recording guitar amps in a "low volume" environment

[super rad stuff]

what do you guys do to keep the volume reasonable but still get decent tone? recently, i've been covering up my amp(vox ad15vt) with about 6 or 7 pillows and a thick comforter with it close-mic'd. i've solved two problems at once, recording a good clean tone(finally!) and not disturbing my newly-arrived twin brothers. i'll have some clips up in a bit. anyways, what do you guys do?

[everdrone]

podfarm platinum reamped

[rashayritto]

when i wanna record yet be dead silent i run my guitar direct into the computer and record. then i just add a vst plugin to make it sound like i played through a marshall and TADA late night recording done!

[infrared72]

Pretty much the same here - I use Guitar Rig 3, and just plug in directly. I'd probably be killed by many (possibly all) of my neighbors for cranking it up an using a mic anytime after about 9pm.

I've gotten some pretty acceptable tones just using the XLR outputs on the cyber twin going direct into my pc soundcard. There's a tape echo on the cyber twin that I just really dig, and some of my direct-XLR recorded tracks have a nice dirty tone with a little touch of tape echo in the background that just sounds great.

-PT

[lookslikemeband]

I go about it in a few ways...

Mesa Recto Recording Preamp direct
Line6 POD Pro direct

or

Isolation Box w/ Vintage 30

Those can be built fairly cheaply if you wanna go that route... or Grendel, Randall and AxeTrax make fairly good ones, but kind of expensive.

[super rad stuff]

isolation box, eh..... tell me more

i've used the line 6 toneport a bunch and i like the dirty tones, especially when i use pedals. i just can't get over the fact that i can't switch between a good clean tone and a good distorted tone by turning of a distortion pedal.

[Virtual Kevorkian]

POD or Ampfarm + reamp later. Or not - I've heard albums done with a POD that sound better than most mic'd amps on record for the genre.

Iso boxes always sound muffled and one dimensional to me.

[super rad stuff]

well, i'll have a clip posted in a few hours(hopefully), i just gotta clean my room and i'll have a reel big fish cover minus drums up

[DrNewcenstein]

Isolation boxes typically should be at least twice the size of the cabinet you're putting in it. A 1x12 cab should be in a box about the diameter and height of 2 4x12 cabs for the best tone. Boxes that are just slightly bigger than the cabinet won't have much depth to them, thus the mic is getting more speaker tone, and not enough speaker+cab tone.

I use an ADA MP-1 and Line6 AM-4 Amp Modeler pedal into a Rolls RM203x Line Mixer, split left and right, then straight into the PC.

[super rad stuff]

*argh* recording won't be happening for me anytime soon, my computer keeps crapping out whenever i try to

[ImmortalSix]

I just close mic my AD15VT on a low volume and juice the preamp gain on the mic pre (TonePort)

This Squier '51 Demo

This Blackheart Little Giant Demo

And this Slicer demo were all close mic'd at a low volume with some pretty tall preamp gain on the TonePort (use the +18 button).

[Wattage]

Close micing small amps works but usually I use my Vetta xlr's direct in.

[super rad stuff]

I just close mic my AD15VT on a low volume and juice the preamp gain on the mic pre (TonePort)

This Squier '51 Demo

This Blackheart Little Giant Demo

And this Slicer demo were all close mic'd at a low volume with some pretty tall preamp gain on the TonePort (use the +18 button).

!!!! thanks for that tip, i didn't know about that button. now i won't be overloading the mic so badly

[Petrovsk Mizinski]

POD or Ampfarm + reamp later. Or not - I've heard albums done with a POD that sound better than most mic'd amps on record for the genre.

Iso boxes always sound muffled and one dimensional to me.

This.
It's very true, with the right post processing EQ, POD tone can actually really slay.