (beats per minute) of the track (it should either be in half notes, quarter notes, eight's or sixteenths). but you can lean this a bit faster or slower to get it to swing.
If it doesn't sound right at first, look at the typical settings on your pedal (i.e. the delay time, feedback, etc. that you like) and tell the engineer to get a close match on the studio delay.
This would come off the main guitar channel on the desk from a 'send' on the Desk and could either come back to a separate stereo pair of channels, or could drive straight into the next FX unit (but the engineer would have to balance the output of the delay and the input of the next FX unit very accurately).
Modulation
This could either be driven by another send from the guitar channel on the desk OR it could be driven from the output of the delay (or previous FX).
Typically this would be a chorus/flanger, again look around for the best units FOR THE JOB i.e. :
Lexicon
Sony
Eventide harmonizer
TC electronics
Alesis quadreverb
Zoom
etc.
I would advise you to try modulation units like the Eventide harmonizer, or a Lexicon PCM70 etc. A lot of guitarists never try these sort of units for chorus/flanging etc. which is a shame as they have great presets that can be tweaked easily.
If you must use something like the Alesis that has multi FX's in it, don't try and get everything out of it, just use it as a delay, or chorus etc. A lot of the presets do great single FX's but when used as a multi effects they have to split the processor power and you loose quality. Where as a lot of the good 'single' effects patches in multi effects units, will sound better because they make use of the whole processor for the one effect (like the Lesley speakers effect that uses the whole quadreverb).
Duck-it
Another thing to bear in mind at this point is that you can get away with much more intense FX's (for both delay and modulation) if you use a gate/compressor to 'duck' them (via the side chain). Ducking is basically getting the compressor to automatically turn down the volume of the delay/modulation when you are playing, and letting them come up between your playing. Any engineer worth his salt can do this for you quickly. This would allow you to use presets like 'heaven and hell' on the Eventide without it overwhelming you main sound, or delays that swamp the melody of your lead lines.
Reverb
This would come off the main guitar channel on the desk from another 'send' and could either come back to a separate stereo pair of channels, or go to a stereo pair mix with the delay and modulation for recording onto two tracks (a stereo pair) along side the main guitar track (so you could revert to the guitar sound without the FX's for a remix if you didn't like the FX's on reflection.
Again given the chance, the engineer would just slap on a bit of the reverb that's used for the whole song (and a bit of that would be nice in the mix, a little room or hall reverb on top of your main guitar reverb sounds good but...) The main reverb for guitar should be separate. Try a plate reverb, something like the Rich Plates in the Lexicon PCM70, or perhaps something like the Resonate Chords for a harmonized pad effect.
A lot of the newer Reverb units can chain reverbs i.e. a plate reverb sound can fade away into a room reverb ect, try some of these. Think of the plate as the spring reverb in the amp and the room as a nice open room with the amp in it.
Remember not to be too extreme with the reverb a sound that is too 'wet' can carry a lot of irritation valve on repeated listening.
Again look around for the best units for the job (try and stick to a lexicon as they are by far the best) i.e.
Lexicon 480L
Lexicon 244
Lexicon PCM70 (or PCM80 or PCM 90)
Lexicon LXPx
AMX
Sony
Zoom
etc.
This article should give you a good grounding , but remember that every rule was made to be broken, experiment from this grounding and make changes to suite your sound.
By Kevin De Souza
