I just wanted to make a video to talk a little bit more about the process that I personally
use to record electric guitar and bass guitar because I think it will really benefit those
of you that are recording not only from a home but that are doing this professionally
and want to have the most optimized and efficient setup for recording these two instruments
as possible. That's especially important if you've got deadlines to work with, if you're working
with clients and there's just no way or no margin for you to have errors
If you just don't want to have a surprise like, after the client says that they don't
like the guitar track but I already recorded it with the amp, I would have to go back and
record that entire guitar part or whatever so you don't have to get into those awkward conversations
You can be like, yeah, no problem, I'll change the tone, assuming they only have a problem
with the tone. The huge thing is that as a musician you know that you cannot, you can get pretty close
but replicating a guitar part or a bass part exactly 100% the way it was is just as close
to impossible. If you always sound a little bit disparate then that's because you don't have time
You spend like one hour nailing the part and getting the time right and you were in it
that day but then a week passed and now you're just like, oh, I forgot the part or whatever
because we're moving really quickly in this industry. You probably have already worked on two or three other projects since that project and
then they ask you for the revision so then you're just like, ah, so here is my solution
and it's not just my solution for this, it's just like I've been using this setup for a
very long time because I just like to cover all my bases
That's just the way I roll. I just want to make sure that I have as many options available to me as possible with not
that much resources. I won't be able to demonstrate it 100% because I'm actually using input number two for the
microphone that you're hearing right now. This is actually a two, as you call it, a two channel recording thing
The first part is just going to basically be the guitar that goes into the, I'm using
first of all universal audio, audio interface and that's really important as well because
as you'll see, I'm going to load a plug-in in right now and this is using Universal Audio's
Unison preamp. Alrighty, that's one thing. I'm not going to get into it too much right now
Unison preamp, basically what they do is they just automatically regulate the impedance
at the input stage. It's kind of like you're using a DI box but a bit like, it's like you're using a dynamic
DI box which will actually adapt itself to your guitar impedance and it will match the
impedance to, let's say you're loading in, let's say I'm going to load an app, one of
my favorite app models right now. It'll basically replicate the circuitry of that analog piece of equipment so like basically
like you're, it's almost like plugging into the real thing. Without getting into too much detail, that's what Unison technology does, the Unison preamp
which is important, right? That's, for me anyway, that's important. Another important thing about Universal Audio interfaces is that they use onboard DSP processing
which means that basically these plugins, they're not loaded into your computer
They're loaded into the audio interface so they're using the audio interfaces CPU which
is basically allowing this to record in not 100% zero latency but it's pretty damn close
Like it's like there's no delay whatsoever. It's like you're recording into the real piece of equipment
It sounds amazing. It feels amazing. It's like analog modeling and physical modeling to the next level
Like I cannot recommend Universal Audio enough but that's not what this video is about
So basically there, channel one is going to be basically that. I'm plugged in basically into a DI box, okay
And the DI box is on the floor. I'm using a Radio Pro 48 just in case you guys are interested
And the thing with that DI box is it has obviously the input with the balanced XLR output but
it also has a throughput meaning it just, you know, ejects your unbalanced guitar signal
if you want to plug it into an amp or something. So my amp that I'm plugging into is the high impedance input of my Universal Audio interface
So that's input number one in this case. So then it's actually kind of like plugged into an amp when you think about it
It's a virtual amp but nonetheless it sounds like the real deal. So that's input number one as you see right over here
And input number two right now is the microphone but normally it will be the balanced XLR output
of my DI box and obviously, you know, you got the 48V power that would be required for that
I also use a pad in some cases depending on how high the level is because, you know
these are high impedance instruments and, you know, if you were using a passive DI box
it would be a little bit different but trust me, it works with an active DI box as well
Just work with the pad, either the one that's on the DI box or the one that's if you have
one in your audio interface. So basically that's what I do. And then what I would do is I would actually mute the monitor for the second channel because
I don't even want to hear it. Why don't I want to hear it
I'm basically just leaving it there as a backup for guitar anyway
For bass, I might actually mix it in there with the wet signal, you know, with the amp
and I might mix the DI in there. You know, the DI might be just like, you know, to get the high end or something, you know
and then the wet signal might be focused more on the low end, you know, because the DI
as you know, doesn't really provide much, you know, amplification, you know, for the
bass and the bassiness part. So bass guitar is a little bit different
But anyways, electric guitar is I literally just mute it and because the advantage and
disadvantage of recording straight into real time, you know, analog model plugins is that
you can go back. It's like you're recording straight into an amp like and you mic it like, you know, you
can go back there and, you know, like that. Resend the audio, you know, back in time, like it's recorded, it's printed onto your
hard drive. So that's what I'm saying. If your client wants a revision or doesn't like the tone or whatever and you're stuck
with it, well, now you have the same performance. Okay. And in the DAW, what I would do is actually, let me see if I could load a session up for
you guys. I'll show you what I'm talking about. So. So if you got the guitar track right over here, whether it's all my like, you see the
bass, they have a two track, like the main one and they have a good DI track
So if the guitar track is over here, and in this case, I actually mixed it in with it
So I combined the both tracks together, the DI and, you know, the dry and the wet signal
But normally what I would do is I would literally have this here and I would just mute it
And it's just there as a backup. Like let's say I want to reamp it. Okay
That's what the term is, reamping. And this would work whether you would have an actual amplifier outside
You know, like externally, a physical amplifier, or you want to use a plugin
Basically you got a fresh, you know, dry, unprocessed signal that is the same performance
as what you worked with, but you can actually just, you know, if you don't like the sound
like, you know, you recorded it with the sound that you wanted or you thought you wanted
And then like, whether it's you or the client, you know, and it wants a different sound
Now you have this raw, unprocessed signal that you can just feed through another amp
again and you can actually have a lot more control because now you're not playing the
computer or the whatever device, recording device you're using is going to be playing
it for you. It's going to be like re-performing that part for you
And you're going to just be adjusting the amp and the knobs and stuff just to dial in
that perfect tone. So if you don't have time in the moment or you don't want to take time in the moment
you just want to like record it as soon as possible. Well, this is the best way to cover your bases
So that way you have two copies of the same performance. And I hope you understand how beneficial this is in the long run and why I personally use
this approach. It's just, right now my setup, I'm really happy with it
I don't know if I'm going to be staying with this for the rest of my life
It might change. Everything changes. Everything evolves with time. But it's been this way for a while and I think I've fine-tuned it to the point where
especially in regards to the plug-ins and the specific equipment I'm using, this is
what works best. So I hope at the very least that this inspires you to create something similar in your home
recording studio. Just to have somewhat of a setup that's really efficient and professionalized
It's that way you can swap things in and out and you just have backups and you just
have everything you need to create without worrying about, you know, what if I did
something wrong? You could basically cover your bases every step of the way
So if you have questions about my setup for recording electric guitar and bass at
home for professional purposes, leave them down in the comments. I'd also like to know if you have any future requests for videos
You can leave those in the comments as well. I'd be more than happy to make a video on a specific topic that you want more
clarification or information on. And if you like what you hear, you like what you see, make sure to subscribe to the channel
It helps us grow. It helps you keep, you know, keeps you in the loop for future videos
And hopefully we'll see you in the next one