Steppin Out - recording tips wanted

soma1975

Just got a Presonus Audiobox iTWO that came with Studio One Artist so plonked on a backing track and had a fiddle. 

Loads of screw ups etc but just trying to get the basics down.


Les Paul Standard 2014 with OX4 Low wind PAFs in the in-between setting with both volumes at 9 and neck pickup tone at 4. Played through an analogman Beano boost and Greer Lightspeed into a Marshall Astoria Dual at far too low a volume level. 

Ancient SM57 about 3" to the right of the centre of the speaker. Bit of reverb and eq added in post. 

Any thoughts/suggestions on how I could improve the recording greatly appreciated. For example, the tone was definitely more overdriven in the room than it sounds on the recording. NO idea about mic placement. 

victorludorum

Sounds good to me. I imagine that to copy the Clapton sound it would require being in a big room with a cranked Marshall! ;-)

soma1975

Cheers. 

Amp was a bit above conversation level but the recorded sound definitely has less gain than what I was hearing in the room. Pretty sure it was to do with mic placement but don't know anything about best practice for recording to be honest. 

flying_pie

Sounds good to be too. 

I'm sure experimenting with mic placement and amp settings/volume week so the trick. This is a way to give guitars a bit more grit in your DAW if need be after you've recorded then 

soma1975

Cheers will check it out later. 

victorludorum

If I remember correctly, the Bluesbreakers' version isn't really overdriven that much, it's just obscenely loud, but i haven't heard it in a while.

Maybe split your signal and record one through a miced amp, and the other through software, and then mix the signals to please.

Samgb

Sounds great. Not too much gain. Close to the original but like everyone says - he was blowing the doors off!

soma1975

No it's not heavily overdriven by modern standards but it has a touch more gain than I have on the recording. And a more singing volume-based sustain that I felt I had in the room but that I didn't capture. 

soma1975

Thanks @Samgb . Yeah maybe the answer is to really piss off my neighbours and turn up and make the SM57 do some work. 

octatonic

Try a coloured preamp- like a Neve 1073 or API 512 and drive them moderately hard.
Plugin emulations exist if you don't want to spend a grand.

When I mic guitar amps I tend to use a dynamic and a ribbon, usually like this:



The SM57 can be a bit sharp sounding and a ribbon can smooth things out a bit and give you more girth.
Phase is important when multi-micing- you can make things sound worse otherwise.

soma1975

Cool thanks for that. So would you normally mic the same-ish area of the speaker as in your image? 

Will have a look at the preamp emulations. It's a bit difficult to drive it too hard at only moderately impolite volumes and an SM57. Interface level was maxed as it was. I think maybe a more sensitive mic might be in order. But would need to be be closer to the SM price than the R-121 price for my little hobby!

victorludorum

Also... Excellent playing, sir! I had a listen to your other tracks too, and your blues playing is top drawer ;-)

soma1975

You’re very kind. Many thanks

spark240

Sounds good dude, ...your a bit stuck really as the BT is prerecorded so cant do much with that, maybe pan some licks L/R to make it interesting, maybe double up some licks to thicken bits, ....or maybe a sneaky harmony line here and there  ;-)

soma1975

Cheer mate. Yeah stuck a tiny bit of reverb on the BT but otherwise left it alone. I might attempt both some panning and sneaky harmony lines on the next thing i record. 

Stuckfast

I don't think there's anything wrong with your guitar recording, it sounds really good, but yes there are some fairly obvious differences compared with the original. If you want it to sound more like the record I'd suggest you want to do without the reverb, or just use a very short studio ambience type reverb instead. Also, try some upper mid boost and saturation on the master bus, the original is not a particularly clean recording as they struggled with the sheer volume of Clapton's amp.