Telecaster Guitar Forum - View Single Post - help mic'ing guitar amp into Mac Garageband

woodman · March 18th, 2009, 10:51 AM

good points in this thread ... a few thoughts:

you're likely to be unsatisfied and frustrated with the mike-into-the-amp approach — you really need an interface to get anywhere.
having success with directly miking your amp depends on a number of variables, one of which is isolation. in my case, the Woodshed is an 8' by 15' foot space; cranking my amp to live volumes to capture my "real" sound isn't an option, as it drowns everything else out. plus, as Tony says, the time-consuming process of experimenting with setup, mike placement and so forth impedes the creative process.
for my situation (semipro, demo-oriented), good amp models get me closer to the recorded sound i want than miking my amp due to my compromised situation. the key is to actually tweak the sound on your models rather than dialing up presets ... some of the presets are good starting points, but you need to tailor the sound from there to suit yourself. (for my sound, i've found i need to dial back the Drive on almost all presets.)
live one-mike recordings in a room can be fun and get you going on the creative process, but as Pete pointed out, you're going to get a lot of boom and not much presence. with a good interface similar to (but not limited to) the UX1, you can EQ to taste with modest success. you could also run a direct guitar track simultaneously if your software allows you to record-enable more than one track at a time.
Garageband gives you plenty of onboard processors and effects (including compression, EQ, stompbox-type FX, amp models), but how many you can use depends on your processor. GB is quite processor-intensive, and if yours is less than beefy, loading up with effects (especially amp models) will limit the number of tracks you can run and cause your system to bog down earlier.

these considerations come from the standpoint of a less-than-pro recordist (myself) trying to get decent recorded sound on a shoestring in a small space. Dnew, what are the specs on your Mac (processor speed, RAM, hard drive capacity etc.)? and what is your music space like?

March 18th, 2009, 10:51 AM	#7 (permalink)
woodman Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Mint Hill, NC Age: 63 Posts: 8,124	good points in this thread ... a few thoughts: you're likely to be unsatisfied and frustrated with the mike-into-the-amp approach — you really need an interface to get anywhere. having success with directly miking your amp depends on a number of variables, one of which is isolation. in my case, the Woodshed is an 8' by 15' foot space; cranking my amp to live volumes to capture my "real" sound isn't an option, as it drowns everything else out. plus, as Tony says, the time-consuming process of experimenting with setup, mike placement and so forth impedes the creative process. for my situation (semipro, demo-oriented), good amp models get me closer to the recorded sound i want than miking my amp due to my compromised situation. the key is to actually tweak the sound on your models rather than dialing up presets ... some of the presets are good starting points, but you need to tailor the sound from there to suit yourself. (for my sound, i've found i need to dial back the Drive on almost all presets.) live one-mike recordings in a room can be fun and get you going on the creative process, but as Pete pointed out, you're going to get a lot of boom and not much presence. with a good interface similar to (but not limited to) the UX1, you can EQ to taste with modest success. you could also run a direct guitar track simultaneously if your software allows you to record-enable more than one track at a time. Garageband gives you plenty of onboard processors and effects (including compression, EQ, stompbox-type FX, amp models), but how many you can use depends on your processor. GB is quite processor-intensive, and if yours is less than beefy, loading up with effects (especially amp models) will limit the number of tracks you can run and cause your system to bog down earlier. these considerations come from the standpoint of a less-than-pro recordist (myself) trying to get decent recorded sound on a shoestring in a small space. Dnew, what are the specs on your Mac (processor speed, RAM, hard drive capacity etc.)? and what is your music space like? __________________ Truth is stranger than fact ... www.myspace.com/stragglerswing (Woody & the Stragglers - Western Swing/Roots-rock)