I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin on vinyl, and when I first saw a live concert on DVD I found myself thinking "man, this is shit!" The songs and lyrics I knew and loved were all there but all the subtleties of Jimmy Page's mixing work were gone, replaced by a wall of sheer volume.  

This is pretty good I guess, if you happen to be front-row-centre bleeding from all the major orifices rather than sitting discontentedly on your couch trying to work out what the hell is so wrong about all of this.  

Anyway, it sparked an interest in the recording side of it all particularly in guitar, a bug which I haven't been able to shake. And I've tried everything to capture good tone.  I've recorded with different mics, different preamps, different amps and different cabs, all at differing volumes. I've DI'd to a computer from amps, cabinets and even mixing desks.    I've had upwards of 5 mics pointed at a cabinet once. I've recorded to huge tape decks, to DAT, to Mini Disc recorders, even an old school Yamaha 4 track recorder. Everything. I've been in almost every different level of studio you can name, and worked with people of all different levels of experience. However my most recent recording session I finally took the plunge and went purely digital, and I’m now firmly in the ranks of the converted.

Most people in my situation aren't in a professionally designed studio; they're in a half finished kitchen in some armpit of the universe trying not to wake the neighbours but still get the best sound out of an old Marshall that has two volumes, loud and fucking loud.

When getting a recorded sound out of a guitar there's a lot that can go wrong. Take the simplest of setups. String > Pickup > Amp > Cab/Speaker > Mic(s) > Desk > Computer > Post FX.

That's a lot of shit that the sound has to move through and a practically infinite array of sound placement options. Your amp sounds different in a kitchen with a tiled floor that in will in a carpeted room, or even with a blanket over the top of it. What is the amp facing at? What is the amp not facing at? Are you in the room with it? Can the tape hear you breathing and shuffling your feet? Can we hear you picking the strings? Is the phone going to ring? Is there a clock ticking or cars driving past?   

Once again technology swings in to our rescue. And from the heavens come little red kidney bean shaped boxes called Pods and little flat silver boxes called Sansamps and suddenly everything is ok.

Guitar > Pod > PC. Silent, weighs about 35 kilos less than your standard quad box, doesn't need a mic, a mic stand, a mixing desk, or even a cabinet and generally saves your money grubbing, lazy butt. You can even record your guitar tracks in the middle of a football stadium at half-time with a laptop and some headphones if you really want to.  

Layering the guitars 4 deep and hitting them with a half decent compressor lands you smack in the middle of tone heaven.  

This new digital technology has revolutionized the music industry, suddenly musicians can record an ace sounding guitar track, linked up to digital drums, and a genuine sounding string section courtesy of any keyboard made since about 2003. Can't pitch a note to save yourself? Don't worry, just sing in your usual shower voice and let a pitch fixing program handle it.  

Compress it, render it, upload it to MySpace and you’ll have a billion friends before the week is out.

Think what Jimmy Page could have done with all this modern crap.