The main thing to start with here is to listen to the sound the guitarist has now! What I mean by that is,
listen to the sound he/she has coming from the amp, if it doesn't sound good now it won't sound good on
tape. Some guitarists will want a sound that's not even coming from they're amp! They'll say "I want to
sound like Chuck in Death" or whoever & they have a peavy practice amp, you can't perform miracles...
you have to get them to work with the sound they have.

The next thing, if you do like the sound, walk up to the amp & put your ear about 6 or so inches from one
of the speakers while the guitarist is playing. This is what the mic is gonna hear when you try to record
it! This is where you want it to sound good, so keep that in mind when working on a sound. I have found
that a little less distortion than normal helps you to get a better sound on tape.

Also, put new strings on the guitar, it makes a huge difference in the sound.

MIC TECHNIQUES & SELECTION

The mic selection of choice here would be the Shure SM - 57, it works great on guitar (even the pros still
use these on guitar) But as always try what you have or what you will, you never know what your gonna
get with a certain mic unless you try it.

Usually in aggressive music you want a "tight" guitar sound...more "in your face" so close micing is
most often the best choice. I'll put the mic about 4 to 6 inches from the speaker & about half way
between the center & the edge of the cone. If the guitarist has to play pretty loud to get the sound
your looking for, back the mic up a little (remember to put your ear where the mic is to hear what
it's hearing) Also move the mic around a little, moving it an inch in any direction can make a big
difference.

Once you get the working distance that you want, it's a good idea to get out a tape measure & check
the distance of the mic from the speaker, the floor, ect. That way if the mic gets bumped accidentally
you can find your working distance again...Also if you keep a record of all your working distances
when you do your next project you'll have a good starting point without alot of experimentation.

You can also try running it direct from the guitar pre-amp or from a distortion box. I don't like
this much for distorted guitar sounds, it sounds a little too "fuzzy" to me... it can work great for
clean sounds though. But then again, this might be just what your looking for so give it a try.

Also for those of you who want to use your computer for recording, there are many affordable sound cards out there with decent mic preamps built in. So you can go right from the mic to the digital domain. You might want to insert a compressor in between to keep your levels under control.

GETTING IT TO TAPE

A little compression can help smooth out some peaks that might occur & tighten up the sound a little
more. But if the guitarists already uses it on his/her preamp, there's no reason to compress it again
unless levels are getting out of hand. If he/she doesn't have or use it & you want to, here are some
settings I start with...

COMPRESSION RATIO = around 2:1 (2 to 1)
ATTACK TIME = around 3ms (3 milliseconds)
RELEASE TIME = around 300ms (300 milliseconds)

You can GO HERE for an explanation of compression

If you have only one guitarist & you have the tracks, double the rhythum guitar track. Just have him/her
play along with the first track & try to match it as close as possible, then pan the seperate tracks
left & right. You wont believe the difference this makes, it gives the whole mix some life. Also if you
have two guitarists, pan their seperate tracks left & right (or if your only using 2 tracks for the
whole rhythum section, pan them left & right going to tape) this will have the same effect.

If you have more tracks you can triple or quadruple a single guitarist & make 'em sound like an army!
Same thing for doubling two guitarists... this is one way the pros use to get those huge guitar sounds.

*A note on this, when you double a guitar track try tweaking the EQ a little or have 'em use a different
guitar so you don't have exactly the same sound on both. This helps to make it thicker sounding too...

If you can, record the guitar dry (no effects) & add them at mix down, that way you'll have control
over the amount you want. If you don't have the tracks to seperate them, try using a little less than you
think...and try to think ahead to the final mix & how this sound will fit with the rest of the instruments.

An important thing to remember is that reverb will move it farther back in the mix or have a less "up front"
feel to it (which is cool if that's what you want) Overly dense reverb or reverb with a long decay time can
"wash-out" or "blur" the sound, so watch the amount you use on 'em!

GOOD LUCK!!!