Six-String Strategies

By Joe Gore

Once again, we're going to return to the drum and bass groove that we've assembled over the course of the last few Boot Camp columns. (Quick recap: We transformed some rather generic drum and bass parts into hipper ideas, chiefly by using such basic Pro Tools moves as pitch- and time-shifting, slice-and-dice editing, and signal-processing plug-ins.)

Now we'll look at some strategies for tracking, editing, processing, and mixing guitar tracks. Download this month's practice session for PC or Mac. In it you'll find a stereo mix of the rhythm tracks we've been building, along with a few electric guitar snippets.

The Amp Arguments
All the guitar parts in this month's session were tracked using a laptop and an Mbox. I simply plugged a guitar directly into one of the inputs. And they sound like — well, they don't sound so great. To make them sound better, we'd have to add something, like a software amp simulator plug-in. Which begs the question:

Is this a good way to track guitars?

That is to say, is it a reasonable alternative to other options, such as miking a guitar amplifier, or tracking through a hardware amp simulator like Line 6 Pod and its ilk? Consider the arguments:

• Analog amps: They sound great. They look cool. They're relatively easy to control and record. They tend to elicit the most naturalistic performances from most players.

• Amp-imitating direct boxes and hardware digital amps: The best ones sound great, and they can impersonate many different analog amps.

• Software amp simulators: Like hardware digital amps, software amp plug-ins can clone multiple analog amps, plus they allow you to change your tones after you've tracked the parts — while you're mixing, for example. And the latest pseudo-amps are so accurate that all but the most golden-eared experts probably can't differentiate the digital clone from the real analog deal. Countless guitarists are now embracing software amp simulators.

I've used all three techniques on a lot of sessions, and my answer is that old wishy-washy fave: It depends.

LE Reality Check
One of my favorite amp/cabinet-emulating (among other things) is IK Multimedia's AmpliTube. It's a great plug-in packed with powerful and innovative features. Why don't you download the demo here? (Warning: the demo version emits a white noise burst every few seconds.)

Pro Tools TDM users have another big advantage over us LE folks: low-latency operation. On big Pro Tools systems, the delay between performance and monitoring is so short that you barely notice it. For most guitarists, tracking guitars through a plug-in such as Line 6's Amp Farm feels pretty much like performing through a physical amp.

This type of guitar recording experience is not yet possible on LE systems. While you can monitor through a plug-in such as AmpliTube, the delay between a player's fingers and ears is so substantial that few even bother.

So the biggest hurdle in tracking guitars straight into LE systems is mentally coping with the flat, dull tone you'll hear in all its un-glory in this month's practice session. Some players do this easily, imagining the final processed tone and performing accordingly. Others find this approach too unappetizing to consider. It's your call.

But you should definitely know how to record real-time audio tracks into LE. (I'm surprised how many users don't.) Make sure to mute the track you're creating, and adjust the input/playback balance as needed. When you're through recording, return the balance to 100% playback and unmute the new track.

Take a Bad Sound and Make It Better
Let's return to the sad little Mbox guitars in our demo session. Unmute "gtr1," a clicky-clucky funk riff. One quick improvement: adding some amp-like EQ and compression.

Activate the track's two bypassed plug-ins by Command/Control + clicking on each of the insert slots. The EQ setting mimics the tonal contour typical of guitar amps, with rolled-off highs, an upper-mid spike, scooped low-mids, and a fatter bottom, while the compressor mimics the squeeze you get from an analog amp circuit.

Granted, it doesn't sound like an amped guitar, but it sits in the mix better than it did. And it's worth remembering that a lot of classic records do feature direct guitars, especially on spanking-clean rhythmic parts like the one here.

Now unmute the other guitar parts and have a listen. The "gtr2" track is a minimal part that doubles a segment of the bass line, while "gtr3" is another syncopated groove pattern. "LoserGtr" is similar, only with some really sloppy timekeeping. Try these experiments on the track:

• Copy the "gtr1" plug-in setting to the other guitar parts by click + dragging them from the original insert slots onto the new tracks.

• Differentiate the parts by fiddling with the EQ and compression settings.

• Pan the guitars to different positions.

• Try other plug-ins. For example, add delay. You might use the Digidesign slap delay plug-in for a faux-reverb setting like this:

Or create a rhythmic delay akin to the one we applied last month on the bongo track via the extra-long delay plug-in, like so:

Delay Gratification
Remember, when you open a Pro Tools delay plug-in, the default setting is 100% wet — that is, you hear only the delay, not the original signal. That's the setting you usually want when you're installing the delay on an aux channel, so you can route multiple tracks through it. But if you're inserting it on a single track as we've done here, make sure to adjust the mix setting to a lower level so you can judge the effect.

