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Alright so you want to record some metal guitars using nothing but your guitar, USB audio interface, and computer. Well here are some secrets to getting the best sound.

1) Use new strings. Not a secret more so than common sense. If you use old strings, you will get a rounder cleaner sound which works for some genres (traditional doom metal for instance) but for other styles of metal especially down tuned stuff where the harmonics are what cut through the mix, yes do use new strings. One pack of strings may last 2-3 songs max, and many studio pros change them every song or every day whichever comes first.

2) Use a thinner pick. For example, these Tortex Jazz III .60mm picks on Amazon. Why? Because the thicker your pick, the stronger the fundamental and lesser the harmonics, meaning the more dull and bassy your sound. One problem with amp sims (and interfaces) is that they’re not that good at representing the dynamic punch of a real amp, and your guitars may sound a bit fizzy or muddy or spongey in comparison. Fear not, just use a thinner pick whose transients are sharper (thus greater dynamics) and fundamental is lower (less bass muddying up the gain structure) and more mids and harmonics (that which makes a guitar sound aggressive). Indeed, using a different pick makes as much difference as changing to a different pickup.

3) Use a transient designer. This is a plugin normally used for drums, that makes the attack of a snare or kick sharper. But you can put this first in your guitar plugin chain, to make the pick attack even stronger and punchier. Though now that I’m using thinner picks I no longer find this necessary. You can also add it after the amp sim and before the cabinet.

4) Run a tube screamer / overdrive plugin before the sim. The TSE 808 is a good one. Your DAW might have one built in. The point of such a plugin is not so much to boost the volume (as in the case of a real pedal into a realm amp) but to cut the bass, boost the mids, and compress the signal via overdrive distortion. You need all three if you want the full tube screamer effect.

5) Use an EQ and Compressor plugin before the sim. This, instead of the tube screamer plugin. With this you can custom taylor the low cut, mid boost, and compression. The plus side is that without the overdrive distortion, you do get a cleaner sound going into the amp sim so that might help with note separation and articulation. Generally you’ll want to gently slope off the lows and have a broad gentle boost in the mids. You’ll notice how if you boost the mids too much or in the wrong spot you’ll get too much of a squeaky metallic sound in your chords. Dial that down to taste. With the compression, you’ll want to to have around 3 to 6 dB of gain reduction happening, fast release, and medium attack to let the snap of the pick attack through. So all you’re doing there is using the comp as a transient designer to let the attack through and then quieting the rest, which viewed from another perspective is like boosting the attack part.

6) Use an amp sim that has the tubescreamer/cut built in. An example is Lepou’s Legion amp. This one doesn’t require a tubescreamer, whereas if you wanted a tight sound with his Lecto sim then you definitely would need one. You can still use EQ/Comp prior to Legion if used subtly you want to taylor the sound even more.

7) Use a good cab impulse response. The impulse is 50% of the sound. The best ones I know are Recabinet’s impulses, Guitar Hacks, Catharsis (awesometime fredman), and the Messiah pack.

8) Mute your higher strings. Use a foam earplug or something to under the higher strings to keep them from ringing out as you’re riffing. If you want to get really fancy, also stick some foam under the strings at the headstock and behind the bridge, as they do resonate a bit. You may not notice it at first, but listen carefully with some palm mutes or stop-go riffs and you’ll hear them ring out. It’s subliminal for most listeners but subliminal is where some of the feel/impression is located.

9) Intonate and tune your guitar! Intonate after changing to a different string gauge, after lowering or raising the bridge, and after tuning to a different key. Then make sure to always tune before every intro / verse / chorus! But don’t tune between guitar track changes while quad tracking. So like if you have a verse consisting of quad-tracked guitars, tune to perfection before starting that, but once you record track 1, maintain that tuning as you go to 2, 3, and 4 unless godforbid you’re clearly out of tune halfway through. The reason is that if quad tracked guitars are too out of tune from each other (caused by re-tuning but not achieving the exact same tuning you had before) you’ll get a horrible phasey “off” sound. It’s better to start with 99% perfect tuning and maintain 99% tuning for all four tracks, than do the first two at 99% and the last two at 100%.

