Prepping for the studio can make for a smoother session ultimately leading to better recordings!
Live performance demands something different from our guitar pedals. Effects like time-based pedals, modulation and gain are there to change the tonality, feel and energy of our playing. Not all pedals are pure, some of them sucking tone and shaping it heavily, even when not engaged, and this usually par for the course. Live performance can be rough, raw and loud, so the minute changes to our tone from each pedal don’t matter so much. The recording studio is a whole other ball game, guitarists often working to retain as much clarity and tone as they can, and removing unused pedals from the signal, including things like noise gates and filters.
Gating can be done manually in a DAW if it’s really bad, and studios often have better power options than your local dive bar’s stage, so errant hum, hiss and noise isn’t as big a deal. So what’s the best approach for recording with those handful of essential pedals?
Lose the pedalboard
The funny thing is that most guitarists build their live sound with guitar pedals and spend countless hours trying, buying, selling and swapping these beautiful little creations to get that tone just right. Just have a look at the going rate on an old Tubescreamer that is beaten half to death and you’ll understand that guitarists place a lot of faith in these little boxes. So, why would they turn their back on them in a recording environment when it is actually an integral part of the sound?
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Oddly enough, most of the great guitar pedals I have ever owned came to me in some pretty bad states. Hand-me-downs, pawn shop finds and even one hard rubbish pot of gold. Someone else’s problem can often become your solution when looking for a particular tone. And it is these pedals, along with the more modern, pristine and very clever pedals, that come together to build sounds that the guitar and amp simply cannot deliver by themselves. So, the first thing I want all guitarists to do when entering a recording session is to not overlook a section of their signal chain, just because they believe it’s not good enough to record with. If it is part of your sound, it should be part of the recording.
Keeping it clean
Of course, there are some exceptions. Perhaps a newer built version of your old favourite might be in order, if it’s delivering noise or having issues. After all, there’s nothing worse than getting set up to record, being ready in the moment, and then having a piece of hardware fail you. So, understandably, ensure they are all up to the challenge. A little bit of grit is fine, if that is why you have included the pedal to begin with, but don’t allow it to bring other parts of the signal chain down.
That’s where the power issue is so important. Some old pedals can create havoc when the power supplied to them isn’t ideal. This is a common problem, both in the studio and in live situations, but it really becomes evident when recording in a quiet space. Please, do not think it is enough to simply get a single power supply and just run a daisy chain to give power to a number of pedals. That is the easiest way to create unwanted noise and should be avoided at all costs. The thing is, it can be fine in one instance, but a different combination or order of pedals can create some horrible sounds from the power that you just don’t want to capture in your recording. To ensure this is removed, get yourself a quality power supply that has multiple isolated outputs. That does not mean one that just distributes power from a box. It has to offer isolated power feeds so one pedal’s poor performance cannot influence another. Talk to the staff at your local guitar store, they should be able to help you solve this issue and set you up with good clean power for all your future recordings, rehearsals and live performances alike.
Signal chain
There are plenty of times when only one pedal effect is used, yet we have an entire board of pedals between the guitar and the amplifier. Obviously, the need to recall any effect at any time in a live performance is essential but in the studio, there is the luxury of a little preparation and planning that can make a huge difference. If you are only using one or two pedals in a track, don’t send your signal path through every pedal on the board. All you are doing is adding more connections, more cables, more circuits and more opportunities for noise to develop. Not to mention the degradation of your tone due to unruly buffering and bypass stages, which leaves your guitar sounding weak and limp.
Carefully plan your recording beforehand and know just what effects are needed in each track. This way you can keep your signal path as short as possible and retain your tone the way you would want it to sound. Remember, tone is the key and your pedals can be an essential element in your tone. So make sure they are championed in your recording just as your guitars and amps are. But be sure to keep an eye on the issues that could allow them to be the downfall of your recording.
But what about guitar pedals in mixing? Well, Radial have a solution for that too! Their XTC units interface line level signal with Hi-Z units like pedals for mixing.