Recording

Recording: ‘Seven Shades’ guitars

By ronanfitzgPosted on
Time to Read:-words

Last week’s bass recording had some new and interesting stuff. Now, it’s time to record guitars for Seven Shades. And I’m still playing with my new BandLab Link Digital.

Seven Shades guitars: rig run down

As can be seen, that’s a much longer rig run down than last time!

Recording

Previously, we saw that I was in possession of a new toy – the BandLab Link Digital audio interface. Although I had recorded bass with it, I still needed to put it through its paces. So, receiving it just before I had a bunch of guitars to record was good timing!

While recording bass, I established that it handled a bass directly input with an instrument cable, and into my Chromebook, perfectly fine.

Now, with guitars to record, there was an opportunity to explore even more, namely in terms of recording with the Link Digital using a mic and my phone.

Z and 335

So, to start, I needed to record my humbucking guitars.

  • Next, I did admin – in this case, this meant
    • Bouncing down the drums, bass, and scratch track
    • Then, creating a new project in BandLab, just for recording guitars
  • Previously, I mentioned the difficulty in getting a level in BandLab’s app. However, it still needs to be done. So, I just pressed record, played guitar and adjusted the gain on the Link Digital, eyeballing the waveform that was created until I was satisfied.

Finally, I was ready to record some guitar!

Strat

With the humbucking guitars, that was all I had time for right then. Consequently, I picked things up with my single coil, solid body guitar a few days later.

On this occasion, I wanted to see how the Link Digital would work with the DAW app I use in times of questionable WiFi – Audio Evolution Mobile.

So, I set things up as before…

  • Hardware
  • Admin – bounced from where I was at in BandLab, uploaded that to Google Drive, downloaded to my phone; imported to Audio Evolution
  • Recorded

Additionally, by the time I started this session, I had obtained another new piece of gear – Portastand Compact Mic Stand 2.0.

But, something a little odd happened in recording. It recorded what I played. But only on the left ear.

Now, it wasn’t the end of the world – a few taps allowed me to save each side as separate mono tracks, so I could just delete the silent right-hand channel.

But still, odd. And a bit of an annoyance – it’s an extra step when we’re trying to keep processes light.

Solo

I recorded the guitar solo in yet another session. Because I didn’t have time, or a clear idea of what the solo would sound like.

Given the dark nature of Seven Shades, I wanted the guitars to reflect that. And I’m conscious my solos mostly sound like bad Oasis solos. I listened to Therapy?’s Troublegum album for inspiration. And one morning at 3am when I couldn’t sleep, I worked out the bulk of it.

Here I am in my dressing gown…

Later, I recorded it properly, with the Link Digital, straight into the Chromebook, with my Tube Screamer Mini and some delay.

Overall, I think the solo sounds like a cross between Therapy? and Oasis, and that’s fine with me.

Seven Shades guitars: conclusion

In summary, I think it’s been a very successful few guitar sessions. Although it’s been little longwinded because I had to test the Link Digital.

However, the inability to monitor what I’m playing through the Link Digital, is an annoyance.

To conclude, this is how all that work sounds!

seven shades guitar

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