Direct Input Solo Guitar Sound

Vigo

Vigo

Member
So i recorded DI my guitars for a song and it sounds cool and all the rhythmic is awesome and is kicking some serious ass BUT the solo guitar just sounds aweful whatever I try to do with it...

Im using Poulin's free plugins (i guess its known enough that i can just say that) I tryed RW impulses, i also got loads of other free impulses (kathallen, some demo, guitarhack impulses) Nothing is satisfying...

But then again the rhythm sounds pretty good maybe i just turned deaf or idk but i can't get a decent sound for this solo guitar...


The song's solo guitar requires more something of a heavy distorted kinda sound.


Anyone is used with guitar head/cab plugins for doing a nice solo-guitar sound?
 
I do it all the time, but I don't use free plugins though. For overdriven solo guitars normally I would go with Overloud TH1 or Amplitube.
 
What's "nice"? What you like will differ from what someone else likes. keep searching/trying for what you like.
 
Also, to get a decent guitar sound with an impulse system is not such as a rocket science. Mostly of them works minimally well so I think that the issue is not there. Maybe the issue may be in your guitar... what kind of pickups it has? Single or humbuckers? Do they are decent pickups? Do they have a good output? With my small recording experience I have found that it is too much easier to get a pleasent distorted tone with humbucker pickups equiped guitar.

And as mjbphotos said taste is something very particular. Maybe you just don't like how your guitar sounds. Or maybe your ears like it with a clean sound but not with overdriven. Perhaps what you think is an awful tone will sound cool for someone else.

Talking about my own preferences, my ears says to me that single coil pickups was born for clean sound while humbuckers are in this world to be overdriven. Every time I try to overdrive my strat I just hate the result (be through an impulse system or plugged directly in my Vox amp). By the other hand to strum my clean Les Paul just drives me crazy as the buckers harmonics irritates me as much as someone scratching a blackboard.

Go figure!
 
First, this is not a mixing issue. If you haven't chosen a guitar tone yet then you're still in the tracking stage. ITB, the distinction is almost arbitrary, but I very much suggest that you start thinking this way. Ideally, you don't record the track til you have the sound you want, but sometimes we don't, just grab what we played and tweak the amp sim a bit later. But you should do that as soon as possible, commit, and then move on to actually mixing. I usually just render it. Saves the madness that happens where the mix is almost done, but you keep going back to tweak that amp...

Next, nobody can give you specific advice without a whole lot more specifics. None of us right now have much of a clue as to where you are or where you want to go, so how can we give you directions? I can tell you that moss usually grows on the north side of a tree, and that if you follow a river far enough you'll usually find a town or city...

Then I'll just throw something at you that maybe you haven't considered. I'm a big proponent of amp sims. I think they're great for a lot of reasons, not the least of which being that you can get the sound of a raging huge amp at 02:00 while the baby sleeps in the room next door. But for a lot of things, you really kind of miss out on the physical interaction between the speaker and the guitar. It's not some magical/mystical thing. It's not an inherent failing of the amp sim itself. It's all about sheer SPL. When the speaker shakes the air, and the air shakes the guitar, you get a noticeably different sound - especially in the sustain of your notes and chords. There are ways to fake it, but the best easiest cheapest way is usually to just turn it up. Sort defeats some of the purpose, I know, but if you're using heavy distortion it might not really have to be too too loud to make a noticeable difference. Just cranking your monitors can often be enough. Of course, louder is funner! See if you can find some time of day or whatever where you can get away with some real world volume and try it.
 
ashcat_lt said:
you really kind of miss out on the physical interaction between the speaker and the guitar. It's not some magical/mystical thing. It's not an inherent failing of the amp sim itself. It's all about sheer SPL. When the speaker shakes the air, and the air shakes the guitar, you get a noticeably different sound - especially in the sustain of your notes and chords.
Click to expand...

Goddamn he finally says something I can agree with.
 
I've said it a number times in a number of places, guys. Last time the reply was something like "LOL to all of that".
 
ashcat_lt said:
I've said it a number times in a number of places, guys. Last time the reply was something like "LOL to all of that".
Click to expand...

Yeah usually your laptop noise generator and twisted ass-backwards way of doing things does warrant a LOL. But I can give you credit when it's due.
 
I have, in fact, often argued that the difference between a real amp and a sim - especially in that subjective realm of "feel" - diminish toward zero as you actually turn up the speaker that the sim is coming out of. Not trying to reopen that argument, just saying that it's not some new revelation for me. To be fair, there are a lot times when it just doesn't matter, but especially with high-gain stuff it really often does.

Honestly, playing through an amp sim in studio isn't a whole lot different than sticking the amp (or at least the speaker) in an isolation booth or out in the tracking room while you sit in the control room. You end up with the same problem there, too. Frankly, in this case, it's even sillier to try to crank up the monitors to get the sustain back, when you could just go stand in the room with the amp.
 
ashcat_lt said:
Honestly, playing through an amp sim in studio isn't a whole lot different than sticking the amp (or at least the speaker) in an isolation booth or out in the tracking room while you sit in the control room. You end up with the same problem there, too.
Click to expand...

Maybe in some instances...but it's more than just "the speaker".
It's the reactive nature of a guitar/amp/speaker on the actual signal...not just your ears and the speaker.

Having to be the engineer/producer AND the player, as most of us often are, we are often always playing "in the control room" by virtue of the headphones we have to wear for cue playback.....yet even then, the signal chain of guitar/amp/speaker will still be more reactive for a player than guitar/sim or guitar/sim/speaker.
For a live gig, you also get the full effect of the speaker in your ears.

(Also not looking to debate this again, though it does have relevance to the OP.)
 
First of, thanks for all the replies, i think my question was not really precise enough, what im looking for is some knowledge on how people who use plugin amps/cabs simulators.

My setup is a M-Audio fasttrack im using a Gibson SG with P-90's in them (humbuckers)

here are samples of what im talking about when i say awful...

View attachment Reborn - Try1.mp3

View attachment Reborn - Try2.mp3

EDIT: I don't know how to use the simulators to get a lead guitar sound
 
Vigo said:
here are samples of what im talking about when i say awful...
Click to expand...

Tone/style tastes aside.....the only thing I hear in your samples that is IMO "awful" is the balance of the mix.
The lead is simply buried.
Turn it up, for starters....that's the "more something" that it's missing right off the bat.

Be specific about what you think is "awful" about the lead.
 
miroslav said:
Tone/style tastes aside.....the only thing I hear in your samples that is IMO "awful" is the balance of the mix.
The lead is simply buried.
Turn it up, for starters....that's the "more something" that it's missing right off the bat.

Be specific about what you think is "awful" about the lead.
Click to expand...

Yeah i just put everything together in a second and tryed to get the lead guitar everything is unmixed

Greg_L said:
P-90s are not humbuckers.
Click to expand...

baaaah sorry idk where i was going with this :facepalm: the pickups are 490R and T


EDIT : My only point here was that i don't have a single idea of how to work with amp/cabs plugins
 
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