For a rhythmic effect like the one in Figure 3, replace the default tempo setting of 120 bpm with the song's actual tempo, and then audition various rhythmic settings. (Hint: If the part has a lot of straight quarter- and eighth-notes, try using dotted eighth-note and dotted quarter-note delays. And if the part has a lot of dotted-note syncopation, like "gtr1" does here, your best bet may be a straight quarter-note or half-note. Adjust the feedback setting — sometimes the default 0% (i.e., a single delay) is perfect, and sometimes you want it to linger more. Finally, try lowering the LPF filter setting, which removes high end from the delayed signal, which is precisely what happens organically when you play through vintage analog echoes. Trimming treble from your delays often helps them sit neatly behind the direct signal. In other words, you can get away with more delay if you roll off the highs.

Amplitude Adjustment
Now let's break out AmpliTube, starting with the "gtr1" track. First, turn off all the other plug-ins. You can Command/Control + click on the insert slots to mute them again. Or better yet, deactivate them so they don't hog valuable processing resources — just click on them while holding down the Command/Ctrl + Control/Start keys. The italic script on the insert tab tells you the plug-in has been removed from the system, though you can return to your last-used settings at any time with another Command/Ctrl + Control/Start + click.

Now insert the mono-to-mono version of AmpliTube. Most guitar amps are mono anyway, and to my ear, mono guitars usually work best in a full mix, especially when there are multiple guitar parts. Hey — the default setting sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Dial through some of the presets and see what else might work.

As you can see, there are a lot of parameters here. Allow me to point out a few highlights:

• AmpliTube allows you to mix and match simulations of different preamps, power amps, and speaker cabinets. But you can also stick with the tried-and-true combinations by activating the "amp match" and "cab. match" LEDs.

This way, you automatically get a closed-back, 4x12 cabinet simulation when you select British Crunch mode (read: "Marshall"), or an open-backed cab when you dial in Fender flavors.

• Try some reverb. AmpliTube features one of the best spring-reverb clones you'll find anywhere. The tremolo and tone controls are pretty spot-on as well.

• Click the "Stomp" icon in the lower-right-hand corner for a virtual pedalboard of lo-fi effects. Dig it:

Try my settings for a dose of '70s cop-show funk.

• Click the "FX" icon for a "rack" of outboard effects.

• Insert AmpliTube on the "gtr2" and "gtr3" tracks and dial in some appropriate tones. If you don't have enough CPU juice to support multiple instances of the plug-in, you can always bounce some of them to disk, deactivate their plug-ins, and then drag the bounced files back into the session.

Groove Deficit
Finally, let's return to the slice-and-dice mode of our last few workshops by administering audio triage to the "LoserGtr" track. The part is similar to "gtr3," but with a pointier tone. But the feel sucks, especially when you solo it against the rhythm tracks. Not that producers and engineers ever need to time-fix poor playing on professional recording sessions [cough, cough].

Select the region and fill the screen with it by pressing the "e" key with Command Focus mode enabled.

Set the grid mode to sixteenth-notes and enable the Tab-to-Transient option in the screen's upper-left-hand corner. Separate the region into individual strums by alternating between the tab key and the "separate region" command (the "b" key in command-focus mode). The automatic settings caught most of the accent points, though it missed these double hits:

So I zoomed in and manually separated them.

You should know the rest of the drill by now: Select all the slices. Quantize them to grid with Command/Control + 0 (that's zero, not the letter o). Type Command/Control + f to create a batch crossfade. Consider the results. If you're satisfied, consolidate the slices into a single region with the Option/Alt + Shift + 3 command.

Sometimes quantizing to grid like this kills the feel. But here, where the problem is plain old crappy playing, the tighter approach definitely sounds better to me. In fact, I wound up discarding the glitchier first half of the pattern in favor of the more secure second half — I simply copied and pasted measures 11-12 over measures 9-10.

Now it feels pretty good.

Try blending all the parts into a coherent mix. Don't be afraid to omit some — it's getting pretty busy. The session download includes an mp3 of my final laptop/Mbox version. I wouldn't mind hearing yours — send 'em to joewgore@aol.com. (Please include a subject line other than "Attn: Home Loans, Lowest Rates Ever, Will Not Last!" or "Add 3 inches in only 2 weeks!")

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