My guitar tone sounds amplified and less organic when recorded.

R

Rabihz24

New member
Hi ya folks,
New to the board and i have a question for you experts...
Im a guitar player and i setup my home studio that includes:
M-Audio M-track MK2 audio interface, 24/96..
Windows 8.1 pro 64bit system with 8 core AMD cpu/
8" brand new york Monitors
Cubase 7LE .
Tons of VSTs including Guitar Rig5 and Waves.
My question is when i setup my guitar patch thro Cubase using VSTs and start playing it sounds amazing and organic....When arming the track and recording its amazing, same sound.
When i playback after recording The guitar sound changes..It sounds less organic, more digital and compressed somehow. Whats the problem here?
Even with no VST loaded in the channel, playing dry and playback the recording it sounds more digital and amplified...
Some settings in the DAW? It cant be the Audio interface since its already converting A/D when playing..The recording should sound the same..

Regards
 
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Without samples, and real view of how you have things set up and what you are doing, how you monitor and the levels going in VS out...it's hard to say why/what differences you are hearing.

At the end of it all..."It sounds less organic, more digital and compressed somehow"...well, it IS all digital. :)
 
miroslav said:
Without samples, and real view of how you have things set up and what you are doing, how you monitor and the levels going in VS out...it's hard to say why/what differences you are hearing.

At the end of it all..."It sounds less organic, more digital and compressed somehow"...well, it IS all digital. :)
Click to expand...

Thank you for replying,
I know its all digital. To better describe it is, more amplified, fizzy, like if the Guitar cabinet emulation in the VST is at 70% running...Or another layer of guitar is applied when recorded. Sound of the guitar is harsher..
My audio interface is a New M-Track M-audio MK2. project in cubase is set 24bit/44.1khz...Input bus mono channel...output bus stereo left and right...
How i monitor is simple...USB/Direct knob on the M-audio is in on full USB.
Today i even tried on a BOSS GT100 audio interface/effect processor...The same problem.
Here is an Audio clip i made to compare both sounds.

Playing whil recording. Sounds as it should: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By1cNxWFI3SZZXRQWFAzdXhmb3c/view?usp=sharing
Playing back what was recorded : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0By1cNxWFI3SZMnZGWlZzY2RLTVE/view?usp=sharing

Thank you for your help...
 
I am curious how you are exporting the 'while recording' track? Have I misunderstood?

From the samples, they both sound fizzy/thin and typical of guitar sims without fine tuning. Sorry.

It is tough to get them to sound good without cab simulators and a bunch of time or money in my experience. Hell, it is hard to get a good mic'd track to sound good without the right gear.
 
jimmys69 said:
I am curious how you are exporting the 'while recording' track? Have I misunderstood?

From the samples, they both sound fizzy/thin and typical of guitar sims without fine tuning. Sorry.

It is tough to get them to sound good without cab simulators and a bunch of time or money in my experience. Hell, it is hard to get a good mic'd track to sound good without the right gear.
Click to expand...

Its an ambient mic in the room capturing the Monitors..Its the only way to capture whil recording...But i captured both with the mic and the difference is clear.
Its not about fine tuning..(MInd you that patch emulating a plexi with v30 celestion speakers is realy good) That could be done with no worries as i did with lots of patches. Im using very capable software like Waves and Guitar rig 5. Granted they are not mic 'd tube amps, but Are decent enough..The problem is the patch get altered after been recorded...It adds saturation that fast picked notes became fused together with less articulation.
I recorded with hardware like the Boss gt100, digitech 1101 as well...Same thing...
Its not the VSTs cause with none loaded and the guitar signal is totally clean i can hear the difference. Audio interface? i dont think so cause i used the Boss GT100 and the digitech...The only thing left is Cubase 7 LE..
 
Rabihz24 said:
Its an ambient mic in the room capturing the Monitors..Its the only way to capture whil recording...
Click to expand...

Wait, what? Why the hell would you do that? Post a clip of the actual sound of your sim. Record a track and render it out as a wav or mp3.
 
Sounds really effing distant. There is a lot of hiss as well.
If you're going to use a sim like Guitar Rig, just use it as a plug-in in your DAW.
 
Schwarzenyaeger said:
Sounds really effing distant. There is a lot of hiss as well.
If you're going to use a sim like Guitar Rig, just use it as a plug-in in your DAW.
Click to expand...

Yeah I'm not understanding this. He seems to be using guitar rig as the amp and his monitors as the cab? Then miking that sound from way out in the room? I've read lots of crazy things in here, but that's a first.
 
Greg_L said:
Yeah I'm not understanding this. He seems to be using guitar rig as the amp and his monitors as the cab? Then miking that sound from way out in the room? I've read lots of crazy things in here, but that's a first.
Click to expand...
I don't think that's what he's doing. I think he's using the sim and recording it in his DAW as normal but what he's playing back doesn't sound like how he heard it through his monitors while recording.

So he's mic'd up his monitors to try and give us an example of the difference.

What I think he needs to do is record in headphones as this will give him a better idea of what the sim is actually producing and laying down in the DAW without the room effects.
I cock about with sims regularly outside, say, 11AM - 6PM. I find you get the best results using headphones - otherwise you're effectively using your monitors as an amp and what you're hearing in the room isn't what's being laid down in the DAW.

i.e. it sounds more "organic" when the OP is tracking 'cos he can hear it "naturally" in the room. It will sound anodyne playing back through the DAW 'cos he's got no room in the sound.

OP, you need to work on your tone from your sim while wearing headphones to try and engineer an organic, roomy sound into it. Wearing headphones should give you a better idea what it will sound like when played back.

Also, make sure you haven't got headphones like Dre's Beats which have an integral EQ 'cos you won't be hearing what's being layed down in the DAW. You'd be getting something which is filtered.
 
Do you have direct monitoring coming out of your monitors while you're recording? Maybe you're hearing the DI guitar and the amp sim, then when you play back it's just the amp sim. If your interface has a playback and input mix knob, try turning it to playback only.
 
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