Stomp Boxes in Your Recordings?

[razor7music]

Hey Group

Years ago I had a couple stomp boxes stolen, and I never replaced them because I'm 99% recording in the box.

I just started missing them and wondered, of those here that mic their amps when they record guitar, how many of you record with a stomp box effect applied? I know there's no going back or dialing in like with software, but I guess my old school is showing!!

[John Vere]

I do use the TH3 for stomps after the fact, I especially like the Compressor and chorus pedal... 

But I'm a huge fan of getting the sound I want first and then I record it. You tend to play to the tone and the effects, Example how could you possibly use a wha wha or even delay? You need to play along with them and for me that's never been possible via the DAW. Latency spoils my fun. There's something more reactive about playing through stomp boxes and an amp. For me  it's the true guitar experience. 

I have lots of stomp boxes. Tremolo, Delays, dozens of overdrives, chorus, Mutron and MXR envelope ( auto wha) and a Rexx pre amp. I also dial in tones and effects on my Blackstar combo.  I also have a Zoom multi pedal that for $70 is way more usable that I thought it would be. 

Edited November 6, 2020 by John Vere

[Brian Walton]

2 hours ago, razor7music said:

Hey Group

Years ago I had a couple stomp boxes stolen, and I never replaced them because I'm 99% recording in the box.

I just started missing them and wondered, of those here that mic their amps when they record guitar, how many of you record with a stomp box effect applied? I know there's no going back or dialing in like with software, but I guess my old school is showing!!

Almost always record with some sort of stompbox effect applied.

Playing with the effects applied impacts the way you play and interact with your rig.   Compression/EQ and things like that are fine in the box but with guitar most of the effects I'm going to be playing with and reacting to as I play.   

[Glenn Stanton]

i'll record both a clean signal and effects since it's nice to have the clean performance in case you want to leverage it for MIDI or add other effects, etc.

[Gswitz]

I use expression pedals.

My pedal board has a splitter built in so i can can record clean and the amp with fx concurrently.

Sometimes, i record direct and send out from the interface to a reamp box and that lets me play with the fx all i want when my family are out. I record direct while they sleep.

Real-time fx are expressive so real time play changes..

 

[razor7music]

15 hours ago, Glenn Stanton said:

i'll record both a clean signal and effects since it's nice to have the clean performance in case you want to leverage it for MIDI or add other effects, etc.

How do you set that up?

[John Vere]

32 minutes ago, razor7music said:

How do you set that up?

There's a lot of ways to do this . It takes a box that has 1 input and 2 outs. Don't use a Y cable that will kill your impedance. 

A lot of DI boxes will do this. My Boss TU-3 tuner can do this. My Zoom G1 can do this. etc. I use a Radial Tone Bone Pz Pre to handle a lot of these tasks. It's a DI box on steroids. 

[razor7music]

9 hours ago, John Vere said:

There's a lot of ways to do this . It takes a box that has 1 input and 2 outs. Don't use a Y cable that will kill your impedance. 

A lot of DI boxes will do this. My Boss TU-3 tuner can do this. My Zoom G1 can do this. etc. I use a Radial Tone Bone Pz Pre to handle a lot of these tasks. It's a DI box on steroids. 

So, if I understand correctly, the DI signal isn't being routed through your guitar amp?

I prefer the sound of a mic'd amp over DI. I bought an amp just for that purpose. I suppose I could use the amp head output, but if my input is routed through a stomp box, then the direct out on the amp would have the effect in it.

Hmm?

Edited November 8, 2020 by razor7music

[Lord Tim]

Yeah, so you'd get a DI box (preferably a good one that's specifically for re-amping guitar) and it'll have 2 outputs: the DI out and a Thru out.

Run the DI out into one channel of your interface and it'll record basically the dry sound of your guitar, and then you'd send the Thru out to your pedal, amp, mic, etc and then run that into another channel of your interface.

That way you have your clean guitar as well as the sound of the pedal/amp as a backup to re-amp later, or use plugins, or have it there as a good visual guide for editing or quantizing. (Seriously, if you've slammed your guitar through a cranked fuzz pedal into a blasting loud amp, good luck seeing any transients in the solid brick waveform you'll get ? )

It's a great method. I can't begin to tell you how many old recordings I've revisited and gone "man, if only I'd used a different mic or could change the amount of gain on the amp - it'd mix down so much better now."  DI means no regrets (other than going back in time and telling yourself to practice more so that fast part isn't so sloppy ?)

