Great Amp Tone, Weak Recorded Tone

L

lthrbls

New member
I usually play heavier music with friends. I have a large rack case filled with gear to achieve the sound I want. I go into my preamp, into a Furman Pq-3 eq, into a BBE Sonic Maximizer, then into my power amp for my dirty sound. My clean tone takes a different route, but that is besides the point (I can achieve great clean tones with one SM57). Anyway, I can not get a decent heavy tone for anything. I only have an SM57 to use as an instrument mic. I have tried different angles, running direct w/ the mic (2 seperate channels), etc.

I also use a Behringer tube pre for vocals. Can I run my 57 through this to get a better guitar tone? ANY IDEAS? Direct Box?? HELP!!!!

Note: I have a Yamaha 2408 recording mixer going into an ADAT.

thanks

LB
 
Also

Should I try recording the guitar tracks, and then eq'ing them in mix down to get this tight sound coming from my cabinet recorded to tape?
 
I had a similar problem awhile back. I ended up running the "already processed" signal to one of those SamsAmp GT2 tube/cabinet/mic emulator's which I had to set to a very clean sound so that it wouldnt over distort the distortion that was already present. I hope that wording made sense. Anyway, it worked great. The "Tweed" setting on the GT2 is wonderful, it has an amazing tube sound. The GT2 can also be used as a distortion/tube pedal but you probably wont be happy with its distortion alone. I use it just for the tube and EQ that it has, I leave the "Gain" very low (I set it to just above 8:00.) This way, you are only adding the tube sound to your already distorted signal and you can EQ it as well. Since it also has mic placement emulation, when you record through it you get the sound of a properly mic'ed tube amp. I think this is the way to go! I hope it helps.
 
Whenever I read about how producers get heavy guitar tracks in the studio it seems they always mention double and triple tracking guitars. Try this-go thru a very clean direct box that has a link feature to split the signal. Have one output go to your distorted amp and mic it with your SM57. The other out goes direct into your board...totally clean. Record your parts. Then send the clean guitar part through a channel out and re-amp it with another heavy but "different" guitar sound. Pan those left and right and you should get a heavy sound. This works if it's difficult to double-track a complicated part. This months EQ magazine has an article on the band Creed and how they get their sounds. I'm not really a fan but those are heavy, heavy sounds.
 
I kind of believe that tone is something that happens in an environment. Close mics give punch, but often lack tone and depth. A way I've found to get a nice sound is to place the amp facing a corner 8-10 feet away, close micing the cab. Place another mic in the corner facing away from the cab. If you have the track space, put this on two separate tracks so you can mix, eq, and pan them to your tastes.

I have limited processing equipment (read: none) so I find that using multiple mics and acoustic properties of rooms work well for me. You may at least want to give it a shot....
 
thanks...

thanks for all the tips. i will definitely try them out. being that i only have two mics, on sm-57 and one sm-58, i am limited to using one of the above. i have played live and recorded in studios with sm-57s and got awesome sounds.

justin
 
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