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The Complete Guide to Recording Electric Guitar — Pro Audio Files

The Complete Guide to Recording Electric Guitar — Pro Audio Files

One of the biggest fundamentals of getting great guitar tone is having a taste for great guitar tone. It would be hard to cook something in the French culinary style if you’ve never had French food. Yet, I see a lot of guitarists and engineers approach recording guitar this way.

At the heart of any great tone is great ears. Tools like microphones and amps can help sculpt your tone, but if you haven’t acquired a taste for fine tone, how will you know when you’ve arrived?

It’s not simply a matter of placing a mic in position and pressing record. Great guitar tone is often the culmination of many elements.

This sums up lots of thoughts about electric guitar (and other things run through the amps and pedals).

My struggle is with DI signal that’s way too distorted when distorted, and way too loud when the volume pedal got pressed (I think it was a wah-wah). Finally figured out something that started to work, but still have a very hard time.

How to Make Your MIDI Sound Less like MIDI — Pro Audio Files

How to Make Your MIDI Sound Less like MIDI — Pro Audio Files

While virtual instruments and sample libraries have come a long way since the early 1980’s, you might find that the musical ideas that you create using MIDI still sound like, well … MIDI. The dynamics, tone and overall feel of music produced using MIDI tends to be lacking in comparison to music created using more traditional means. Here are some tips if you want to make your music sound less like it was created using a digital protocol, and more like an organic, expressive musical performance.

Always good to know how to help the “cheesy” sounds that MIDI instruments sometimes produce. New things in Logic Pro X allow for articulation to help. Miroslav Philharmonik has some decent articulations as well. Music has to breathe at a natural pace.

The latest MIDI specification includes Polyphonic Expression — new things happen! This should help. Like listening to a Disklavier that uses the “extra” performance information.

How to Make Your MIDI Sound Less like MIDI — Pro Audio Files

How to Make Your MIDI Sound Less like MIDI — Pro Audio Files

While virtual instruments and sample libraries have come a long way since the early 1980’s, you might find that the musical ideas that you create using MIDI still sound like, well … MIDI. The dynamics, tone and overall feel of music produced using MIDI tends to be lacking in comparison to music created using more traditional means. Here are some tips if you want to make your music sound less like it was created using a digital protocol, and more like an organic, expressive musical performance.

Always good to know how to help the “cheesy” sounds that MIDI instruments sometimes produce. New things in Logic Pro X allow for articulation to help. Miroslav Philharmonik has some decent articulations as well. Music has to breathe at a natural pace.

The latest MIDI specification includes Polyphonic Expression — new things happen! This should help. Like listening to a Disklavier that uses the “extra” performance information.

The MIDI 1.0 Specification

The MIDI 1.0 Specification

The newly adopted MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE) specification is available for download at the bottom of the Complete MIDI 1.0 Detailed Specification page

Polyphonic Expression. Right up there with Polyphonic Aftertouch — a rare beast indeed.