HOLY COW! VAI RECORDING SETUP!!!!!!

[jemaholic]

Immediately go get the August Home Recording magazine, page 36. Article goes into mice placement for Steve's amp and the combinations of mics he uses. Then it goes into panning, ambience, delays, double-tracking and how he prints it!
Excellent.

[FinnJ]

ahhhhh jees man, i cant get that magazine in ireland. is there anyway you can send me a scan of the article?

[davester1234]

Originally Posted by jemaholic

Immediately go get the August Home Recording magazine, page 36. Article goes into mice placement for Steve's amp and the combinations of mics he uses. Then it goes into panning, ambience, delays, double-tracking and how he prints it!
Excellent.

If there ever was an article that needed to be scanned and put on jemsite, this is it.

Is this possible?

[hanban]

Give me all his gear . i'll find a way to record with it even without the article

[Polaris20]

They're auctioning SSV's Pro Tools Mix system off on Ebay, to benefit the Casey Ball Foundation. I guess Steve upgraded to the HD system, and donated the MIX stuff for the auction.

That was mighty cool of him.

I wonder if his kit includes the "make me sound as good as Vai" plug-in? :lol

[jemaholic]

I don't have a scanner. Hopefully, some else does and can get the info out. I'll also check if Home Recording has a website with articles online.
Sorry about the mis-spelled words in the original post - was in a hurry.

No pics in the article unfortunately, but some clear strategies Steve has been using that might help the rest of us attain a better sound. What's interesting is that they introduce Vai's setup halfway through the article as an example of one way to record electric guitar. I almost fell out of my chair when I read their "example" !!!!! They also mention that he's a talented engineer too.

[davester1234]

can you get it scanned at the library, friends house, or a business for the sake of our well-being?

[darren wilson]

Scanning and posting an article from a magazine would be illegal. You know... that old legal clause about "may not be reproduced in any form..." ?

[davester1234]

yeah i know, just trying to realize a life long dream!

But thanx for the reminder darren!

[jemaholic]

Check out www.homerecordingmagazine.com. The first half of the article is on-line under "Why Doesn't My Guitar Sound Like That". Unfortunately, Steve's info is in the second half and it appears they are a month behind in posting their articles ( so they sell on the newsstands I presume ).

[davester1234]

bought it!

Good little bit.

Recap for your info:

Vai uses sennheiser md421 (set to speech setting)...that prevents bass roll-off, a shure 57, and a beyer m160.

-recommends combining sounds of multiple mics. makes it more 'stereo'.
he likes to pan the beyer way left, and pans the other 2 to about 2:00 or so.

-He uses room mics for ambience (in the corners), and often, a akg 414 about 3 inches in front of the amp.

-recommends adding a 20ms delay to room mics, or reversing the 'phase' on some of the mics (particulary the one at 3 inches).
gives depth

-Double track your guitars (play them twice)! fattens it up.

-mic the back of the cab. make sure that mic is set up to mirror the front mic, or they won't be in phase. adds a lot of depth.

-compress all the mics, but not individually - the combined signal of the all: "This will help glue the individual components together into one overall guitar sound" (Home Recording, August 2003, pg 3.

a great little article and many other fab tips are in there.

[jemaholic]

Well Done, Dave.
I'll be trying out some of these techniques on Sunday.

[Nilsefix]

So steve does this with all the mices in one recording , takes it in a mixer , out of one output on the mixer in to pro tools and it ends on one track is it so ?

Nilsefix

[anuj]

i'm betting on each mic getting its own track.

~A

[jemaholic]

I'm betting He's recording at least one track for each mic. He's probably double-tracking for certain lead lines too. I'm currently into dissecting Fire Garden right now and I'm hearing what appears to be double-tracking all over the place.