Yuku free message boards

Ideally, the best place to make use of digital effects is after the guitar amp's speaker, processing either a mic'ed or a cabinet-simulated, direct-out signal. At this point in the signal chain, the instrument and amplifier have already done everything they need to do together (assuming there is an acoustic interaction between the guitar and the speaker to allow for natural feedback), so the basic tone won't be killed.

In the same way, when recording, going first into analog tape and then converting to digital may warm up the signal and create a more natural-sounding result.

Obviously, the higher quality your digital equipment and the higher sample rates and word lengths you use, the better results you will get.

source: Digital Sucks

- - -

To be fair? I suppose so. Generally these days, I run my guitar signal into a Boss FBM-1 digital pedal, which is supposed to emulate the Fender Bassman. From there I go into an optical compressor pedal. This signal generally can't be too hot going into my Vox Tonelab, so none of these pedals are set too high with the level. From there I go into a standard home stereo graphic equalizer. Then into the soundcard. Same reference dBu levels, right? Then I play out my tv set, along with the stereo sometimes...which I balance between highs for the tv set and lows for the stereo. My stereo speakers are only 5" woofs by the way. This is how I practice without driving the neighbors crazy at 11:30pm. I watch a lot of late night tv, I guess. They can hear me, technically...but it's no louder than commercials on television. Certainly it's not like a subwoofer of sonic terrorism, eh? Why should the cops need to visit me? Because I'm playing a guitar?! The graphic eq is where I generally follow the advice of these Boston fans, who say to cut the 500Hz band, and then level out the other mid-range highs and lows to taste. It's really about response, y'know. The different bands of the eq affect each other in subtle ways, so you balance them out with this intial set-up of guidelines. That's how I learned. I used their template, then adjusted my set-up as necessary. It was trial by error. Sorta like the way I learned Windows XP. Nobody said this was easy, but no-one said you needed $5K mixing boards either. If you have to cut the sub-lows, or extreme highs for whatever reason, then you do it...whatever works for whatever you are doing...but...the 250 to 500Hz band ALWAYS gets cut, right? From there, the Tonelab is tweaked to whatever model you want to simulate, for instance...Fenders don't like a lot of bass. So I'll set up the FBM-1...mostly the same way as the Tonelab, I guess. No hard fast rules, just experimentation. An understanding of what your equipment is doing, for the most part...so you dive into the deep end of the learning curve. My compressor just heats it up, if I need it...plus it does it's "squashing" thing for the overdrive. It's all very subtle individually, but in the end...it sounds tremendous together. Funny how my Tonelab's compression setting seems to really wake up when the optical compressor goes into it, but anyhoo...

I'm doing it wrong.

How to "mic" an amp.
link

Maybe I'll cut a demo for you guys tonight. I played some pretty slick Voodoo Chile lines yesterday, but no songs actually. Mostly just 12 bar Jazz turnarounds...for hours at a time, ect ect...

(Maybe that's what I've been doing in the first place...while my broadband modem was hooked-up and online...all this week anyway. Who really knows. Generally I play only when I'm streaming Air America Radio, if you catch my drift.)

- - -

Question: Lately digital recording has become popular but what do you think of it?

Tom Scholz : I just don't like digital recording. I'm sure I could still record the way I do using digital but, I don't think you can get a decent sound the way most people record. Sixteen bit recording just isn't enough but over 16 bits might be OK. It's not enough to let normal people hear some exciting rock and roll that has been exactly reproduced. The thing that's exciting about rock and roll is the combination of the sound of the compression and distortion (not guitar distortion but the overall delicate distortion feeling) in the music during playback combined with the natural distortion that normally goes unnoticed inside the listeners' head. Digital recordings just can't produce that effect. Most people say that analog recordings sound warm. You can't compare the amount of information obtained through analog recordings to that obtained from digital recordings. There's all sorts of information that comes through with the music. It's that information besides the music that makes rock and roll exciting. This has been proven through physics.

source: Young Guitar (Japan 1979)