Hooking my guitar up to Ableton / Best way to record

DJ Software & Apps Ableton
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Hooking my guitar up to Ableton / Best way to record

Hi all, this is my first post.

Ive been using ableton for about a month now and absolutely love. Im already onto developing a particular style and would really like to incorporate my guitar playing into the production.

So far I use my Tokai Les Paul plugged into a Line 6 Guitar port straight into ableton, however it just doesn’t sound good. It sounds computerised, lifeless and all round shitty.

I have done some research and people say hooking up a Mic to an Amp is the best way. Just wanted to get some insight into anyone that has experience with recording guitar. What are the best ways to record? What software should I use or what equipment should I buy?

P.S I have a marshall 150Wat valve amp + an SM58 Microphone (havent actually tried recording it yet though through the mic).

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Mic and amp do work best, but I would recommend minimizing the sound of the room. I always use a mover’s blanket over the speaker and mic. Make sure you do NOT cover the heat vents on the amplifier if you do this. Also, Guitar Rig 5 from Native Instruments sounds pretty good, but is an expensive piece of software. I also use softube’s Vintage Amp Room a lot, but those are brighter, noisier sounding models. Hope that helps

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I’m going to second Guitar Rig here; next time you’re free pop round and you can plug straight into my Komplete 6 and do it that way. Guitar Rig pretty much lets you simulate a range of different amps, cabinets, and room designs to get the “perfect” sound; it’s one of those nightmare situations where you sit there for like 4 hours tweaking it though.

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I also love guitar rig for the home musician. There really is no substitute for having a room full of amps/guitars/pickups/preamp/mics at your disposal, but when you don’t have all that (who does?) Guitar Rig is a great go to.

My advice also, as someone else said, room control. Get all the noise out of there, and record your signals at -18 db rather than 0 Unity. Digital signals have the ability to be boosted with a lower noise floor than analog stuff usually, but only if your room is nice and quiet.

Are you using an external mixer? You said…“right into ableton”. With what sound card/converter? A cheap (MBox for example) interface can leave you with thin sound regardless.