10) Use a reference tone when tuning. If you’re using a 25.5 scale guitar tuned to B and are having tuning stability problems like the tuner plugin doesn’t pick up the tone too well, or hitting the strings hard causes the tuning to vary annoyingly such that you can’t tell at what point of the tone you’re supposed to be in tune… Then load up a track with a test signal oscillator at the precise Hz frequency of your fundamental note in that part of the song. Tune your guitar and bass relative to that. This way you can pick hard/medium and your ear will know when the tuning best approximates the reference tone. This is easier than watching a tuner meter fluctuate. You can use both the meter and the tone together for best results.

11) If you suspect latency / delay is screwing up your timing, then do the following trick. In your DAW, enable the metronome click. Then take one side of your headphones or speakers and press the cup/speaker into/near your bridge pickup so that the guitar records these clicks magnetically. Hit record and go for 5 or 10 seconds. Then stop recording and zoom in on your audio region to see how the clicks match up to the beat/bar. If they are spot on, then you are the one who sucks with timing. But if they are early/late, then you’ll have to enable low-latency mode in Logic (if that’s your DAW) and/or adjust the recording delay in your program’s preferences to make up for it. Using this method takes the guesswork of figuring out how out of time your monitoring is.

People describe buckwheat as tasting earthy, bold, distinctive, almost medicinal.

What stupid descriptions. Here’s what buckwheat really tastes like: imagine a gingerbread cookie, now mix in a bit of vinyl shower curtain aroma. Voila, buckwheat. That’s the most accurate description you will find.

Not all mics will work on all voices in all situations. For that reason, when you look up mic reviews, you will always find negative reviews for every mic out there, even though some will rave about how great that mic is — on their voice.

That said, there are some mics that work on more people more of the time and hence have become staples of the home recording and even professional studio environments. I’m listing a few below for your consideration.

1. Rode NT1 Kit ($269 @ Amazon)

The new 2014 edition of the Rode NT1 has been redesigned from scratch for a more realistic, neutral, balanced, warm sound than the previous NT1A. This mic takes EQ well and is an all around good mic for home recording. The new manufacturing technology allows Rode to offer this mic under 300 dollars, whereas the actual sound and circuitry are on par with mics in the 500 to 1000 dollar range.

It comes with a shock mount and pop filter, so all you’d need is the XLR cable, mic stand, and USB audio interface. The cheapest interface that sounds good and works well is the Shure X2U and that’s about the lowest cost, high quality sounding setup I can imagine.

2. Shure SM7B ($349 @ Amazon)

Do you have an interface/preamp with 60 to 70 db gain? Then this mic will work for you. If not, you can use the Cloudlifter CL-1 to boost the signal by a clean 25dB, allowing most USB interfaces to be used with the SM7B.

This is a dynamic microphone. That means it uses a membrane, coil of wire, and magnet to turn sound into electrical signals. Compared to condensers, the SM7B gives a smoother, more up-front, slightly middy yet scooped, and drier sound. Notable artists who use it: Michael Jackson, James Hetfield, Anthony Kiedis. But it’s been used on thousands of records.

What’s good about it? It doesn’t pick up room reverb as much, it doesn’t have sibilance issues like a lot of condensers, and it tames really harsh sounding voices. This is the kind of mic where you just set it up and record without having to be anal about your room’s acoustic qualities (though room treatment never hurts, even just a heavy blanket hung up behind you while singing can make a difference). And once recorded, the SM7B takes very well to the brightening effect of the 1176 compressor or a simple high shelf EQ. I wouldn’t find myself cutting the highs ever with this mic, or using a de-esser for that matter. This is unlike a condenser where some cuts / de-essing are common.

It also gives you a natural vocal sound that stands out in a mix. It does an aggressive, up-front, in-your-face sound really well if you need it (think death metal vocals) but equally excels at spoken word, melancholy indie type vocals, and pretty much every kind of vocal except for operatic and distant sounding epic stuff. If you really want to do the latter, then put a room reverb before the main reverb, as the SM7B is a little too up-close sounding for the epic operatic stuff.

You can record close to it for a “live vocal” type sound, or hang back six inches for a more open sound. Again, this mic is also more resistant to room echo versus condensers, so for people who don’t have decent sound treatment in their rooms, the SM7B is the easiest and cheapest mic that gives a vocal tone no casual listener will complain about.