[Glenn Stanton]

agreed. i use a DI box, or one of my amps has an effects loop and a separate DI out so i can use the amp for effects and the DI out from the preamp. what i don't have is a "reamp direct box" which sets the output from the DAW signal to the correct impedance to match a guitars... so when re-amping (re-effecting?) your amp / effects see a signal level and impedance which mimics the guitar output. there are probably some simple circuits which could mimic the impedance and level, using R circuits, and/or transformers... i generally just output low volume from my IO unit which has a very high output impedance. on my amp i use the aux in as that expects the higher levels.

[DeeringAmps]

Little Labs Redeye.

You can thank me later.

Pricey, but priceless. 
tom

did I mention you can thank me later?

[John Vere]

A  DI box always has the unbalanced 1/4" output signal that goes to your amp and then an XLR balanced out that normally is sent via a snake to a PA system. But for a studio this goes to our audio interface. 

DI boxes come in variable qualities and the good ones don't mess with your guitars tone and they are dead quiet going to the PA/ interface. Win, win. 

If you want a good one check out Radials collection. They make a lot of different DI boxes and for me the Tone Bone is killer for just about everything including Bass. They do make a Bass Bone which my son has had for like 10 years and used through some pretty serious PA rigs at festivals.   

[Jeremy Oakes]

Boss GT 100 line out to audio device. Effects already applied.

J

[Lord Tim]

Can vouch for the Radial stuff, I use the X-Amp for sending recorded DI signal back out to an amp for re-amping.

The Little Labs Redeye does look pretty great though - putting that on the to-investigate list.

[Sidney Earl Goodroe]

My favorite setup is to mic the amp but the only stomps in front of the preamp are boost or overdrive pedals and a good volume pedal. I only want to record the amp sound with the tone shaping boxes.

Any fx such as delays, chorusing, reverbs, harmonizes, etc. are added in the DAW!!!! I have never been a fan of putting those types of fx through the amp where you are stripping the pristine top end and introducing distortion into the sound.

I see many players now reflecting this in their live rigs where the guitar rig is an amp miced into a mixer with a set of stereo pa cabs on either side of the amp. The delays, reverbs, etc, are used in the fx sends of the mixer giving you total control of the dry tweaked amp and your fx mixed in the stereo cabs!!

This is the approach I take when cutting tracks in a studio, tape or DAW.

If I need the extra versatility, I just use Amplitube!!!

[msmcleod]

I record both the stereo out and the mono (dry signal) guitar out from my VG-88.  Most of the time, I'm happy with just using the effected stereo signal, but the mono dry signal does give me the option of creating a completely new guitar sound from scratch using VST's if need be.

[DeeringAmps]

3 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

I use the X-Amp for sending recorded DI signal back out to an amp for re-amping.

I have one in the “lunchbox” as well. In via Redeye, re-amp via X-Amp (don’t ask me why). The only drawback with the Redeye, no 500 model for the lunchbox. I have the Radial 500 DI too, it was “noisy” compared to the Redeye; pulled it. 

t

[Lord Tim]

Ah, interesting! Good knowledge, thanks @DeeringAmps - I was considering a Radial for a DI in down the track but I reckon you've just sold me on the Redeye.

[DeeringAmps]

Try it, maybe the one I got is that one on the “bell curve” that’s a bit noisy. And we’re not talking terrible. I was trying to organize things better, the redeye has to sit on the desk. But the Radial was a bit noisy. Can’t have things humming! That’s what I love about valve amps; dead quiet ? 

t

[Lord Tim]

I've been surprised with some gear though. Long and boring story how I got to this point but I found that all of my DI options weren't working out for the purpose that I needed them for in a particular instance and the only 2 devices I had laying around was some cheap $50 job, which was utterly terrible - noisy and destroyed the guitar impedance - and an old ART Studio V3 that I had sitting in the live room collecting dust. I wasn't expecting much from that but wow, it ended up being surprisingly good, especially on bass. I wouldn't call it transparent but I really kind of dig what it does change and that's what I'm using for my main DI for guitars now. It's always worth giving something a try if you have it on hand!