Maybe you aren’t a rock guy/woman that wants to record electric guitar all the time ,but I’m sure that you want to record for a specific part of your song. An arpeggio part in the verse ,or even you want to enhance your instrumentation in the chorus by adding some power chords. It may seem a very complicated and difficult process ,but it isn’t. Today we are going to talk on how you can easily record your electric guitar without having any amplifiers,with only two simple steps. There are a couple of ways to record your guitar but I start with the easiest one. All you need is your guitar,a jack cable1/4 ,and your audio interface.That’s all!
The first thing you have to do is to add a mono audio track in your project.i use Cubase but it’s all about the same with every DAW you may use.
The next step is to plug your guitar in your audio interface with your jack cable.You just plug in your guitar using one of the inputs to your interface. If you have an input called Instr( from instrument) then use this one. I use for this tutorial Focusrite Scarlet 2i2. It has two inputs XLR and line in and I can use both of them as line in or for microphones. It doesn’t matter which audio interface you have. They all do the same work! Now I’m going to use my stock plug ins, to find the perfect sound I want for this specific song. I am using AmpSimulator that comes with Cubase and it does exactly what it says.It is a simulator of amplifiers ,where you can choose from a variety of preset sounds and several cabinets.
A very useful plug in for recording your electric guitar quickly and easy.You can easily edit any sound you like and save it as your preset for future recordings.
Now, the next step is a very important one ,that many of you ,including me when I just started in home recording,seem to skip it. You have to configure the levels of your input signal. You open the mixer in your DAW and you check your stereo in level while playing your guitar with the sound you have picked from your plug in and you try to set a perfect level for your recording. Remember what I ‘ve told you in previous post. We don’t want clipping.We don’t want to go red in the meter. An average level is the best solution. You’d better record in low levels so you can have much headroom in your mixing process.Forget this old myth saying “you have to record loud and hot!” No. this isn’t truth! You have to perform your best without clipping!
A very important detail is that if you want to hear the sound you choose from your plug in ,you must activate the monitor button. In Cubase is a button with a speaker on it. You can find it on each track individually , and of course in the mixer.
Focusrite Scarlett comes with a very handy feature for checking and adjusting your input levels. Round the gain knob a lighting ring indicates how loud your input signal is. Green color is the most suggested one where you can record without any problems. Orange is the color saying you are a little bit loud and red that you are out of bounds.You don’t want to go red!
With these simple steps ,ypu can record your electric guitar fast and easy! In upcoming post,I’m going to talk how you can record your guitar from your amplifier (if you have one) with your microphone. Today we talked about the easiest way to record and it’s the proof that technology provides us with countless advantages for home recording!
Leave your comments below if that was helpful.if you have already recorded an electric guitar and I’m waiting any questions that you may have.