Clarification on recording guitars using valve heads, loads and impulse responses

pintspiller

I recorded songwriter demos over twenty-five years ago by taking a DI from the Line Out of my amps into my four-track and it sufficed at the time.

Some twenty years after the break up of my last originals band I want to make another attempt to make a start on my solo album.

I'm using Reaper to mess with these days and none of my amps have Line Out (Sound City 50+ and Carlsbro TC40).

The plan is not to use a speaker cabinet as I live in a timber-framed semi so not to annoy the neighbours and I've been lead to believe this may be my best approach using equipment I currently have:

Guitar(s)/bass > assorted pedals > valve head > Palmer PAN01 DI > Marshall Power Brake

I intend to use free cabinet IRs loaded via Poulin LeCab2. I may also use a Behringer GDI before the amp in case I choose to reamp or use effect plugins and amplifier IRs also.

andy_k

Not sure about the question really, a lot has changed in 25 years.
I have tried a lot of approaches to get a good valve sound captured, but sadly a lot of that sound requires volume, and lots of it. The Marshall powerbrake is a fairly crude tool these days to attenuate, what you gain in volume-you lose in attenuation-at least you lose a lot of the feel.
My last, and most successful attempts, was to ditch the amp completely. I run my guitar into a splitter- A goes to DI through a focusrite scarlett, input 1, B goes through my pedals-Flyrig5-5150 OD-HOF mini-Mooer Radar-and then input 2 on the focusrite.
I set up a folder in Reaper with 2 tracks armed record , and play.
This gives me a good DI track, and a speaker emulated 'Live' sound from the built in power amp / IR response from the Radar.
On the Di track I have had a lot of success with all the Poulin amp sims, and there are plenty of other free ones out there to play with, but I have the Slate suite so have been using their THU rigplayer more recently.
All this means I can monitor at very low levels, and have maximum flexibility with my recorded tracks.
I think a well mic'd valve amp, in a good room is a glorious sound, but have to live in the real world.
Just some food for thought, valve amps are 20th century technology, and Reaper is 21st-why not work with those advances?

pintspiller

I sold the Marshall Powerbrake and bought a Two Notes Torpedo Captor. I've only uploaded one track to my SoundCloud so far, but I have got a few originals that just need vocals.

https://m.soundcloud.com/pintspiller

digitalscream

Yeah, that's the best bet.

That last track sounds like the vocals are clipping, though. What were you using?

pintspiller

D5 into Focusrite. Levels ok going in. Probably too high in the mixer.

andy_k

posted this on another thread, all guitar is DI with Slate THU for amp sounds, all the rest is midi done in Reaper.
just for comparison, I still have my old rig, it is just easier for me to record DI these days.



keep it up mate--sounds good.

pintspiller

Sounds good. I was an enormous Damned fan.

Did you buy the Slate stuff or use one of their lease/rent programs? Is that the same crowd as Steven Slate Drums? It use the MT Power Drums.

andy_k

It works out about £12 a month, but doesn't include drums, basically all you need for a studio, tons of analogue eq, compressors etc, plus THU guitar rig, it is a good package,
There is a free version of the drum package,SSD5, easily as good as MT, I use both.
I'm also using a Fabfilter pack, which are probably the best eq stuff available, worth the money in the long run.