Getting thick/wet/fuzzy/dreamy distortion without losing the guitar melody

Loveless was made up of squillions of layers of guitar (layers of not too hevaily distorted guitar at that).
The uber distortion came from the layering of takes of the same lines & the melody was held by keeping the distortion on any given track in check.
Get the sound you want from your set up, mic it, then turn the reverb off & the distortion back a notch or two from where you liked it.
Record,
record the same again & again & again.
Pan 1 & 3 L, 2 & 4 R & play back adding the reverb you require.
Donm't be fooled by what you think is THE shoegaze sound live according to your set up & what is going to gaze right back at you from the recording.
There's a thread somewhere around this forum about recording as opposed to playing distorted guitars. Do a search for it as it is very clear & detailed about how to get what you're after.
One of the tricks is to record a series of takes of the same line, pann them & then EQ each differently to gain a different aspect of what you were after - so one is low passed, another high passed, one is chunky mids, another couple emphasise the freqs carrying the melody. The main point is that it's not the same as playing live.
If you have a squiz at the song Softdance on my Soundclick page you'll hear the results of about 10 guitar tracks that followed the ideas from the thread mentioned. Probably not a good example but - before I read & followed it I had two full, tfat distorted tracks that sounded great in the room as I recorded them but all mud with some fizz from the recorder on playback. I recorded more tracks, panned & EQ'd to create the, admittedly amateur, result on that track.
Oh, the only device used was a Big Fluff (Muff clone) on some of the tracks.
 
Since the delay is built into the amp, the fuzz/distortion will be coming from the pedal, and the reverb will be added via the DAW... the correct sequence should be:

That's better, but unless somehow the delay is important to your ability to play the part, you're really much better off recording dry and adding the delay in the mix.

And seriously, grab that Devin Townsend album, it's brilliant and based on the description of what you're after ("...the aural equivalent of sticking your fingers into your eyes and into your brain then you twirl it around your head while getting sucked into a massive whirlpool in the middle of an epic storm...") I have a feeling you're going to be blown away. I've got "What Would Devin Townsend Do?" taped to my screen on the computer I record on largely because of that disc. :p
 
Actually I'm very familiar with HevyDevy and have heard almost all of his albums, including Terria :) That one along with Ziltoid and the latest one are my favorites of his.
 
OP, please post a short clip of your problem?
I tried all the different suggestions I've gotten about this and actually... I found a mix that sounds good for me, which was mainly achieved by layering several tracks with different distortion levels, panning them and mixing them a certain way.

So I decided on it as a definitive mix, but I'd still love to hear comments about it --- especially on the topic of this thread of course: the "dirty" section of the track. I might rework it again once I've gotten all my other tracks recorded.

01 - Archistratege - free to stream in full @ last.fm

BTW, I also a posted a thread on the "MP3 Mixing Clinic" about this in case you wanna check it out

Valacirca - Bodiless Powers of Heaven

Thanks!
 
OP, I listened to the clip, but I'm clueless as to what you consider your issue. Listening I would just think you want it to sound the way it does.

I would ask that you scale down the clip to the issue (gtr only). It's difficult to wade through your whole clip to figure out what's in your head. Sorry but I have no suggestions on your gtr issue.
 
Actually right now there isn't much of an issue anymore. As I mentioned on my previous post, I already found a mix that sounds good for me, which was mainly achieved by layering several tracks with different distortion levels, panning them and mixing them a certain way --- and that's what you hear on the track now during the noisy parts.

Thanks all!
 
One thing I have found about mixing distorted guitar is that it has a very wide footprint due to its harmonic content. This can make it overbearing in a complex mix if it is too loud, and as you reduce the volume it stays "in your face" until it suddenly disappears completely. It can be hard to get it right.
 
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