Recording miked guitar tracks

[gtrman]

I have finally got my new Laptop up and running and ready to start recording.
Lexicon soundcard - Cubase Essential - Steven Slate Drums - Ampeg SVX - A bunch of other software
I will be using my new AxeFx Ultra which is perfect for recording guitars, but I will be using my Marshalls as well.
Recording guitar tracks by miking the amp gets you a great guitar track .. BUT often I need to add some air & "life" to the tracks in the mix.
I have tried adding a bit of reverb which helps but I am wondering what processing effects / reverbs / eqs / compressors which are out there that will be good for guitar tracks. VST plugins.

Surf you have some experience with this ... your guitar tracks always sound good :-)
Any good suggestions ?

[surfnorthwest]

Well VST plug-ins are the trick. Once you lay down the track and get the level right then you can use the plug-ins to perfect it. Most the time it may be a as simple as running a limiter/tube compressor, parametric eq, and some verb.

While mic'ing an amp has been done for years I no longer do it, it is inconsistent and you always have to screw around to get it just right. I am absolutely sold on these Radial JDX boxes which connect between your head and cabinet then feed a XLR to your recording device. Much better than a mic IMO and very simple. If you are going to use a mic(s) it is simple trial and error with experimenting with what works.

I hope your laptop is a speed demon, because most have those shit 4200rpm drives which always cause dropouts and latency. I would recommend a fast external firewire drive if you must use a laptop. While laptops can be used to get good recordings you will find as you get into it a standalone desktop with nothing installed on it except your operating system drivers and recording software will cause much less headaches. But honestly if you are only doing about 4-5 tracks in your mix the laptop should be fine. Most of my songs are 10-15 tracks plus all the plug-ins which would kill a laptop.

Some inexpensive software that can be used to master and shape your tracks is Ozone 4, reasonably priced and will do wonders when you master each track or the entire mix.

http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/

I use Mercury Waves which is a collection of all the top Waves plug-ins and they are the best in the industry. If you are serious about recording PM me and we will talk about this.