“A lot of producers don’t know how to do it properly”: Slash on the “dying art” of guitar recordingThe rise of amp modellers in modern music production has left many producers incapable of recording live guitar tones, according to Guns N’ Roses legend Slash.
The guitarist, whose new blues album Orgy of the Damned was recorded using live instruments, tells Goldmine that the technique is pretty much a “dying art” these days as more and more artists embrace the convenience of digital solutions.
He adds that Mike Clink – the producer who worked on GNR’s Appetite for Destruction (1987), Use Your Illusion I and II (1991), and his recent album – is one of the few up to the task.

READ MORE: Ibiza’s Pikes is extending its dancefloor phone ban to 7 days a week

“Mike Clink is a great producer, but more importantly… he’s one of the most fantastic, real-deal engineers,” says Slash. “He knows how to get a great sound out of a guitar or drums or a bass or whatever. He knows what he’s doing.”
“He’s almost one of the last of the Mohicans because it’s a dying art to be able to record a guitar through a cabinet. A lot of producers don’t even know how to do it properly anymore.”
He continues: “Mike was the guy that I knew could get these analogue sounds that we were producing and get them on tape properly and make it sound really good, which is exactly what he did. He’s also a great guy to work with, too.”
And while Slash himself has previously dabbled in digital gear — even praising the AmpliTube 5 for its ease of use, he maintains that amp sims only have a place in his writing process, and not his recording process.
At his core, the guitarist is very much still an “analogue” guy: “I love working with an amplifier because there’s something… Maybe it’s old school, but there’s something pure about the way the speakers react, the sound of the cabinet and all that kind of stuff,” he said.

The post “A lot of producers don’t know how to do it properly”: Slash on the “dying art” of guitar recording appeared first on MusicTech.