Recording the Guitar

You'll know what it's like. You spend ages getting that great guitar sound and as soon as you put it on tape it sounds like a wet string flapping limply in the breeze.

Well here comes John Harris to the rescue. He calls on his many years of experience as a guitarist and recording engineer to bring you a collection of invaluable tips to help you get stunning results from your recordings.

He starts with setting up, strings, intonation and playing techniques. All these can affect the sound you ultimately put on to tape. Electric guitarists will learn when to mic up, when to DI (and when to do both!) and diagrams illustrate a range of different mic positions to coax the sweetest sounds from your acoustic.

All guitarists want to get that certain sound, and John shows how different pre-amps--valve, transistor, digital--can be used for different sorts of music. And you'll find out how to put the finishing touches to your masterpiece with effects--compression, reverb, delay, gating, flange, chorus, harmonisers etc. etc. And don't believe MIDI is out of place in a guitarist's book. You'll find out about pedalboards, MIDI controllers, program switching and MIDI patchbays. And for real technofreaks there's a section on recording MIDI guitar and using sequencers, as well as sampling your guitar sounds.

The book is rounded off with some tips on production techniques, like sound layering and tape tricks, and getting the final mix just right.