essential? Maybe your overdrive or distortion if you're working with a good amp and you want to capture that amp's sound. A real Marshall still sounds better than any Marshall-style plugin. If you're using a wah pedal, that should probably be in the original signal as well since it's a real time effect. In fact, anything that you have to control in real time should be used during tracking. But ditch the reverb, delays, phaser, flanger, and other such things. That all gets layered on later.
Though I will say if you've got a particular pedal that you don't have a matching plugin for, you'll have to record it on the original signal. But, also record a totally clean version of the take with no pedal in case you don't like it later. You can do that either by splitting the signal before the pedal to two tracks. Or you can just play it again.
5. Keep the overdrive/distortion down - Crunchy is good. But when you've got your distortion jacked up too high it will sound like white noise when you record it. It will also sound thin and get lost in the mix. Drop your distortion to half of what you use for live performance. Start there and record some sample takes to see how it sounds. A corollary to this is, let the engineer guide you. Especially if you're new to recording and you can afford an experience engineer, use his expertise and let him help focus your guitar tone.
6. Small amps can sound great too - You don't need a wall of Mesa Boogie stacks to get a great guitar sound when recording. Some of the greatest sounds on tape have been done with tiny amps. Giant amps are used for giant volume. And you don't need that in the studio since you're mic'ing and mixing. If the amp sound good by itself you can work from there and still get a huge sound.
If you are using a larger amp, like a 4x12, mic only the best sounding speaker. Placing the mic closer to the center of the speaker cone gives you a brighter sound. Moving the mic towards the edge mellows it.
7. Use two mics - One close, one far - If you're in a good sounding room or studio, this will give you a nice natural reverb you can mix with the dry signal. Place the second mic about 5 feet from the amp. If your room doesn't sound so hot or you just don't like the sound of it, you can always trash that extra reverb track later.
8. Double track to thicken - This is the studio equivalent of a wall of Marshalls. If you want a big thick sound, double track your guitar parts. While you could just cut and paste the track, it's the tiny variations in performance of multiple takes that really work nicely to beef it up. Do at least two tracks. Or go whole hog with the old Metallica trick of layering 30-40 tracks of the same guitar part. Just make sure the rest of the instruments don't get lost in the mix. You and I both know the guitar is the most important but sometimes your bandmates thing
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