Recording - July 2013 - 43

The original PZM has a hemispherical pickup pattern (for instance,
the Crown PZM-30D), while some of the newer PZMs are more directional, featuring a half-hemispherical pickup pattern (an example
would be the Shure Beta 91A). You could simply place the PZM somewhere in front of the guitar amp and use distance from the amp to capture more or less “room” sound. You can even attach the PZM to a
nearby wall and see what kind of sound that gets you. Remember, it is
the end result coming through your monitors that counts the most.
Typically, PZMs (which use condenser mic capsules) have a flat frequency response, so get ready for some even low end and highfrequency capture. Check out Figure 2 and listen to Audio Example 2.
3. Split
There are so many types of guitar sounds out there, from super-distorted to pristine clean. Sometimes a combination of two different guitar tones is just the right sound for your recording. One idea would be
to combine opposite tones—super-clean with gritty overdrive. This way
the attacks of all the guitar notes and chords come through with sharp
accuracy via the clean tone, and the overdrive tone takes over providing the power and sustain. The trick is to create both tones at the
same time, from the same performance.
For this technique, you would split the guitar signal and send the guitar output to two different amps, with one amp set to a clean tone, and
the other amp set with an overdrive tone, and of course mike up each
one separately. As with most things involving guitar, there is a pedal
that does this splitting job, called the A-B-Y box. The idea here is to
have a signal-splitting box that takes one input and sends it to two outputs at the same time. The Morley ABY and Radial BigShot ABY (just
as two examples) allow a single input to go out of the “A” output, or
the “B” output, or both.
You can also accomplish something similar using a standard direct box
and just one amp, where you have the one input, an “amp” output and
a balanced mic-level output. In this case you would send the “amp” output to the overdrive amp (which is then miked) and take the direct miclevel output and plug that directly into your console or DAW. You then
wind up with a direct sound right from the guitar along with the overdrive
sound coming from the amp. You then mix the two signals to get the
desired sound—sharp attacks come from the direct sound, and overdrive/sustain comes from the amp signal. Listen to Audio Example 3.
4. Static wah
It seems like guitar players get all the fun. There are so many kinds
of effects pedals and amps out there to choose from, it is enough to
make your head spin like a rotating speaker cabinet (which sounds
great with guitar, by the way). One of the first ’60s-era effects pedals
created for guitar is the “wah wah” pedal, where essentially the guitar signal is run through a filter whose peak frequency is swept by rocking a pedal.
Now, instead of using the pedal as intended, where the wah is moved
back and forth while playing, why not use it as a powerful tone control—
find the sweet spot on the wah pedal’s travel that gives a “hyped”
midrange sound, and leave it there. Leaving the wah pedal in a stationary “half cocked” position can yield a distinctive tone for a guitar solo that
can cut through a very crowded mix, or if nothing else, provide a “something different” tone for your recording. Listen to Audio Example 4.
5. Doubling tricks
Ever since we’ve had multitrack recording we have been using the
tried-and-true technique of “doubling”, where a single track is recorded, then on another separate track the same part is performed as
closely as possible to the original track. This technique creates a thicker sound. In stereo, doubling (even tripling and quadrupling) an overdriven guitar track can make the guitars sound huge.
We’re not talking about the copying/pasting of a single track to
another open track, slightly moving the second track in time, then panning the tracks in opposite directions. That technique does not have the
same impact and wide stereo effect as actually making a separate performance of the original track and panning the two performed tracks
in opposite directions.

Anyway, a variation of this technique would be to lay
down your guitar track normally at first, then put the guitar
into an alternate tuning (or use a capo), and play the same
chords but in different positions on the guitar. This way,
with the different tunings (or capo) you get combinations of
fretted and open strings working together to make “impossible” chords—impossible because you would need many
more strings and fingers to create the same result on one
guitar. This combination of differently tuned guitar tracks
creates big-sounding chords, and when doubled and
panned, it can create a really huge guitar sound.
Doubling also somehow serves as a magic elixir for
less-than-great guitar tones. To me, a weird or awkwardsounding guitar track tends to sound much better in a mix
when properly doubled, and you have the added benefit
of getting the guitar tracks away from the center-panned
position where kick drums, snares, and lead vocals tend
to live. One of the reasons why guitars are so fun and
great is because there is so much leeway in terms of what
might sound good for a particular track. Audio Example
5 is a capo-specific example, but many of the Audio
Examples that go with this article are doubled.

Hint 6

6. Real reverb
There are many ways to generate reverberation on a
recording, both real and artificial. Guitar reverberation has
developed over the years from the good old surf-guitar
reverb and slapback echo to luscious and long digital
reverbs. Many guitar amps feature built-in spring reverb units
so that players can add just the right amount to their sound.
There is something to be said for actual room reverberation
and being able to capture it on a recording. While many
reverb boxes sound great, there is no digital algorithm or
convolution out there that perfectly recreates the interactive
sound that an instrument creates in an acoustic space.
Using room mics for a guitar recording can add excitement and realism, provided that you have an actual
reverberant room to use. The idea would be to use close
mics on the amp, and use distant mics in the room, and
then either mix the reverberant mics into the recording or
put them on separate tracks.
RECORDING July 2013

Recording - July 2013

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