For some years now, one important factor has made our work as musicians easier. It consists of the vast possibilities that technology offers us in the field of audio recording and processing. There is no doubt that all the new tools, systems and instruments have not only given all of us the opportunity to record our work at home on modest budgets with excellent quality; often, the variety of sounds and options to choose from can be the source of ideas and sounds that would have been hard to conceive just a few decades ago.
In any case, all these programs are nothing more than tools which, while they may save us time and money, will not replace our essential role: projecting our personal musical universe, in short, creating and composing music.
In this article I am going to focus on recording guitars and processing them later in the mix. My explanation is peppered with references. As you would expect, every guitarist will have their own way of doing the job, and in the following lines I am only outlining my own way of going about it.
Clean electric guitars
When I record electric guitars, I always make a fundamental distinction: those with saturated or distorted sounds and those with a clean tone.
Working with a clean sound has always seemed easier to me. First of all, remove any effects, since I apply the reverb, chorus or delay, which I tend to use subtly, at the mixing stage. The other choice is whether to use a mic or record directly via line. I have used both options; for example, on my first album "El Sueño del Navegante" I recorded the clean guitars through a Mesa Boogie V Twin preamp, on the clean channel, a 50/50 power amp, an Eventide speaker and a pair of Neumann U87 microphones, one relatively close to the cone, about five centimeters away, and the other a couple of meters away picking up the room sound. The preamps feeding the two-inch analog tape recorder were Neve 1074s; any sound enthusiast knows the virtues of these fantastic preamps. For the rest of my recordings, however, both for my own albums and other people's, I have worked by connecting directly to the recorder, the audio interface or the console, in short, via line.
In this regard, one of the sounds I liked most came from recording the duo album with the brilliant guitarist John Stowell, "Jazz Duets-Contemporary Visions". On that occasion the guitar was connected through the Mesa Boogie V Twin preamp and from there directly to an Alesis ADAT VHS tape recorder.
Recording direct via line avoids the possible problems that using a mic can bring, and if you like a crystal-clear sound, it is an option that, to me at least, seems appropriate. If you are going straight into the audio interface, it is very important to use a compressor/limiter to avoid digital peaks, which are a real pain to edit later. For this I often use Line 6's Pod XT; I use the compression but turn off all the other effects. To add effects afterward there are lots of plugins; programs like Cubase, Nuendo, Logic, Pro Tools, etc. come with plenty of them, not to mention the many multi-effects and virtual amps proliferating for adding effects to guitar. One of the most complete is Native Instruments' Guitar Rig.
New products and updates keep coming out in the field of virtual amplification, so I imagine that in the coming years we will have a great variety and, if they reach the expected quality, they will make things even much easier for us.
Distorted guitars
Distorted guitars are another world, and here we often run into a problem: getting a recorded sound that is as faithful as possible to what we hear directly from our amplifier, or even better.
In this respect, what works best for me, after trying many options, is to place a microphone, specifically the Shure SM 57, off to one side of the cone at a distance of about three or four centimeters. But the key is to keep moving the mic to different areas of the cone while also moving it farther away and closer. When you finally find the sound that comes close to what you are looking for, it wouldn't hurt to mark on the cabinet grille the exact point where you are aiming the mic and measure how far away it is. The EQ spectrum changes quite a bit just by moving a few centimeters, and you have to keep that in mind.
All of this means we are not recording directly via line. If you have a room with at least minimal soundproofing or a space where you can play at a good volume, I would go for recording with a mic. Up to now I have almost always done it that way. On my latest album, "La Música de El Faquir," I recorded the distorted guitars like this. I used the Line 6 AX2 as the amp, set the volume so that it went cleanly into the Apogee, with no extra added distortion, and compressed lightly from the Apogee itself.
Anyway, we have to keep in mind what we discussed earlier. There are units with a direct recording output or with an effect that simulates a microphone pickup and the acoustic space of a room, so that recording via line sounds quite warm and believable in terms of the sense of space and "air movement" we naturally get when recording with a mic. Whether or not these simulators really offer the necessary quality… at some point it comes down to the user's taste.
People often show me recordings where I hear distorted guitars that sound great, and they tell me they were recorded via line, either with units like the Pod or similar, or with virtual amps in software. On the other hand, I have come across distorted sounds recorded with very expensive gear, microphones, preamps, compressors, etc., and the result did not even please the guitarist; sometimes the sound comes across as cracked, thin, shrill… Recording distorted guitar with a mic is certainly more critical than with a processor via line. It's not an easy task, but it is worth spending a few hours experimenting, as mentioned earlier: distance, mic placement, etc.
Once again, it pays to have a good compressor/limiter. For years I have been using a small but effective analog-to-digital converter from Apogee, the Mini Me. It acts as an "audio interface" and also has a compressor/limiter, so I avoid having to use more gear than strictly necessary.
In short, when recording electric guitars I think it is important to consider the following points:
First. Have a good audio interface with good preamps and analog-to-digital converters. This is essential; not all of them are the same, and it is better to have a unit with fewer inputs but good quality. There are many on the market, some very good and others not so much. Choosing, like everything, is a matter of taste, but the opinion of a good professional can save us money by getting it right the first time. Album credits often list the gear used, which can give us a clue as to which equipment to go for.
Second. It is important to record the signal as clean as possible, preferably without effects; in the mix we can turn to numerous options, both analog and virtual effects.
