by Roger Nichols
This title is not to be confused with the early morning TV religious program that carries nearly the same name. We do, however need some higher power to guide us in the recording of guitars. I sometimes wonder, though; if God had wanted us to retain our hearing, he wouldn't have allowed the invention of Marshall stacks.
Guitars are a factor in most forms of music recorded today, and in fact guitars affect our every day lives. One of my daughters is taking guitar lessons at school as well as private lessons at home. The one lesson she missed, however, was the one that teaches you not to leave your guitar lying around where other people can trip over it. At this very moment I am on crutches from tripping over her guitar when I walked into her darkened room. As the Earth's gravity was accelerating me toward the floor and surrounding sharp objects I realized that I was going to crush the guitar in the process. To me and my family, musical instruments and books are held in high esteem. (You can run over a banjo player, but try to swerve so you don't hit his banjo). At precisely the last instant I lifted my feet off of the floor so that I would not hurt the guitar. My right knee absorbed the entire impact of the fall dislocating it with a loud snap. So this must be how it feels to have your cleats dug into the turf as the 700 pound lineman hits you just below the knees. Ouchie!
Recording guitars has a special set of problems. The sound of an acoustic guitar comes from many sources. You can use multiple microphones, but then you run into phasing problems from these multiple sources. Most of the time I prefer a single microphone about six to ten inches away from the guitar just above the highest fret but aiming toward the sound hole. Sometimes I will add some of the direct feed (if the guitar is so equipped) with the possibility of later time-aligning the signals to circumvent phasing. I personally like the direct-only sound of acoustic guitars for solos, but hate it for rhythm parts. I much prefer more of an acoustic ambiance for strumming guitars.
When it comes to electric guitars, I find that it takes a long time to get the exact perfect sound for guitar solos. During the time it takes to get the ultimate guitar sound, the guitar player has become worn out, or the amp has blown up, or some other catastrophe has occurred to thwart the attempt at the solo in question.
The remedy here was to record a placebo amp sound for feel, and also to record the direct feed from the guitar so that it could be fed back into a guitar amp at a later time and re-recorded onto the tape. This method caused the least amount of brain damage and allowed the most efficient use of the guitar player's time.
There have been many attempts, with various outcomes, to devise an electronic box to emulate the sound of a guitar amp and speaker combination. But so far, nothing sounds as good as an amp in a room, or a garage, or an alley. Dean Parks came up with a novel approach. He had a giant road case about the size of a bachelor apartment built in which he placed a speaker enclosure and a microphone that he liked. The case was sealed up tight with connectors on the outside to access the speaker and the microphone. Now he had perfect isolation and a guitar sound that beat the pants off those electronic boxes. And if the session ran late, he could spend the night in the case and invite some friends over.
Guitar sounds can be very elusive. When you are out in the studio listening to the amps in the room, everything sounds great. When you get back into the control room the guitar sounds puny at best. This is usually because of phase cancellation at the microphone capsule. I know I have said this before, but it works. When you go out into the studio, stick a finger in one ear. Now you are listening in mono, just like the microphone. Walk around while you are listening. You will hear the sound change drastically. Find a spot where you like the way it sounds, and that is where you put the microphone. For health reasons, wash your hands before you try this, you can't always be sure where that finger has been.
The finger-in-the-ear technique works well for other instruments as well.
Drum sounds, especially the snare, will benefit quite a bit. I have used
it when recording orchestras for placement of French horn mics. It also
came in handy once while trying to find the best place to put the wireless
microphone bug in a lawyer's office. While carrying on a conversation I
walked around the office with a finger in one ear. Later when I got the
bill, there was a discount on his fee. When I called his office, the secretary
said that he always offers discounts to the handicapped.