Learned something with FRFR recording today.

Speculum Speculorum

Speculum Speculorum

Power User
So up until today, I was recording guitars DI and listening through my Adam A7 monitors. I was always happy with my sound, and thought that I was pretty much doing everything right. A while ago a forum-ite here talked to me about how even though it's FRFR, the speaker/guitar interaction was pretty important to recorded tone. "Okay" says me. "I've got some sound coming out of the speakers. Sounds good." And he's right, of course. It did make a difference. I'd been recording with my speakers on, and I didn't really think much of it.

Until today :pride:, when I rather drastically increased the level of my playing. I can still talk over my guitar, but I increased the signal by about 10db. What a difference. The mids really opened up, the high end was way less congested, and the lows really balanced out. When I mixed the guitars in back low again, it felt like the guitars had a good deal more depth and space to them, even though they weren't as loud. I definitely didn't understand how important this was before. So my lesson is this:

Record with a little extra volume on hand if you can. Then use a gain trim plugin (like Logic Pro's native plugin) for mixing. Much better sound, in my humble opinion. :encouragement:
 
That's an interesting observation :)

I wonder if there is anything scientific going on (vibrations maybe..?) or whether it's placebo..?
 
I remember Cliff himself comenting on how important was the interaction between the speakers and the pickups in your guitar to achieve a good guitar sound.
 
Cover'd said:
That's an interesting observation :)

I wonder if there is anything scientific going on (vibrations maybe..?) or whether it's placebo..?
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It's definitely not placebo at all. The guitar resonates when sound passes over/through it, and that resonance plays a factor in the tone that your guitar produces. When you play next to a speaker, or with the sound of your playing coming into the room you are playing in, it creates a feedback loop basically causing your guitar to vibrate in tune with itself. It has to do with harmonic order, physics, and a little bit of the ol' magick, if you get my drift. :D

Addition: I had always known it was a factor - I just didn't know how much volume was necessary to really get things going. It makes a pretty sizable difference, in my opinion. It doesn't have to blast your ears out or anything, but I kind of do wonder how my tone would be if I played with a wedge next to me playing fairly loud while I recorded. Curious!!!
 
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I posted this a couple years ago. It makes a HUGE difference in the mids. I actually made measurements but I forget the results.
 
Yeah, before I felt like the mids were a bit on the wobbly side. This makes them balance out so much more nicely. Quick question though. Good news is my monitors work great on this for bass too. My God. It's like I opened up a new door and saw a new color.

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I posted this a couple years ago. It makes a HUGE difference in the mids. I actually made measurements but I forget the results.
Click to expand...
Yep, still remember that one.
That's why I prefer playing with monitors instead of using IEMs.
 
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