It can be a fun and exciting thing to start learning how to record electric guitar. I can remember being intimidated trying to figure it all out when I got started.
And you might be wondering:
Is FL Studio good for recording guitar? FL Studio is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) that can record guitar as long as you have a few things. You have to have purchased a license for at least the Producer Edition of the program, and you have to have an audio interface to bring the signal into the DAW.
But there are definitely a few things that you might want to take into consideration when you are looking at recording electric guitar in a DAW.
Is FL Studio Good for Recording Guitar
You can absolutely record guitar with FL Studio. You just need to make sure that you have purchased the license for the Producer Edition of FL Studio. That runs somewhere around $200 to get that license. The Fruity Edition, which runs around $100, does not give you the option to be able to record audio.
After you have the license you need to think about what else you might need in order to get good recordings.
Below is a table that lays out the equipment and extras you might need depending on your guitar setup.
| What you have | Will FL Studio record? | What equipment you need | Optional |
| Electric Guitar only | Yes | Guitar cable, audio interface, headphones | Guitar Rig or similar plugin |
| Electric guitar with pedal board | Yes | Guitar cable, audio interface, headphones | Guitar Rig or similar plugin |
| Electric guitar with amp and pedal board | Yes | Mic, stand, xlr cable, audio interface, headphones | |
| Acoustic Electric Guitar | Yes | Guitar cable audio interface, or Mic, stand, xlr cable, audio interface, headphones | |
| Acoustic | Yes | Mic, stand, xlr cable, audio interface, headphones |
If you are recording electric guitar, you may want to also consider getting a software plugin like the Native Instruments Guitar Rig plugin.
I personally have been using the Native Instruments products for a long time, and can vouch that if all you had was a guitar, cable, audio interface and that plugin, you could get all the sounds that you would need to be able to get a great guitar sound recorded. I’ve used that setup to record 3 albums and have used it on countless other projects.
The nice thing about the guitar rig plugin is that it comes with all kinds of amps simulators and effects so you can create all kinds of setups. It really is flexible.
NOTE: You can test drive the Native Instruments Guitar Rig plugin if you download the Komplete Free package from the Native Instruments website. This will give you a couple of amps and effects, but also will let you test out some of the other Native Instrument products like Kontakt and Reaktor.
Recording Electric Guitar Amp with Mic
But if you have your own pedal board and amp, and love the kind of tone you get, you may just need to grab a mic, guitar cable, and stand to start recording in FL Studio. I would probably recommend that you start with something like the Shure SM57 mic.
It’s just a really great mic for an affordable price. And it has been used in studios for years to record all kinds of things. It’s a versatile mic.
Just grab a standard stand that you can find on Amazon or another music store website like Sweetwater, Front End Audio, etc. They will usually run about $15-$25 for a decent one. Get the boom arm so that you can setup the mic and position it near the speaker of your amp cabinet.
The XLR cable is pretty basic as well. For cables I would not recommend going super cheap. Invest a little bit of extra money, because these will last you a really long time, and can have an impact on the quality of sound you are getting.
For the length of the XLR/Mic cable, I think 10-15’ usually works pretty well so long as you are able to set up fairly near to the audio interface.
If you have an acoustic guitar, there are some different considerations.
Recording Recording Acoustic Versus Electric Guitar
Acoustic guitar is a little bit different in the setup that you need to record in FL Studio. FL Studio handles the audio fine, it’s just a matter of what’s in front of FL Studio that is helping you make sure that you are getting the right sound.
Acoustic electrics have a pickup built into the guitar, so you can use a guitar cable and an audio interface to get the sound to FL Studio, but I’ve found that the sound from the pickups in an acoustic are usually not that great. I like to go with a mic setup to get a good sound from acoustic.
The mic setup for an acoustic will really depend on your preference. If you want to be versatile in your studio and buy a mic that can work great on multiple sources like vocals, guitars, and other instruments, then you will probably want to grab a condenser mic.
But if you just want to focus on getting a good sound from an acoustic guitar, you may want to consider getting a pencil condenser mic. It’s not quite as versatile as a regular large diaphragm condenser mic, but it is good at getting a great sound from an acoustic. I picked up a used pencil condenser mic from eBay and have been using that on my acoustic recordings for a while now. And I think it sounds great.
In all these scenarios we’ve talked about, there is an audio interface that you need to have in order to get the sound into your computer.
Audio Interface for recording guitar
If you are recording at home, you probably don’t need to have a massive, expensive audio interface. You can get away with an audio interface that has at least two inputs. Make sure that the inputs can be either ¼ “ cables or XLR/Mic cables.
You can pick up an affordable audio interface in the $150-$250 range. I like and have been using the Presonus Audiobox iTwo for a while, and have been happy with what it can do. But I also have heard really good things about the Focusrite Scarlett line, as well as the Audient interfaces as well.
I personally am starting to look at upgrading my audio interface soon so that I can expand my setup with some more mic preamps, so I am looking at a little bit of higher price point that gives me more input and output options than the two input option like the iTwo.
But I have been doing this for over 10 years and have produced multiple albums on just a simple two input setup. So you can definitely start there, and then upgrade as you get more into it. Keep it simple and upgrade as you go.
Headphones for Recording Guitar in FL Studio
Whenever you are working with an audio interface, you need to also consider getting a pair of headphones. Most audio interfaces will output the audio to studio monitors and headphones. The headphones are the easier thing to pick up, because you don’t have to worry about things like room acoustics, acoustic treatment, etc.
And if you are using a mic to record, you don’t want anything else playing back the sound that you are recording, otherwise you can create some serious issues in your recording.
A good pair of headphones will run you from about $90 – $150, but if you take care of them, they can last your for years and years.
I picked up a pair of headphones from a friend of mine who was a recording engineer, and I have been using them for about 10 years not. The ear cups have almost completely worn out, but they still work great.
You can try to use a pair of headphones that you have lying around, just make sure that you have the 1/4″ jack in order to plug into the audio interface.
Conclusion
I do think FL studio is great at recording guitar.
You just need to have a few of the other components in place to make it shine.
Hope you enjoyed this and found it helpful!