Hi all, Hope everyone's well. I'm working on a project which requires me to record guitar parts. I've done a basic demo and now I want to re-record all guitars and get them sounding as good as possible with my limited resources so I can get straight into mixing. So I was wondering before I get into this, does anyone have any good tips, for example channel strip settings, levels etc? Martin talks about signal to noise ratio in his vids, and recommends recording at about -6.6 db, would you say that applies to guitar as well? The track I'm working on is a sort of ventures style surf rock piece, so it features acoustic guitar sounds and clean guitar with lots of reverb (actually using the super cool surf preset in logic 8). Also I'm recording via USB, not using mics. So any hints before I kick off would be super appreciated. Have a great day all. We've got a typhoon coming, so I'll be recording in the torrentials, seems appropriate really. WET!

Hi, This is my first posting. So I hope I can help you a little. Actually if you record a guitar without microphones it�´s not that a big deal. And much more if you use clean guitars. Distorted guitars are more complicated to record than clean ones. I would record with an input level about -0,5db just to make shure that you have a little more headroom in the mix. Use the Logic-EQ and with guitar amp pro you get a nice clean tone. Especially for surf-guitars guitar amp pro comes with this tremolo effect you definitly should use. Very important: USE THE TUNER! Keep all the guitars you use always in tune... But you always can change the settings after you recorded the guitar (but you can NOT change the tune so again: use tuned guitars :). Thats the big advantage of recording direct in. greetz from Austria rob

Hi guys! Yes Zombi (Rob) that's a very good point: Make sure the tuning of the guitar is good before you start recording! I would recommend there's no need to record the guitar so hot though. peaking at -6dB should give you plenty of signal and headroom and remember to set Logic to record audio in 24bit. :) Rounik

Nice one lads Yeah it's funny how a little obvious thing like tuning up before recording can slip past you. It's when you start wondering why playing in c major sounds so exotic and microtonal all of a sudden that it hits you. Cheers for the advice, my early demos sound very demoish, would most of the work have to be done then in the mix and master stages to get them sounding nice? Also my acoustic sound (provided my my piezzo pickup) is very dry. Any advice or good settings for a decent reverb? Cheers again

Well, if you are recording acoustic guitar then consider using a mic as well as a mic. As for reverbs load up a Space Designer and play with some of the settings. If a setting sounds too saturated in reverb try turning the wet level down... :) Rounik

What I like for acoustic guitar-sound is to take 3 signals. 2 condenser mics (e.g. oktava mk12 or rode nt5) with 12/12 positioning and one for DI if the acoustic guitar provide an output. And a special trick to get a room too is to use a large capsule mic. It makes your guitarsound a little bigger and with 4 tracks you have a lot of opportunitys in the final mix. listen to www.myspace.com/likeevesfruit We recorded everything with logic.. it contains acoustic and electric guitars...

Thing is, my whole set up is very limited. Up till now I've been exclusively working with software instruments and midi to work on a variety of projects, and this current project is really a test to see how much I can achieve with my very limited set up in terms of recording audio. I don't have amps or mics or a decent recording studio. My setup is literally USB guitar (my guitar is kind of an all in one studio guitar with magnetic pickups, an acoustic pickup and a midi pickup all in one) direct into logic. So my question really should be, is it possible to get a really good recording and a really good sound with such a limited set up or should I just do my best with software ins? Zombi, nice one on your music mate.

Even on a limited budget you can get good recordings. You'll need to experiment a little and find a good setup that works for your room too. But yes, it is possible :) ROunik