Hi All, This month I want to write about something that can be a very, very cool thing: multiple sources for your recorded sound.

Have you ever tracked your guitar using your favorite amp, only to have it play back not as you heard it in your head? I mean, it sounds like the amp that you recorded, it just doesn't sound like what you heard in your head when you thought of the guitar part in the song. What's a player to do?

Multiple simultaneous guitar sources! This gives you more choices when you're mixing. More choices as to which sound to use when, (perhaps one sound for the verse and another for the chorus) or, blending the sounds to get a bigger, better tone. I've probably already said, but one of my current projects is a Blues CD for myself. I've been experimenting with sounds, mics, and amps to decide on how, and what I'm going to record.

Which sound is a great rhythm sound, and which is a great lead tone?
My choices for amps at the moment are a Roland JC-120, a vintage Fender Princeton Reverb (which definitely has its own sound), an early Mesa Boogie Mark IIC, and a Fender Blues Deluxe. It was very interesting, because some of those amps you can instantly think "Yeah, I can hear that on a blues record", and some of them you'd say "Man, I don't know about THAT one for Blues." Believe me, I had some of the same opinions. Yet I was very surprised at some of the tones I was able to get while experimenting.

Then, of course, I wanted ALL of these tones, and wanted to record them. For instance, I started with the Blues Deluxe as the primary amp, then took a signal splitter from my pedalboard to both the Blues Deluxe and the Mesa Boogie at the same time. I was going for a good clean sound. I like the sound of the Blues Deluxe, however, I've always dug the way Boogie's tend to shape the low end of clean tones. On the Fender, that trademark sound to me is in the mids and highs. So I let those ring through, but let the Boogie be the bottom end, rolling off the highs a little. A new big round, clean tube Blues tone has been created.

Now to get this into the computer, I could throw a mic in-between both amps (making a "V" shape with the amps and a mic in-between, but I ultimately decided that I wanted them on separate tracks so that I could blend them at will. I separated then by a couple of feet. Then close mic'd them. They sounded great. In the computer, I tracked them, then on playback panned them, with the Boogie to the left (about 10 o'clock), and the Blues Deluxe to the right (about two o'clock).

For an interesting dirty/overdriven sound I tried yet another combo. Using a BOSS DS-1 modified by OCCTONE out of New York City, I pulled up a cool distortion sound. This time I split the Blues Deluxe with the Roland JC-120. This was very interesting, as I had no idea whether I was going to hate it or not.

What I found, was that the natural characteristics of the JC-120 being a great Jazz/Fusion amp helped with definition of the chords. So on one side, I have the Blues Deluxe with the distortion pedal giving me a nice Bluesy almost Bassman tone, and on the other I have the JC-120 set up to be not too bright, but crystal clean, and tucked behind the distortion sound. This gave the chord voicings more clarity while still being distorted. I took this combo and recorded to two tracks as well.

At first, I was just going to use it on the chorus of the song, but then thought about how some off my favorite players take a semi-distorted sound through their verses as well. So, on both sets of amp configurations I played the songs from top to bottom with the two performances being very in the pocket time-wise. Recording this way also helps when transitioning from one sound to the other and from one part of a song to another. For instance: If I had the more clean sound during the verse, I could automate the fade in of the distorted sound going into the chorus to build intensity in the dynamics of the song. Then, maybe fade out of the distortion sound going into the second verse to have a nice resolve. These little subtle things can make a big difference in the over-all sound of the song.

Now for the lead solo sound, I have yet to design. I like my Boogie a lot, but I'm not sure that a distorted rectifier sound will be authentic for Blues. The Fender with some choice pedals will probably be the call, although, I'm not done experimenting.

Having these options while recording is very cool. Tracking different combinations of sounds while performing once can be a very cool way to record guitar. Imagine what would happen then if you double tracked this with a second performance. When you track this many guitars, sometimes they can get out of hand. But my rationale, is that I can always get rid of tracks, or mute them. I don't HAVE to use everything I record just because I recorded it. But options are good. Experimenting is essential. Of course, I'll have to settle on a sound for what I really want to take out to play live. I can be a purist, and take all of the amps, or find a happy combination that works for all. Gut feeling says the Boogie and the Deluxe are getting new road cases.

http://www.philgates.com
www.myspace.com/philgatesmusic