What’s not so good about it? It is sensitive to mouth positioning, since the area of sound it picks up is narrow. That means if you’re just a few inches away, it won’t pick up both your head and chest resonances at the same time. For people who have an open sounding voice, this is not a problem. If you have a high, blaring, honky voice that’s too strident in the 1 to 2k range, then this mic may not suit you, though EQ or multiband compressors can easily fix that.

This mic requires 60 dB of clean (non-hissing) gain from your interface. Beginner recorders may not own interfaces capable of that. Check the specs of your interface before buying this mic. Otherwise you will find your vocals are way too quiet.

3. Shure KSM32 ($499 @ Amazon)

This is probably the best single pattern condenser under $500, and you can find them new/used for cheaper if you look around on eBay.

What’s good about it? The sound is natural, has a wide field of sound pickup (can capture your head and chest in one snapshot for a more natural tone), is low noise, doesn’t require high gain preamps in your interface, and can double on acoustic guitar or even drum overheads. This mic gets the least complaints versus similar condensers in the price range.

What’s not so good about it? Because it picks up sound from a wider angle, you will hear more of the room in your recordings, hence you may need to be more conscious of sound treatment. A heavy blanket placed a meter behind you, and another blanket placed a meter behind the mic (or a reflection filter mounted behind the mic) can help a lot with that. The more echoey your room, the more treatment you will have to set up, such as another pair of blankets to the left and right so that you’re singing in a cubicle-like tent.

If you need a condenser under $500, this is among the best, though the Rode NT1Kit is a close runner up.

4. ADK Thor ($399 @ Amazon)

The ADK Thor is several mics in one. It has three polar patterns (omni, figure-8, cardiod) and three voicings (bright, mellow, neutral) as well as some pads so that you can record loud sources if needed. This mic works on everything – vocals, instruments, drums. The sound is very linear, without any major resonances or ear-piercing sibilance regions, and also without any honkiness. It’s not as bright as an AKG 214, not as mellow as the KSM32, but somewhere in between, while being just as accurate sounding as those two mics. For an all-arounder, this is a great multipattern mic. The simpler cardioid-only version, AKG Odin is only $299.

5. Studio Projects CS5 ($349 @ Amazon)

Here is another underrated and underpriced multi-pattern condenser mic. It’s a little darker and more colored sounding than the ADK Thor, but is just as versatile. Great on guitar cabs and non-metal vocals.

What’s good about it? It is versatile and well featured, has high quality construction and components, comes with a very solid shock mount and a metal case to carry it all in, and for a condenser it has a smooth and slightly dark sound which is good if you’re facing sibilance problems. Any shortcomings in ‘darkness’ is easily fixed via a high shelf EQ. This is also a natural sounding mic.

What’s not so good? It’s heavy. The original prototype was made with a lightweight metal, but testers said it felt cheap due to lack of heft, so they unfortunately went with a heavier alloy and that means keeping it positioned without drooping or falling over is harder. It’s not a big deal, really, as a sturdy mic stand can handle it fine, but personally I would have liked the lighter version.

So what you’re getting here is a higher end condenser at budget prices, multiple patterns and various EQ switches and volume pads, and very solid construction.

If you’re looking to upgrade your audio interface, or start off with a top notch unit that will last you many years, then read on. What do you get with a higher end interface?

First, the headphone and monitor outputs are much better in terms of clarity, volume, smoothness, and accuracy. This is important when mixing and mastering. Connecting a nice pair of studio monitors to a PC sound card or poor interface takes away from the usefulness of the monitors.

Second, the microphone preamps tend to have more clean gain and clarity. This means more signal and less noise, and a sound that is punchier and truer to the source. Some mics like the SM7B need a lot of clean gain (at least 60 to 70dB) and the quality of the interface preamps has a large effect on how great the mic sounds.

Third, the conversion of the analog audio signal to digital format will be better. Again, this leads to increased clarity, lower noise, and a more pristine sound versus the lowest end interfaces.

And fourth, there may be additional features (such as additional inputs), better software drivers, increased reliability, and a more durable design.

So without further ado, here are the top three interfaces under $750. These work for both PC and Mac.

1. Focusrite Forte ($499 @ Amazon)

2. RME Babyface ($729 @ Amazon)

3. Roland OctaCapture ($599 @ Amazon)