I was recently recording some session guitar parts for a local Sunshine Coast producer. It’s not my usual gig. Most of my guitar recordings are for projects I’m working on or a client.
I have some nice pedals, a nice amp and cab but I find the flexibility of using pedal and amp emulations in the box much quicker. This is especially true since I’m not a guitar tone-lord and the producer I was recording for was probably going to re-amp the DI signal anyway.
IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube is a pretty amazing tool for this. There are more amp heads than you’ll realistically ever use and the range of included pedal emulations are impressive. Plus you get their 500 series rack emulations of compressors, EQs, reverbs and more.
But this isn’t a sponsored post for AmpliTube.
So I’m getting these tracks laid down and I start to build a chain I like. I’m using a hardware compressor, then directly into my interface. For most of the tracks I was hitting a delay, a touch of lift from an overdrive pedal, into the amp and then out to a 500 series digital reverb or shimmer verb (we’re getting atmospheric here).
As I’m sending over the tracks I start explaining my chain and realise I have no idea what the names of the emulations are. Okay, so I did know I was using a blue Vox amp emulation but beyond that I didn’t really know the name of the other bits of gear in the chain.
In a way that was encouraging. I was relying upon my ears and trying to create the sound I had in my head rather than have a preconceived idea about bits of gear.
Don’t hear me wrong, there is nothing wrong with knowing the sounds of bits of gear and choosing them for that reason. What is important is to use your ears and imagination when crafting a sound.
The Takeaway: Mythical bits of vintage gear, no matter how desirable, aren’t always the right fit for some tracks when you’re recording and mixing. I try to buy gear I know I will use to get a sound I’ll use even if it doesn’t come with a mythical back story.
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