guitar effects pedal

[max160709]

hi my friend and i were recording a song through audacity and it works great with the exception of one thing. when using the clean channel on the amp it sounds perfect but once we switch one of our pedals on it sounds horrible. the pedals sounds good through the amp but through audacity it just sounds bad i dont know how to put it. Is there a way to get it to sound just like it would out of the amp?

[steve]

Record your amp with a microphone.
Much of the tone of an electric guitar comes from the amp / cab, especially when you are using distortion effects.

Some (expensive) effects pedals use amp/cab digital modelling to overcome the problem (Line 6 pod is probably the best known) and these can be recorded directly with a good amount of success, though you still need to be critical in your listening, monitoring and setting up.

Note that the sound from a cab will vary quite a lot with different microphone placement, so experiment. About 10 cm directly in front of the speaker is a good position to start, but try different placements as well.