Recording - January 2010 - 32

Continuing his discussion of contributing factors in great guitar tone, Brian Tarquin addresses the interaction of guitars and preamps in this month’s Guitar Column. By Brian Tarquin Guitar Tone And Mic Pres Cubase, using the built in high-quality converters.” That magic analog stage Obviously, there are different approaches to recording. As you can tell, Zakk and Neal prefer to record through the mic pres in a classic analog console. That is how I record all guitars 9 times out of 10, but having a 32-channel classic Trident console at my fingertips tends to spoil me. However, I’ve done many sessions using the Universal Audio 2-610 and the LA-610 directly into Pro Tools and Logic, with terrific results. Then again, James Ryan from Men At Work likes a signal chain that uses no analog mixer, his signal goes through one of the Focusrite pres into Cubase. Whatever you choose as a mic pre, I think it is important to get something that is not too colored and retains the analog warmth of the guitar, which counterbalances the cold digital signal of DAW. I’ll go over some of the more popularly used mic pres and see how they stack up for the shredder in you. Neve 1081: Rupert Neve needs no introduction, but for those of you who are not familiar with the 1081, it is one of the most desirable mic pres in the recording world. It was originally designed in 1972 as the mic/line preamp and equalizer section for the Neve modular console.These consoles are still being used today on platinum-selling albums, and for good reason. Rupert himself won a technical GRAMMY from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for his contributions to outstanding technical significance in the recording field. The 1081 modules, called the Classic 1081 Mic Preamp & Equalizer, are still built in Burnley, UK by the mother company AMS-Neve—the website www.amsneve.com states, “We are still hand-building 1081 modules in Burnley, UK much the same way as the original modules, using the original components, hand-wound transformers, and time-honed construction methods.” After almost 40 years it is still an exceptional choice for recording guitars and is the original rock-n-roll preamps made to rock! Solid State Logic 4000: Many consider this to be the Holy Grail of consoles, because of its clarity and ground-breaking automation. SSLs have been used on nearly every pop In the past decade there has been a huge surge of microphone preamps, everything from tube-driven to all-discrete Class A circuitry. During the analog days, studios had recording consoles with built-in preamps, so no one really ever gave outboard mic pres a second thought, unless they were looking for a particular flavor on occasion. Today, with more and more people working “in the box”—doing all the work inside the computer—finding the perfect mic pre is essential. Despite much hype, many of the preamps built into various interfaces for digital audio workstations (DAW) don’t cut it. Especially for guitar recording, you want a preamp to capture the tone of the instrument, not a thin digital replica that does not do the guitar tone justice. Below are three guitar heroes explaining how they record monster tones. Zakk Wylde: “We recorded all analog on a SSL 4000 G/G+, 72 inputs, 16 E modules and Neve 1081 Mic pre/EQ. We didn’t rehearse; we just went into the studio and wrote the record—that’s where all the magic happens. We recorded the whole album in one shot, and then dumped it down digitally. Back in the day, when we recorded everything on analog, if you had to edit something you had to cut tape and if you made a mistake you were screwed.” Neal Schon: “Revelation was recorded at The Plant in Studio B in Sausalito (CA) which has an Neve 8068, customized 64 input with a GML automation and a couple of 24-track analog Studer recording machines, A800 and A827. We also used the new HD ProTools, which has some really impressive converter sounds. I was amazed with the fidelity and how much ProTools had improved. The old ProTools sounds used to leave me cold, because everything got squashed in the middle and it didn’t have that giant spectrum of fidelity that you get out from using analog tape.” James Ryan (Men at Work): “I used an Ibanez RG760 7string for all of the guitar tracks. That guitar has a fantastic phat sound, but also has that funky single-coil twang in the 2nd and 4th pickup positions. The amp was a Line 6 Flextone HD. It was one of the earliest Line 6 amps and it had great-sounding direct. The clean/arpeggiated tracks were close-miked with a Shure 57 on a 2X12 Line 6 cab. I recorded through a Focusrite ISA 430 Preamp intoRECORDING JANUARY 2010

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Recording - January 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2010