Comments on: Mr. Guitar Pro and Your Daughter's Preamp http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/ Make Home Recordings Pro Audio Recordings Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:25:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: mmc5011 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-2028 mmc5011 Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:12:42 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-2028 This article is absolutely right in some ways. A great musician, tone and room make it easy for even the novice to get a good sounding recording. I've been doing home recording for about 13 years now and i am just now getting to the point to where i am happy with the finished product. I would kill to start over from the beginning with the knowledge I have now, and maybe this painful passion of mine to sound like the big boys would make money. I have spent so much money on the cheap pre's and gadgets over the years, that end up being paper waits at best. If I were giving advise to the up and comer I would say put your money into your control room first. In my opinion if you can truly hear the sound you are recording without room artifacts, you could go a little cheaper on pre's and other gadgets. If you don't go with the room first, save your money a month longer, buy the better gear, stick a great mic in front of the sound and maybe have a pro facility mix it down for you. Do neither and spend countless hours remixing and rerecording when you could be moving onto the next great song with some artistic passion still intact. All this said, the big boys use expensive pre's and mics in great rooms because they don't want to miss that great moment of tone or vibe during their sessions. I've done both live and studio sessions where the tone of the bands were so good that I put a mic in front of the instrument and never touched an EQ the whole time. That is basically what the pro's get when they have the best gear and the best listening environment every time!!!!!!! This article is absolutely right in some ways. A great musician, tone and room make it easy for even the novice to get a good sounding recording. I've been doing home recording for about 13 years now and i am just now getting to the point to where i am happy with the finished product. I would kill to start over from the beginning with the knowledge I have now, and maybe this painful passion of mine to sound like the big boys would make money.
I have spent so much money on the cheap pre's and gadgets over the years, that end up being paper waits at best. If I were giving advise to the up and comer I would say put your money into your control room first. In my opinion if you can truly hear the sound you are recording without room artifacts, you could go a little cheaper on pre's and other gadgets. If you don't go with the room first, save your money a month longer, buy the better gear, stick a great mic in front of the sound and maybe have a pro facility mix it down for you. Do neither and spend countless hours remixing and rerecording when you could be moving onto the next great song with some artistic passion still intact.
All this said, the big boys use expensive pre's and mics in great rooms because they don't want to miss that great moment of tone or vibe during their sessions. I've done both live and studio sessions where the tone of the bands were so good that I put a mic in front of the instrument and never touched an EQ the whole time. That is basically what the pro's get when they have the best gear and the best listening environment every time!!!!!!!

]]> By: Nicko http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1554 Nicko Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:15:59 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1554 I mean SONG I mean SONG

]]> By: Nicko http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1553 Nicko Tue, 09 Sep 2008 19:15:36 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1553 Can we hear the sing? Can we hear the sing?

]]> By: Max http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1551 Max Mon, 08 Sep 2008 07:31:35 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1551 you are right. you can record a really good matherial also with no name or lo-fi gear! you are right. you can record a really good matherial also with no name or lo-fi gear!

]]> By: bryan tewell http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1435 bryan tewell Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:56:18 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1435 Well said. If every engineer worked like that 100% of the time everything would immediately sound better. Well said. If every engineer worked like that 100% of the time everything would immediately sound better.

]]> By: Alex http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1420 Alex Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:39:16 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1420 Brando, although with a twisted sense of humor you presented the issue rather well. Unfortunately - the lower we are in the recording engineer chain, the more of the idiots that can't tune, come in with guitars with rusted strings that had never seen a setup, with broken cables and drums that have been sitting in garages in 100 degree heat for 20 years (and still with those heads on!) we'll get. On the other hand - many times a talented engineer has to deal with the same thing but the money is a little different. I'll make my case - think Bob Rock having to deal with a talentless and obnoxious hack like Lars Ulrich. Brando, although with a twisted sense of humor you presented the issue rather well. Unfortunately - the lower we are in the recording engineer chain, the more of the idiots that can't tune, come in with guitars with rusted strings that had never seen a setup, with broken cables and drums that have been sitting in garages in 100 degree heat for 20 years (and still with those heads on!) we'll get.

