Recording help

[Ethan Keeling]

Yo guys

I have a PRS MT15 amp with the cab and basically I want to start to record and manage sound better. When i jam, i have the music coming through my phone, and with my amp being loud i cant hear it. And if i put headphones in to my phone to listen to the song while I jam i then cant hear my guitar! How can i resolve this?

I also want to be able to post better videos so everything can be heard better, so that I could have a instagram or youtube video with good guitar and backing track sound.

How can i do this if this makes sense?

 

[idssdi]

Do you have a speaker with an aux in or does the amp has an aux input?

 

[Calvin Phillips]

If you dont have an audio interface you'll want one. Then you gotta decide if you are gonna plug the interface into a pc or the sound system. If you do it through a pc you'll have more freedom I've personally never done it through a studio speaker. May be hard to do some of this right now though.

 

[Ethan Keeling]

Do you have a speaker with an aux in or does the amp has an aux input?

My head and cab both do not have an aux

 

[Ethan Keeling]

If you dont have an audio interface you'll want one. Then you gotta decide if you are gonna plug the interface into a pc or the sound system. If you do it through a pc you'll have more freedom I've personally never done it through a studio speaker. May be hard to do some of this right now though.

I thought that but from what ive read ill have to mic up my tube amp cab and plug this into my audio interface or it will damage the tubes in the amp if i plug direct

 

[Ed Seith]

As outstanding as the MT15 is, it is a basic tube amp at heart, and I would expect that the tubes REQUIRE a load (speaker) attached. You can get a power soak/DI box for it that will create the required load and give you a direct out, but that is definitely a hardware purchase, and probably cost as much as the MT15 itself. If you can handle volumes where you record, you're better off getting an interface, like a FocusRite Scarlett and an SM58 mic (SM58s are the standard mic used in every club in the world to mic everything - cheap and effective). If you want to get particular about recorded tone, you'd want to experiment with other mics and that can get expensive. Go see a live band in any club and you'll find a 58 dangling by its wire in front of a speaker cone for the guitar player. "Good enough" as they say.

YMMV. Gear eats money.

 

[Ethan Keeling]

As outstanding as the MT15 is, it is a basic tube amp at heart, and I would expect that the tubes REQUIRE a load (speaker) attached. You can get a power soak/DI box for it that will create the required load and give you a direct out, but that is definitely a hardware purchase, and probably cost as much as the MT15 itself. If you can handle volumes where you record, you're better off getting an interface, like a FocusRite Scarlett and an SM58 mic (SM58s are the standard mic used in every club in the world to mic everything - cheap and effective). If you want to get particular about recorded tone, you'd want to experiment with other mics and that can get expensive. Go see a live band in any club and you'll find a 58 dangling by its wire in front of a speaker cone for the guitar player. "Good enough" as they say.

YMMV. Gear eats money.

ok, so mic it up and put that into an audio interface? How do I then make it so my backing track is loud and clear. For example, if i were to do a cover of nightmare, how would i put the song and my guitar together?

 

[Ed Seith]

You use a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) like Audacity, ProTools or my favorite, Reaper (sorta free if you don't have the money, but $60 if you do) - A DAW is a multitrack studio.

You would import the backing track into the DAW, then you could play it back while you record your cover. Then you can mix and go.

For quick stuff, like I do with the Metal Minutes, there's a free program called OBS Studio - you set all the inputs (including your playback source, in my case iTunes), set your levels and hit record.

Both also work with video, with your webcam.

 

[Ethan Keeling]

You use a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) like Audacity, ProTools or my favorite, Reaper (sorta free if you don't have the money, but $60 if you do) - A DAW is a multitrack studio.

You would import the backing track into the DAW, then you could play it back while you record your cover. Then you can mix and go.

For quick stuff, like I do with the Metal Minutes, there's a free program called OBS Studio - you set all the inputs (including your playback source, in my case iTunes), set your levels and hit record.

Both also work with video, with your webcam.

Awesome, thanks for your help Ed!

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Hey Ethan! Don't know if this helps you, but here's my recording process. Gotta say, I have quite some advantage when it comes to recording as I use the Boss Katana. Plugged into my PC via USB. I can shape the desired tone on my desktop and then hit record in audacity. However when recording covers I use one of two bluetooth In Ears so I can hear the music and my guitar. So you might really wanna get in ears. There are a lot of cheap bluetooth ones so you don't have to worry about cables! I recorde the video with my phone cam and then use Shotcut to bring video, audio and backing track together. Both Audacity and Shotcut are free by the way

 

[Ethan Keeling]

Hey Ethan! Don't know if this helps you, but here's my recording process. Gotta say, I have quite some advantage when it comes to recording as I use the Boss Katana. Plugged into my PC via USB. I can shape the desired tone on my desktop and then hit record in audacity. However when recording covers I use one of two bluetooth In Ears so I can hear the music and my guitar. So you might really wanna get in ears. There are a lot of cheap bluetooth ones so you don't have to worry about cables! I recorde the video with my phone cam and then use Shotcut to bring video, audio and backing track together. Both Audacity and Shotcut are free by the way

I have thought of in ears, but to get the benefit you have i will need to mic up my amp or use digital ones from wherever i chose. But thank you for the advice, seems like you have your recording down to a T! In my american idiot playthrough I tried a new setup, with my camera and backing track further away from the mic. Also i used some ear phones when jamming without recording (NOT noise canceling) and set it to a good volume so i had a decent mix!

 

[Calvin Phillips]

Hey Ethan! Don't know if this helps you, but here's my recording process. Gotta say, I have quite some advantage when it comes to recording as I use the Boss Katana. Plugged into my PC via USB. I can shape the desired tone on my desktop and then hit record in audacity. However when recording covers I use one of two bluetooth In Ears so I can hear the music and my guitar. So you might really wanna get in ears. There are a lot of cheap bluetooth ones so you don't have to worry about cables! I recorde the video with my phone cam and then use Shotcut to bring video, audio and backing track together. Both Audacity and Shotcut are free by the way

The katana sounds a lot like my line 6 spider 5. I can plug directly into the PC but I have chosen the route of the interface but everything else you do I do.

I do have a question about phone recording. How do you make it so the phone doesnt mirror image you.. I feel my phone records me left handed and I dont want that for the collab.

 

[Ed Seith]

The katana sounds a lot like my line 6 spider 5. I can plug directly into the PC but I have chosen the route of the interface but everything else you do I do.

I do have a question about phone recording. How do you make it so the phone doesnt mirror image you.. I feel my phone records me left handed and I dont want that for the collab.

I think you have to use the front-facing (not selfie) camera, or you can use an app (or built in tools) to flip the image/video after the fact.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

There are apps for that?

 

[Ed Seith]

Not sure if it's just for iPhone, but I can do that right within the iPhone. Vertical flip in the edit tools. No extra app required.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

I think you have to use the front-facing (not selfie) camera, or you can use an app (or built in tools) to flip the image/video after the fact.

Right, that's the way I record. Especially cuz the selfie Cam is half as good as the Other one. And If the Image would be mirrored you could still edit that in a program