Recording Electric Guitar and Reflection

 Hello again!

Today I recorded the electric guitar for my track! I decided to record both a slower and a faster sequence so I could use one as almost a solo guitar part during the drops from the chorus. This recording wasn't as smooth as the acoustic recording, though. This was due to my friend (who was very kindly playing for me) struggled to keep up with the fast guitar melody and so we recorded three takes of it: one with the full melody line, where they tried as hard as they could to play it correctly and in-time, one of the first section of the melody line, and one of the second. The plan was to combine the first and second parts together so it would recreate a seamless melody line, if we couldn't get a clear take of the full one on its own.

As for the setup, I set the XM8500 mic on an axis to the edge of the cone of the Fender Blues Junior amp and placed the two C2's equidistant from the centre of the cone - around 45 inches away. You can see evidence of these pictured below:

Although the measuring doesn't look like the most convincing accuracy in the photo, I assure you, they were placed equidistant. Below you can see the full setup of the recording, which I set up exactly as planned:

As for the effects and tone of the guitar, I lessened the decay of the "GlitterCln" preset, as I found initially, there was too much for the sound I was aiming for. As for the amp settings (also pictured below), the reverb was at a moderate amount, and the mid-tones were the highest, as in most of Portishead's songs - they are very mid-heavy! I also used the mid-pickup on the guitar as I found the neck pickup didn't have enough body, and the bridge pickup had too much! 

As for post-production, all I added was slight compression, which was side-chained to the vinyl crackles I had in the track. This was to give it a tiny bit more texture, although it's mainly unnoticeable unless you really pay attention. The slow guitar melody plays throughout almost the entire song, whilst the faster melody line plays after the first chorus and after the last. I think it adds a lot of body, character and depth to the song - it makes the drops much more dramatic and powerful, which I like.

I think that may be all, though. Thank you for reading!

-D.