The Steel Guitar Forum

Anyone use Waves to record direct? What are the essential plugins I need to record psg?
Thanks,
Chad

For DIRECT , first you need a good quality PREAMP on the front end which can capture the tone of the Instrument. We are replacing a nice MIC and a nice amp.

Once we achieve a reasonably good TONE from a preamp and track it, any DAW worth it's salt will have all the tools to make MILD edits to dial in what you are seeking.

WAVES is a nice plug-in program but all it really is is a collection of PRESETS that others wrote and put in a package.

The biggest consideration will be the quality/flexibility of the front end preamp, be it tracking direct or with a MIC. If it doesn't sound GOOD to our ears going in, we can't really fix that. We want to make it it as close to what we want AHEAD of the DAW as possible.

"I'll fix it later" for tracking is not an option for tones. My take, its more of a MASK. Then we spend the next several hours trying to fix it and make it sound like we wanted.

A good Steel guitar or a good Telecaster should sound GOOD right at STEP 1 ! The hard work for tracking is ahead of the RED Button, not after the Red Button. Be it direct with a nice preamp or LIVE with a MIC and amp.

Don't press the RED button until you are ready !

What Tony said ... Unlike what Tony said, IF I read right, I mic my amp with a Sennheiser MD421ii, but What Tony said still applies, get the sound you want BEFORE you push the Record Button. After that, anything you add in plugins is only an enhancement to that beautiful sound you were hearing before you recorded. If you're recording multiple tracks you may adjust them so that they're cohesive as a group of tracks, so that they all feel glued together.

Back to Waves: some of my favorites are these... I have a boatload, but gravitate to these.

API 550
CLA-76
Greg Wells MixCentric

A small list considering the number of them I have... IF I use Eq, I use the stock one that comes with PreSonus Studio One, and that may be because of my familiartiy with it, the same with Reverb IF I add any, I use the Stock PreSonus one

What Dale said..I think

Tony Prior wrote:What Dale said..I think

😆😅😂🤣😜🤪🥳

Chad Light wrote:Anyone use Waves to record direct? What are the essential plugins I need to record psg?
Thanks,
Chad

You could try different amp simms going in. I've had luck with bassman simms in the past. After that try out a reverb and delay plugin. The stock waves stuff is pretty good.

Sorry I can't be more specific. I have used plug ins when I need to but I avoid them for the most part. They are easily over used and that tends to degrade the sound to my ear. If you are recording overdubs for a pro level session go light on the plug ins. Let them handle it if possible. Plug ins are getting better and better though. Some of the new amp simms are astonishing.

There is nothing wrong with plug-in pre-sets for any purpose. They are and can be valuable tools. That being said, what can happen is they change your point of focus, from what you are seeking to " oh this sounds good , I'll just use this " . I have them in my system and use them on and off, as Bob does directly above, but often I find them distracting from my initial goal.

If we are NEW to tracking, using a pre-set can be a valuable learning source as well, should you find and use one that you LIKE, look at it, study the parameters, its telling you what your ears like. Especially the EQ , Delays, Reverbs and Dynamic processors.

AMP SIMMS to me are a different beast. For years I avoided them , but lately I have dove into the water as Pro Tools includes SANS AMP SIMMS, which in the scheme of things is the same as Amplitube etc, without the BRAND NAME references. But we still have to have a desired SOUND in our head before we begin or they can lead us down a road we didn't intend to travel.

I don't use a mic'd amp too often, but I like it just fine, and it certainly works well.

But I like a good amp sim just as well though, and it has the advantage of being immediately re-callable if needed. I do a fair amount of internet session work, and being able to patch or tweak a track (after the client has had the tracks and provided feedback) is just much easier. No worry about matching up to old tracks at all.

I'm sure you can get there (match a tone) with an amp and mic as well, I'm just lazy.

As for recording with a better tone through an amp, based on what I've heard clients do to my 'carefully crafted' tone on the end product (don't you hate that??) I don't sweat it too much, in the ball park is fine. JMO... YMMV

Bill Terry wrote:
As for recording with a better tone through an amp, based on what I've heard clients do to my 'carefully crafted' tone on the end product (don't you hate that??) I don't sweat it too much, in the ball park is fine. JMO... YMMV

Years back I asked PF about his tones on recordings as they vary, even on AJ tracks.

I think he said something like - I give them the best I have to offer then they do their thing to it.