On the other hand - many times a talented engineer has to deal with the same thing but the money is a little different. I'll make my case - think Bob Rock having to deal with a talentless and obnoxious hack like Lars Ulrich.

]]> By: Arji http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1419 Arji Mon, 28 Jul 2008 18:28:14 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1419 Very well put though a bit twisted.....I like twisted. I've been playing guitar for over 40 years but I was REALLY playing guitar for only about 20 of those years. That was my "buy a Les Paul and Mesa Boogie" years. I used no tone shaping tools and I was fast and reckless. When I finally woke up, I realized how important the details are to making a good guitarist and a good musician. 1. Talent - Repetitive excercise helps the fingers but doesn't do anything for creativity. That is a difficult thing to develop and measure but it is a necessary part to becoming a good guitarist/keyboardist/etc. 2. Instrument - Once I learned about tone woods, pickups, tuners, compensated bridges,etc., it open a whole universe of possibilities. I searched for years for the perfect guitar. It never came but I have four guitars that will produce any tone you might want and then some. The point is that there is no single guitar that can meet the needs of a pro guitarist....there's just no getting around that. The other thing is that you get what you pay for. There's a reason a G&L Comanche cost $1700....and on up the scale. 3. Amplifier - This is a matter of personal taste. As I grew older I began the realize that guitars each have their own character and tone. Then I realized that my current amp setup was simply a high-gain noise machine and it masked the character of my fairly expensive guitars. What a waste! This began my search for tone. I found two amplifiers that meet my every need. I use a Genz-Benz Class A amp AND an Class A/B Dumble clone. There are many, many more amps that sound better and worse and cost more and less but for my budget and taste, these two amps actually polished and finalized "my tone". 4. Stomp Boxes - This is another important discovery for me. However, it's all to easy to "over-stomp". So I was very careful how each of my pedals affected the character of the guitar. I got rid of those and over time, found pedals that were transparent. They applied the desired effect without changing the character of the guitar. I'm now 55 and wishing I had discovered this stuff 20 or 30 years ago. Talent is still the number 1 part of the formula. My guitar students can't figure out how I can make their cheapy guitars sound so good. One last point....You can spot a professional musician by the way he/she handles and caresses his/her instrument. Before I start playing, I wipe my strings down, polish out smudges and fingerprints and tune up. I handle her gently making sure everything looks good and the strap locks are really locked. When I'm done, I wipe my strings down again, polish my guitar and gently put her away in her case. In return she sings when I touch her in different places. Sometimes it seems like she plays herself and I'm just a witness. -a Very well put though a bit twisted.....I like twisted. I've been playing guitar for over 40 years but I was REALLY playing guitar for only about 20 of those years. That was my "buy a Les Paul and Mesa Boogie" years. I used no tone shaping tools and I was fast and reckless. When I finally woke up, I realized how important the details are to making a good guitarist and a good musician.
1. Talent - Repetitive excercise helps the fingers but doesn't do anything for creativity. That is a difficult thing to develop and measure but it is a necessary part to becoming a good guitarist/keyboardist/etc.

2. Instrument - Once I learned about tone woods, pickups, tuners, compensated bridges,etc., it open a whole universe of possibilities. I searched for years for the perfect guitar. It never came but I have four guitars that will produce any tone you might want and then some. The point is that there is no single guitar that can meet the needs of a pro guitarist....there's just no getting around that. The other thing is that you get what you pay for. There's a reason a G&L Comanche cost $1700....and on up the scale.