Third. Listening to the guitar in context with the other instruments can save us surprises. Try making several recordings and fitting them in with the rest of the instruments, looking for the right placement and EQ. After those tests, it may be time to record the final guitars.
Acoustic and Spanish guitars
When recording acoustic instruments, in this case guitars, the approach is obviously different. Recording an acoustic instrument is quite delicate, and there are several aspects to consider. 
One of the most essential is probably the choice of microphone. This is a real adventure. There is a very wide range, with as much diversity in models as in prices. Of course, if our finances allow us to get hold of an old Neumann U67 or similar, we have a good chance of making the right choice, but these mics cost more than 3,000 euros and, since they are not within everyone's reach, we should lower the bar to other models that, while much more affordable, can give us a sound faithful enough to what we want to reproduce.
I remember an anecdote. A few years ago I was having lunch with Ramón Balcazar, a Spanish film composer based in Los Angeles, and Evans Evans, son of the great pianist Bill Evans. Evans is an important composer; among other things he also writes film scores and has an excellent studio with all kinds of microphones.
During our conversation, Evans recommended that I use a mic costing less than 300 dollars to record Spanish and acoustic guitars, rather than mics costing more than 2,000 dollars. At first I didn't put much stock in his words, and shortly afterward I bought a relatively expensive mic. A few years later, a dear friend and student asked me to recommend an "affordable" mic, and I told him the same thing Evans had told me. He did buy it and, after a few weeks, lent it to me to compare with the one I had. The upshot was that the cheaper mic sounded considerably better than the more expensive model from every point of view. Evans was definitely right.
I have been using this mic ever since, for both acoustic and flamenco guitar. It is an AKG mic, specifically the C3000. Obviously there are better ones, no doubt about it, but since then I have recorded many guitars with that mic and people always tell me they love the sound. To give you a couple of examples, you can hear it on these two albums: the first track of the CD "De la Vigilia al Alba" by the great flamenco singer Curro Piñana, and on the album by the fantastic Catalan composer Andreu Jacob, "Home Das Bubas," specifically a tanguillo titled "Tierra de las Tres Culturas."
The other key point in recording acoustic and Spanish guitars is, once again, the quality of the preamps and, if you are recording in a home studio, the quality of the audio card or interface. I'll say it again: it is better to spend a little more and go for quality gear than to settle for converters that sound like plastic. For a few more euros we can have equipment that lets us record acoustic and Spanish guitars with a level of quality more than good enough to be part of the tracks of any top-level production.
It is also a good idea to have a solid reference for what well-recorded guitars can sound like. Focusing on the steel-string acoustic guitar, I can recommend listening to a 2003 album by Pat Metheny, One Quiet Night. It was recorded at his home with the mic, the audio interface and the computer, and the sound is excellent.
As for Spanish guitar, extraordinary work is done in our country, and I could mention many examples, but right now I am thinking of some albums by Tomatito and Vicente Amigo, or the production Gerardo Núñez did for a series of flamenco guitarists, titled "La Nueva Escuela de la Guitarra Flamenca." In the first two cases, the man behind the sound is José Luis Garrido and his Musitrón studio, with outstanding results. I don't know who was behind Gerardo Núñez's production, but my congratulations go out to them too.
Adding effects
Another important point in producing a good guitar sound is when to add effects. Here it is best not to overdo it, and in any case to opt for discretion rather than leaving the guitar stuck in a cave, as can unfortunately happen if we go overboard with the reverb. I generally use plugins, reverbs along the lines of Altiverb, or the latest one from Waves, which are simulations of acoustic spaces. The one that comes standard with Cubase SX3 is also very good, and although it is very basic, with a little work on its simple parameters it can be perfect.
As for EQ, ideally you shouldn't have to change much; that is, try to capture the instrument's tone in the recording so that only minimal adjustments are needed in the mix. Perhaps cut a bit of low end if some frequency gets out of control, and details like that. I'm certainly not one for experimenting with EQs on Spanish or acoustic guitars. Always keep in mind how the mix will turn out with the rest of the instruments. A solo acoustic guitar is not the same as a flamenco guitar with a cajón and a tinaja, or a flamenco guitar with drums and double bass in a swing tune. As an example, you can listen to the flamenco guitar in a non-flamenco context on "La Música de El Faquir," specifically on tracks 4 and 9. There is a very tight reverb, a Waves Ultramaximizer and some EQ touch-ups, also from Waves.
MIDI guitars
Unfortunately, we don't have much to choose from when recording MIDI guitar. Basically there are three major brands offering MIDI converters: Roland, Yamaha and Axon.
I am expecting to receive the latest new product from the last of these brands shortly, and I will take the opportunity to share my impressions in this same magazine. I don't know whether MIDI has stagnated or whether they are developing other systems for working with synthesized sounds from the guitar, digital guitar, etc., but in any case, with the huge number of virtual synths and plugins offering all kinds of sounds, instrument companies should consider it their duty to make using synthesizers as easy as possible for guitarists. So far I have mainly used Roland and Axon, sometimes using the unit's own internal sounds and other times using them as controllers for other synths, whether virtual or not.
The importance of monitors
A key point worth highlighting in the home studio is the quality and choice of monitors. We may be convinced we have found a good balance and EQ in the sound, only to have it all fall apart when we switch monitors. Some monitors don't bring out the low frequencies even though they are in our recording, others overemphasize the mids… In short, and to avoid surprises, it is important to look for monitors with a flat response. Here, too, it's best not to skimp on the budget; a small financial effort can make a big difference.
