Hey guys! OK, so I'm about to start tracking some guitar parts. I have 2 SM57s close mic'ed to a 2x12 cab in stereo, running into a cheap ART MPA2 preamp. I'm using a 15 watt 1960 Motorola stereo EL84 tube amp (that I made a rack enclosure for) as a power amp, and have a couple of options for a guitar preamp. Getting a pretty good sound from the MPA2 and mics, but I've got that damn interference hiss. My guitar is shielded, the Motorola itself is pretty quiet. At the very least I need a good downward expander/gate. What's my best option here? Anything with some smart auto-detection?

What do you guys do when recording guitar parts? What's your approach on guitar hiss/interference/noise? I've listened to a LOT of professionally mastered recordings (CDs by favorite bands, etc) where the producer seems to have said "fuck it" and left the noise in. It drives me crazy though.

While we're at it, what are your best practices for recording guitar? Rhythm vs. lead? I'm running in stereo now... should I record in mono? If I record in stereo should I hard pan the left and right channels, or put the stereo pair both somewhere to the left for rhythm and another pair off to the right for lead? My main concern right now is how to address noise, but after that what are any other tips/tricks you can give for recording guitar parts (mic'ed cab, not direct). THANK YOU in advance for any input.

 

The solution depends on what kind of noise is happening. If it's a static hum, you could target that for removal.

You pan multiple guitar takes (rhythm for instance) as left and right but you record a mono signal, not stereo. If you're using multi mic setup, then that will depend on what that setup is and what purpose it is serving.

 

Put the amp and speaker/cab in another room to avoid as much interference as possible.

I don't really use gates, as I don't have interference/noise. I just cut out the bit where I don't play. If not I just put a regular gate on it (Sonalksis, Waves, whatever).

I always record in mono and check for phase issues between mono tracks (if the amp is multi-mic'd). Then pan these individual takes out if needed. Say you double-track a guitar and you counter pan these out.

 

It's not so much a hum it's more of a classic hiss/static/interference noise. So trying to eq it out may kill a lot of my frequency. I can try a surgical cut. The main reason I'm running in stereo is because one of my preamps has stereo outputs (for panning delay, chorus, phasing), my other preamp is mono but I've got a couple of pedals with stereo outputs and I've actually run into both preamps at the same time before, and then my tube power amp is fully stereo, so it's kind of like getting a double track. So I have reason to consider stereo recording but I knew the standard was usually mono.

 

I live alone and have a bathroom adjacent to the room I'm using as a studio. I'll try that.

 

If you're capturing tgat with one mic, it's still mono. Maybe it's better if you use a simple mono chain and DO the double tracks. Even recording in stereo (2 mics) won't be double tracking.

For that noise you could use a noise profiling tool, something like ReaFir.

 

Yeah, the only reason I was using a pair of mics to record in stereo was to capture ping pong effects and chorus panning, but really I can probably do all that much better inside my daw anyway with better effects. I looked up ReaFir... I'm not using Reaper. I'm using Studio 1 at the moment, may switch back to Cubase that's why I asked about VSTs. I know Izotope has that Rx package. I don't want to end up with artifacts of noise reduction (that computerized aliasing chirping sound) so I was wondering what plugins would be best if I went with gating, downward expander, or noise redux.

 

I don't think you need Reaper to use ReaFir.

Either way, I would just take care of the source of the noise. Removing all unecessary FX in the guitar chain and adding them post (VST) could clear that up.

 

Check this out!

 

Yes, you can for sure just record with the one close microphone on the cab, you seem to just need a mono track to later process to your liking. Adding fx later can be a good idea, but I for one "play to the effects", and both need and want to hear them to enjoy my creative moments throughout the song. You could record your part with the effect chain as a send, later adding them to the guitar track to taste with automation and every trick you would like to employ, anything is possible. Also, double tracking guitar parts instead of using a paste of the originl at least to me, can bring a healthy vitality and more a sense of emotion to things.

Plus, if you are using single coil pups they are usually noisier than hum buckers, for the those hulking buckers buck hum...mmmmm.

 

Very interesting! Thanks!