Recording: 'Alroight Bab' electric guitars

Electric guitars is where things get noisy, and Alroight Bab starts to sound like a rock ‘n’ roll song. However, this part of the recording process has been a nightmare.

Electric guitars: rig run down

That’s the most extensive rig run down so far!

Recording

I have a go-to way of recording electric guitars, based on the tonal qualities of each instrument, and the general “lows on verses; highs on choruses” approach.

As a result of which, which guitar, amp, what I play, and why, is outlined below. The order they’re listed in is the order I record them in.

Gibson ES-335		Laney VC15-110 Open chords, right through the songs The 335 isn’t too fat or too bright sounding – but a player can send it either way; I go with that middling sound right the way through
Dean Z		Laney VC15-110 Power chords on the bass strings on verses; open chords on choruses It has a ballsy, low-end sound that’s the growling heart of verse lows
Fender American Standard Stratocaster		Zinky Smokey Barre chords on choruses The Strat has such a bright sound, and the Smokey’s speaker is too small for any impactful low end, it’s perfect for bringing out choruses
Fender American Standard Stratocaster		Laney VC15-110 Whatever leads need to be played For lead parts, the Strat will cut through the little wall of sound I make with the other guitar parts

My amp settings are based on James Dean Bradfield’s from the Manic Street Preachers, due to an issue of Total Guitar in the nineties, and I’ve consequently stuck with: bass at four, mids and treble at six.

Furthermore, on my Laney, I set the tone knob to five – completely middle of the road – and the drive to six. It’s dirty, but not filthy.

light audio recording electric guitars amp settings

In terms of mic placement, I really just pointed my 2200a at my Laney, at a 45 degree angle, pointed between the rim and center of the speaker, about six inches away.

light audio recording electric guitars mic

So, is it the best positioning? I don’t know, but I’ve always been happy with it.

The nightmare begins

I had a spare hour before I had to leave for vacation so I thought, “I’ll get started on electric guitars, and hopefully I’ll at least get the 335 done.”

Therefore, I set up guitars and mics, loaded up BandLab, opened the Mix Editor for Alroight Bab, and hit record.

It didn’t save.

At first I thought I’d accidentally deleted it, so I indulged in some Ctrl+Z. Nothing. I consequently thought I was going nuts. So, I recorded it again, paying more attention, and the same thing happened. And then again.

I consulted Google on the matter, which told me that it can happen if internet connection is weak. A selection of bad words ensued. I knew our internet connection could be patchy, but I didn’t have time to keep trying right now.

Next attempt

Back from vacation, I went through the same process. I managed to record the 335.

However, after that, everything turned to pretty much awful. The Mix Editor struggled to load. It would load up to maybe 92%, then just stop. Other times, the page wouldn’t load at all. I essentially spent 24 hours bouncing between these.

light audio recording electric guitars bandlab loading

light audio recording electric guitars bandlab snap

An internet speed test concluded that it was fast.

light audio recording electric guitars google speed test

First of all, I tweeted at BandLab, but didn’t get a response for a couple of days. Of course they responded telling me to email their support team within three minutes of me emailing their support team.

Eventually, I manage to get all my electric guitars recorded: the 335, the Z, and the Strat through the Smokey. However, it took days, bouncing between those screens. I was – and still am – pretty pissed off by it.

Light audio recording is supposed to be quick and easy. However, this was not.

After another period of far too long, I got the guitar solo recorded.

Farewell, sweet Hummingbird

However, the Hummingbird track didn’t load. The track was shaded with diagonal lines, and I assumed that just meant that it couldn’t be load, but it would be fine.

Nope. It deleted it. Hence more bad words ensued.

light audio recording bandlab no hummingbird

I spent two days trying to rerecord it through shitty loading. However, it did that thing where it wouldn’t save after recording it.

Eventually, I decided to go back to the version from I recorded the acoustic guitars, and export just the Hummingbird, so then I could import it to the ongoing one.

Nope. I got an error message saying it wouldn’t import. And then more crashing.

Conclusion

Pros	Cons
It’s done!: I’ve never been more relieved to finish playing electric guitars Daniel from BandLab: he’s been trying to help, bless him! Quality: I don’t think it sounds any better or worse than when I had a more elaborate setup	BandLab: I’m not giving up on it, but I may have to rethink how I use it Neighbors: they didn’t complain, but when you’re on the seventh take of electric guitars, you do think about them, and it does distract from rocking out Duration: seriously though, it should all have been wrapped in an hour

So, technically, I achieved what I set out to do in this step of the recording process. The electric guitars are certainly recorded.

However, the cost has been great, particularly in terms of time. As a result, it took a week to cobble together something that seems unusable.

Consequently, my current line of thought involves exporting the individual tracks, creating new projects in BandLab to mix each section and bounce them down, e.g. both acoustic guitars on one track, all the electric guitars on another track, etc.

Finally, this is what I have to go from for recording vocals. For which I’ve bounced all this down to one track. More on that in the next recording post.

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