3. Amplifier - This is a matter of personal taste. As I grew older I began the realize that guitars each have their own character and tone. Then I realized that my current amp setup was simply a high-gain noise machine and it masked the character of my fairly expensive guitars. What a waste! This began my search for tone. I found two amplifiers that meet my every need. I use a Genz-Benz Class A amp AND an Class A/B Dumble clone. There are many, many more amps that sound better and worse and cost more and less but for my budget and taste, these two amps actually polished and finalized "my tone".
4. Stomp Boxes - This is another important discovery for me. However, it's all to easy to "over-stomp". So I was very careful how each of my pedals affected the character of the guitar. I got rid of those and over time, found pedals that were transparent. They applied the desired effect without changing the character of the guitar.

I'm now 55 and wishing I had discovered this stuff 20 or 30 years ago. Talent is still the number 1 part of the formula. My guitar students can't figure out how I can make their cheapy guitars sound so good. One last point....You can spot a professional musician by the way he/she handles and caresses his/her instrument. Before I start playing, I wipe my strings down, polish out smudges and fingerprints and tune up. I handle her gently making sure everything looks good and the strap locks are really locked. When I'm done, I wipe my strings down again, polish my guitar and gently put her away in her case. In return she sings when I touch her in different places. Sometimes it seems like she plays herself and I'm just a witness.

-a

]]> By: Bob http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1412 Bob Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:53:12 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1412 Can we hear this pro guitar player in action? Can we hear this pro guitar player in action?

]]> By: Big Mouse http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1411 Big Mouse Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:34:09 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1411 Hey, Brandon Awesome piece, man. You are damn right about everything you said. It's very encouraging and motivating. I'm working my way on to becoming Mr. Guitar Pro. Let's say another 10 years from now... I'll be close if not Mr. Guitar Pro. I'm actually practicing more than recording. The source is everything. Anyways, thanks for sharing. Hey, Brandon

Awesome piece, man. You are damn right about everything you said. It's very encouraging and motivating. I'm working my way on to becoming Mr. Guitar Pro. Let's say another 10 years from now... I'll be close if not Mr. Guitar Pro. I'm actually practicing more than recording. The source is everything.

Anyways, thanks for sharing.

]]> By: Big Rob http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/audio-engineering-principles/mr-guitar-pro-and-your-daughters-preamp/comment-page-1/#comment-1410 Big Rob Sat, 26 Jul 2008 07:33:44 +0000 http://www.recordingreview.com/blog/?p=102#comment-1410 Refreshing to read. Retailers have a part in this too, the scorn which comes across when you insisted on buying the low end kit would break a weaker man. High end kit in studios that work 24 hours a day makes a lot of sense on realiabilty alone. For a partnership like mine which involves fitting in recording after working all day as computer programmer and phyciatic nurse, sorting out meals and making sure our children are happy does not need that sort of reliability. In a month I estimate our recording equipment gets used for 12-15 hours max so it should last a while with care so unless a retailer can really prove to me that one bit of kit is varstly superior and worth the money I go for the most I can get at the least price. Final point I have a Line6 Flextone amp a friend of mine who is a hundred times better player then I, but like so many good guitarists makes less then I do in my square john job can only afford a Behringer V-Amp pro no prizes for guessing who sounds best what ever equipment he plays through, which was the whole point to start with I believe. Refreshing to read. Retailers have a part in this too, the scorn which comes across when you insisted on buying the low end kit would break a weaker man.
High end kit in studios that work 24 hours a day makes a lot of sense on realiabilty alone. For a partnership like mine which involves fitting in recording after working all day as computer programmer and phyciatic nurse, sorting out meals and making sure our children are happy does not need that sort of reliability. In a month I estimate our recording equipment gets used for 12-15 hours max so it should last a while with care so unless a retailer can really prove to me that one bit of kit is varstly superior and worth the money I go for the most I can get at the least price.
Final point I have a Line6 Flextone amp a friend of mine who is a hundred times better player then I, but like so many good guitarists makes less then I do in my square john job can only afford a Behringer V-Amp pro no prizes for guessing who sounds best what ever equipment he plays through, which was the whole point to start with I believe.

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