Unconventional Recording Techniques: Electrical Guitar
Techniques For the Home Studio
The electric guitar is undoubtedly one the most popular instruments in modern music and over the years many different guitar tones and sounds have become highly desired. One can fairly easily capture a decent guitar sound with a good source instrument and amp. In this article however, I am going to look at a number of unconventional techniques that can be used to capture this versatile instrument.I would like to mention that, as always, sound is a highly subjective thing. Many guitarists (and engineers for that matter) are guilty of pursuing THE ULTIMATE guitar tone, when in reality a sound is only truly great when it fits well within the context of the song.
One way of achieving a different sound is, in addition to your close mics, to place a few mics at varying distances within a large room to capture the sound of the room itself. There will of course be no way of getting rid of this room sound once it’s recorded in, so make sure that you are happy with the way the amp sounds within the space before placing your room mics. This technique can also make the guitar lose detail and be highly reverberant; however, a blend of the close sound and the room mics might yield something pleasing.As soon as more than one mic is used on a single source the issue of phase relationships between the mics is introduced, so make sure that you place the mics with the combined phase in mind. You could even constructively use phase cancelation by intentionally cancelling out certain frequency ranges to create some weird and wonderful tones.
Another way of using the locations available to your advantage is to set up an amp in an unconventional space like a corridor or basement. Again, set the mics up at varying distances. In a corridor with an amp on one side, all the frequencies emanating from the amp will be bouncing around the length and width of the corridor, reinforcing and cancelling out different frequencies, thus creating a complex tone. The concrete walls of a basement reflecting the sound back into the room can reinforce certain frequencies and can help to get a “big”, or at least, unique sound.
This ties in somewhat with Phil Spector’s infamous Wall of Sound. In the 60’s Spector gathered large groups of musicians, including electric and acoustic guitarists, and recorded them playing large orchestral parts. He then sent the signals down into an echo chamber (essentially a large base-ment), played them out of speakers in the chamber, and recorded the resulting sound. This produced a rich, complex sound with a lot of depth.A useful technique to try is to route the guitar signal into multiple different amps or heads, and to use different mics that when blended, will yield a sound with more impact and a richer tapestry of tones. Pick the amps and mics critically, keeping the final tone that you are after in mind.
One final technique involves intentionally recording with low quality mics, high impedance mics, or you could even use the earpiece of a set of headphones as a transducer to capture the sound. This will result in a grainy, almost vintage tone which can be great for creating effects and interest within a piece of music.There is virtually a limitless amount of unconventional recording techniques that can be used to create your unique sound. I can’t promise that everything you try will result in something cool and unique, but every now and then you may stumble on something truly inspiring and this makes the endless hours of trial and error completely worth it.
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