My name is Matt McKible, and I’m a Senior Sales Engineer at Sweetwater. My interest in music took off after beginning guitar and percussion lessons at a young age. I soon bought my first 4-track and began recording. Over a decade later, I graduated with a degree in music technology with an emphasis in classical guitar. During college, I worked in public radio, where I co-founded a radio show in which we recorded live shows and mixed them for broadcast. The gear we used was purchased from Sweetwater. After graduating, I began my career at Sweetwater due to the stellar service I received as a customer.
What is your go-to signal path for recording guitar and why?
Most of what I record is classical guitar. My goal is to get as natural a tone as possible. My go-to chain is simple and consists of a stereo ribbon microphone, such as AEA R88, into high-quality, clean preamps, such as Grace M101. With good microphone placement and a good room, there’s little need for much else to get a true and accurate tone.
Name three pedals you can’t live without.
My philosophy is that guitar pedals are meant to be fun. I want a creative tool for making something I’ve never heard before. That said, I can’t play unless my guitar is in tune, so my first pedal is the PolyTune 3 from TC Electronic. I love being able to tune all my strings simultaneously in polyphonic mode. My second choice would be the MXR Sub Machine, a fuzz and octave pedal with octave-up effect and octave-down fuzz. Finally, I’d go with the Rainbow Machine by EarthQuaker Devices, a pitch-shifting modulator that has a knob called “magic.” How can you not have fun with a pedal like that?
Are you an analog or digital live sound console guy, and why?
I’ve converted to a digital live sound console guy. Over the last few years, I’ve been digging deeper into digital consoles and have been amazed. The user interfaces are intuitive, and the workflows are flexible. My favorite part is that I can record the show onto a USB flash drive and have it ready by the time the band walks off stage.
When upgrading a live sound rig, what gear is the most essential to get right, and why?
The two most essential pieces of gear to get right are your mixer and speakers. Get a mixer that suits your needs and has a comfortable workflow. You need a console that you can move around on quickly with easy access to critical parameters. Once you get the show running, you need it to sound great; high-quality speakers are a big part of that. You need to be able to trust that your speakers are giving you a true representation of your sound.
