Insider’s Secrets
__________________________________________________________
- 12 -
Electric Guitar and Bass
There’s something very special about the mix of tube preamplification and electric guitar and bass.
This is an area where the LA-610 positively shines—little wonder, considering its lineage in the 2-
610 and LA-2A. Ted Spencer, in evaluating the LA-2A, described a session involving a bass overdub
as follows: “The LA-2A sounded just sensational... providing a certain “blended” quality to the sound
but not at the expense of clarity or dynamic impact.” He went on to say, “For a mix of a pop rock track
in Pro Tools, using the LA-2A inserted on electric guitar was even more of a no-brainer.”
Michael Cooper enthusiastically reported the results of using the LA-610 to record electric guitar
using a small amplifier miked with a ribbon microphone: “Cutting frequencies above 10 kHz by 3 dB
using the LA-610's flattering EQ and setting the compressor section to Compress mode, I found the
results were warm yet present. Fantastic!”
You’ll find that compressing acoustic or electric bass with the LA-610 yields very similar results.
This is especially due to the unique attack and release time characteristics of the compressor
section. The pick or slap of the attack sneaks through, and then a little mild compression really
brings the tone forward. Here, too, a little bit of pre-compression EQ yields great results. When
plugging an electric bass guitar directly into the LA-610's hi-Z input, Michael Cooper reported that
after “setting the unit's preamp gain to +10 for grit, cutting the EQ drastically above 4.5 kHz and
boosting below 70 Hz, and placing the compressor section in Limit mode, the results were positively
thunderous.”
Myles Boisen stated flatly in his review that “The 2-610 has been an absolute smash hit for guitar
and electric-bass recording at my studio.” One technique that both Boisen and Cooper employed with
great success was to split the electric guitar or bass signal and then plug one side into the Hi-Z input
and the other into an external tube direct (DI) box whose output was connected to the the other
channel’s mic input. In addition, Cooper found that “cranking the [preamp] Gain to +10 gave a slight
bark that was perfect for country lead guitar fills.”
Acoustic Guitar
The LA-610 is also a powerful tool for the recording of acoustic guitar, thanks in large part to the
unique sonic character of the preamp section. In their reviews of the 2-610, Cooper talked of the
unit’s “uncanny resolution in the midrange frequencies,” which yielded an overall guitar sound that
he found to be “full and very lush,” while Boisen reported the results of pairing the 2-610 with a
small-diaphragm omnidirectional mic on acoustic guitar, a combination that he found to be both
“pristine and predictably warm.”
And even though there isn't an attack control to adjust in the LA-610’s compressor section, you’ll get
great results on acoustic guitar by slowly raising the Peak Reduction knob until you’re almost always
showing gain reduction on the meter (usually -1 to -3 dB), then by dialing in a little EQ such as -1.5
or -3 dB at 7k.
