so i just went out and bought a nice fender deluxe 40 watt tube amp for the purpose of finishing my bands cd. only now i'm discovering that i suck at recording amps. i am getting this grainy realy crappy sounding distortion. i am playing a fender 70's reissue strat witha boss blues driver, i was reocrding it througha blue ball dynamic mic(i also have acces to a mxl 2001 compressor mic) placed about 14" in front of the center of the amp. it sounds alright in my room, but once i listen back it just sounds really crappy, or at least not as good as i would like. any ideas???

Try the dynamic (I prefer an SM-57) right up on the speaker (without touching), slightly off-axis. Take the MXL condenser and place it a several feet back and slightly raised (aiming towards the speaker). Make sure your signals are in phase (if not, move the MXL a little further back). Use the dynamic for your primary sound and the condenser to add a little ambience (if needed). You might also try a take without the Boss pedal, using only the amp's overdrive. Also play with the amp's EQ some and/or the pedal's settings. I often find that recording settings are not the same as live settings. rockrev

thanks guys, if anyone else has advice i'm listening

Get a Rockman -- just kidding - Do they even still make those things? I've been having similar issues only I've been playing with Guitar Rig with some ok results - I decided to use Amplitube and I must say for simple straight ahead crunch without all the doodads and processing it seems to be the ticket. I know I should be able to make Guitar Rig do what I want it to do but I was too impatient - Amplitube lite comes with your version of LE these days - peas

its all about your preamp and mic combo. use a senn. 421 mic for the cab and a api or somthing for the pre.

I had a Rockman that worked GREAT for direct sound. Seriously - recording amps is a pretty hard thing to do. Work a LOT with your tone control, both on the amp and in PTLE. I personally like to put a graphic EQ somewhere after the distortion stage of the amp (if the am has a post-pre effects loop) or in my case, I have a mic pre (SM-57) that I can plug into a graphic EQ and then into my Digi002. That way I can shape the sound coming off the speaker about as much as I want. That works for me. I find if I record a sound I don't really like there is never enough I can do, even with EQ or Amplitube, to get what I really want. So rule of thumb - get the sound optimized each step down the chain: guitar > compressor > noise gate > amp pre (tone controls) > amp post (gain) > effects loop (if it exists) > mic > mic-pre (tone, gain) > GRAPHIC EQ (for me, this does the trick) > Digi Input > PTLE > amplitube > EQIII 7-band EQ. Here is another trick - put that close mic on the speaker off-axis (as mentioned above) - get a second mic (large condensor) and put on head sets (if in the same room) or get someone else to walk it around the studio while you listen in the control room while the guitar is playing and experiment with different locations for the 2nd mic untl you find the sweet spot.

Make sure that the fuzzy crappy sound isn't actually coming from the amp. Sometimes if you're playing really loud your ears won't pick up the high fuzzy crappy sound until you hear it when recorded. I have a Hot Rod Deluxe amp and I just stick a 57 just off the center of the cone and it sounds great every time. However, I replaced the original speaker with a Classic 30, which really rounded out the bottom end and smoothed the sound out quite a bit. The original Fender speaker used to have a papery crackle to it. Also, make sure the mic you use can handle the SPLs. A shure SM57 is great for this, and I just bought an Audix 5i that woks great too.

I do a lot of tracks with a POD II. Also do some on the clean side(w/POD) and then use guitar rig to spruce them up. When I record my VOX combo, I prefer a Royer 121 about 8" out or MXL2001 just off the grill, looking at the seam where the dust cap meets the cone, then move farther off center if its too bright. Given what you have, I would at least try the 2001 as described and put the BLUE Ball behind, as close to a speaker as you can get it, and flip the polarity(use an EQ plugin after your track is recorded-leave the rear track muted while recording). I really like recording open-back amps with a mic on the rear as well. It allows you to fatten up what might otherwise be a thin sound. Also, you heard some good advice about easing up on distortion for recording. A great live/room sound does not always translate when recorded. I tried everything on my VOX(57, 421, 414, U87, TLM103, KSM32 etc.) and was never happy. Then my buddy put his Royer on my amp and when I listened to the playback, it sounded like I was standing in front of the amp. The MXL's have been a decent second choice for my style.(I also own the Ball and SM57's)

Is the Rockman your all talking about the Jim Dunlop Rockman headphone amp? and also is anyone else finding that the output of the Guitar Rig is a little noisy? I mean after i record a guitar in directly to ProTools LE and then i insert the RTAS guitar rig plugin the output just sounds too noisy. Does anyone else have this problem? Thanks