[LAU] Applying effects when recording electric guitars: before or after recording?

Ralf Mardorf ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net
Thu Jul 7 13:01:24 UTC 2011


On Thu, 2011-07-07 at 10:02 +0000,
linux-audio-user-request at lists.linuxaudio.org wrote:
> Message: 27
> Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2011 09:12:29 +0000
> From: Fons Adriaensen
> Subject: Re: [LAU] Applying effects when recording electric guitars:
>         before  or after recording?
> 
> The 'lot of work' is maybe what it takes, and you can always record
> two or more tracks at the same time, a clean one and any number with
> effects applied.

This is the answer to what the so called pros do, if possible, when they
piece together pop music.

> 
> Message: 28
> Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2011 11:17:52 +0200 (CEST)
> From: Cedric Roux
> Subject: Re: [LAU] Applying effects when recording electric guitars:
>         before or after recording?

> 
> ----- "Arve Barsnes" <arve.barsnes at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > On 7 July 2011 10:06, Alexandre Prokoudine
> > <alexandre.prokoudine at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 2011/7/7 Roberto Su?rez Soto:
> > >
> > >> ? ? So, what do the real pros (that'd be you ;-)) do?
> > >
> > > They use hardware rigs. I'm quite serious.
> > >
> > Indeed. Ideally, the computer should not be responsible for any
> guitar
> > effects.
> 
> and what do you think all those effect boxes do? how do they work?
> by magic? or by electronics?
> 
> The only difference is that you can push hard on the box with your
> foot while you play live.

Nonsense, if you wish to produce particular sound you need particular
effects. Not all choruses, wha-whas etc. are equal.
> 
> Apart from that
> I think you can emulate everything else, at least theoretically.

Nonsense. Discrete circuits have responding qualities that can't be
emulated. You're writing that for "room/ampli/microphone placement"
there are issues, but not regarding to effects? I guess you're referring
to the room, to the responding qualities of a microphone etc.. This
can't be emulated today, correct. But why do you think that software is
able to emulate discrete circuits? It's the same issue, e.g. the
responding quality of the circuit. Even the sound some microchips do
generate can't be emulated, e.g. by CEM microchips.
> 
> Pros don't go that route because they learned with some tools and
> stick to them.

All Germans eat Sauerkraut, all Italians eat Spaghetti, all amateur
guitarists are interested in new stuff, but pros stick to old tools.
It's the other way around, pros test new stuff a long time before
amateurs just hear about it.

> 
> Message: 29
> Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2011 09:58:55 +0000
> From: Dale Powell
> Subject: Re: [LAU] Applying effects when recording electric guitars:
>         before or after recording?
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > The only difference is that you can push hard on the box with your
> > foot while you play live.
> > 
> 
> Disagree! Effects pedals and the like have almost no round-trip
> latency (through soundcard, to the processor, and back for monitoring)
> and usually a much lower processing time (especially if they are
> analogue!) both of which are very important points when you are
> listening to the effected path while playing.

Latency? Hm? You might be right, but usually latency is that low, that
it doesn't matter and some old digital devices, e.g. the Yamaha SPX 90
II, with an unique sound might have longer latency. A lot of effects are
a mix of the clean sound and an anyway delayed signal. Regarding to
latency I tend to disagree.

> Message: 30
> Date: Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:02:27 +0200
> From: Jeremy Jongepier <autostatic at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [LAU] Applying effects when recording electric guitars:
>         before or after recording?
> To: linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org
> Message-ID: <4E158433.8040303 at autostatic.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed
> 
> On 07/07/2011 11:08 AM, Renato wrote:
> > On Thu, 7 Jul 2011 10:36:49 +0200
> > Arve Barsnes<arve.barsnes at gmail.com>  wrote:
> >
> >> On 7 July 2011 10:06, Alexandre Prokoudine
> >> <alexandre.prokoudine at gmail.com>  wrote:
> >>> 2011/7/7 Roberto Su?rez Soto:
> >>>
> >>>>      So, what do the real pros (that'd be you ;-)) do?
> >>>
> >>> They use hardware rigs. I'm quite serious.
> >>>
> >> Indeed. Ideally, the computer should not be responsible for any
> >> guitar effects.
> >
> > why?
> >
> > renato
> 
> I'd like to know too. I know albums where the guitars are all running 
> through NI Guitar Rig for example.
> I'm perfectly ok with Guitarix, Rakarrack, linuxDSP, Calf and the
> likes, 
> I can get pretty decent sounds out of it. What I normally do is to 
> record the clean guitar track while it does run through the desired 
> effects before it goes to my headphones/monitors. Like this you
> record 
> the guitar track with the right feel but you still have the
> possibility 
> to play around with it afterwards. For serious studio work I'd prefer 
> valve amps with decent speaker cabinets or valve combo's but for 
> homerecording using the computer to process your guitar is a good
> option 
> I think.
> 
> Best,
> 
> Jeremy

Jeremy +1, but the question was, what the pros do and pros don't do
homerecording, when they do professional work.

Btw. for some kind of music there isn't the need to use a valve amps or
any amp, it's possible to play the guitar directly to the mixing
console, OTOH it's more fun to play by an amp, even if the sound isn't
needed for the recording, it's better for the feeling. We shouldn't
confuse response with latency.

2 Cents,

Ralf



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