Feedback and clarity solutions?

A

AlienRayBeam

New member
What can I do to minimize feedback/noisiness and get more clarity out of high-gain chords?

I'm a complete noob. I'm currently using the most recent version of Garageband with an Presonus Audiobox 22vsl and DI inbox. I know very little about home recording. For my guitars, I usually stack 4 tracks (2 high shelf far left/right and 2 low shelf mid left/right). I use noise gate and feedback protection but it's still very noisy and generally unclear, even after I got in and splice the recording up to eliminate feedback (which is incredibly tedious). Whenever I play chords on a high gain amp, I've corrected most of the feedback issues but it's overall very mushy. There's no clarity between the notes and it just sounds bad.
 
I am not a fit judge but from reading much about guitar sounds here and other places "High Gain Amp" and wanting "Clean, defined chords" seems a contradiction in terms?

High gain tends to mean 'distortion' and that means intermodulation products that will 'fuzz up' the notes.

I guess we shall have to wait until you can post some clips (attached, 320k MP3 please) and then the "proper" recording people can comment.

Dave.
 
where is the feedback coming from? isn't that a guitarist amp/processing/placement function? It would feedback even if you weren't recording? Sounds like it's n to really a recording problem is it? Loads of guitarists live put up with all kinds of noise - so many crank in loads of gain for the sound they want, and gain produces noise. Some guitar amps and processors would never be acceptable a recording product. We get cross with TINY amounts of hiss. What guitarists consider low noise is often really bad. As said, bring on the example clips please.
 
rob aylestone said:
where is the feedback coming from? isn't that a guitarist amp/processing/placement function? It would feedback even if you weren't recording? Sounds like it's n to really a recording problem is it? Loads of guitarists live put up with all kinds of noise - so many crank in loads of gain for the sound they want, and gain produces noise. Some guitar amps and processors would never be acceptable a recording product. We get cross with TINY amounts of hiss. What guitarists consider low noise is often really bad. As said, bring on the example clips please.
Click to expand...

Yes ^ As a ball park figure, a DI'ed electric 'waved about' for minimum noise and where modest strumming hits ~-18dBFS will have a noise floor no better than -70dBFS in mine and my guitarists son's experience.
Put any kind of 'gainy FX' on that and things can only get worse.

Dave.
 
When it comes to recording electric guitars "less distortion is more".
Feedback from amp? Turn it down, back away from the amp.

First: dial in teh sound you want from the amp. Then turn the gain/distortion down. Then work on mic placement - a few inches from speaker, towards the edge of the cone, with hte mic at a slight angle is a god start. Move towards the center of the speaker for more high end.
 
+1 The less distortion is more approach will certainly help. One way to get that overdriven crush is to record ONE track with it pushed hard and mix it with less driven more full range tracks. That way when you are stacking tracks you can automate volume rides to just add some more fizz ONLY when there is extra space in the mix and back down when it's overpowering the tone.
 
The more tracks you are stacking, the less distortion you need/want on each of the tracks. Distortion tends to add up, so if each track has enough by itself, you end up with too much in the end.
 
I think we need to hear clips, so post away and get something up here.

First, what's the recording environment? A well-treated studio I hope.

4 tracks is a lot for what you're describing, and if you've got feedback, that's your setup. Don't create it, and you won't have to spend time trying to clean it up, not to mention that kind of level and environment where you must have sound bouncing off all the walls like crazy is not likely to ever yield "clarity" IMO.

And, not sure this is relevant, because hi-gain can mean a lot of things, but this is a pretty simple setup with just a couple of "amps". (Really, I think what you describe would be a lot more manageable ITB, but it's your ears.)

YouTube
 
Just get a big black rectangle Keith. If I copy the url into EI11 I just get "site cannot be found".

Dave.
 
Attached is what I got (still there) .

I see the picture in the last post but all is 'dead' cannot play it. If I put the code into Google it finds it and Bazinga! I have da man!

'King compooters.

Dave.
 

Attachments

  • Black Blob.png
    Black Blob.png
    61.9 KB · Views: 4
AlienRayBeam said:
What can I do to minimize feedback/noisiness and get more clarity out of high-gain chords?

I'm a complete noob. I'm currently using the most recent version of Garageband with an Presonus Audiobox 22vsl and DI inbox. ...
Click to expand...
Can you describe more clearly what you're doing?

Now that I went back to read this, I'm wondering if you're just going direct in with the guitar, or if you're micing an amp?

That particular Presonus is one where you should be going straight in with a 1/4" into the combo jack because it will treat it as instrument level, while a separate DI will potentially confuse it to think it's a mic input, causing the input to be too hot and completely clipped. I'd bypass the DI if the hi-gain amps you're talking about are ones in GarageBand's "amp designer" and not real ones.
 
I wish that link had NOT worked for me. SERIOUSLY - how on earth can you detect unwanted distortion from that total and utter mess of noise. I know some people like that genre of music, but I find it laughable we're talking about quality recordings of guitars played like that?
 
We hear this thing about using less distortion than you think you need all the time. It's something I came to on my ow, and it is good advice. In fact, this is the way I approach pretty much all effects unless I'm really going for craziness. You like crank it up til it sounds AWESOME, and then turn it back down a bit because you've probably gone too far.

But...I guess I'm not sure what other people mean when they say this. Anybody have any examples they'd care to share?
 
This has always been an issue. There is a shit ton of truth about recording with less gain especially if you are layering guitars. Too much distortion (that sounds good to you in the room with the amp) is likely to lose any string or note definition. Especially with the low tuning.

Less preamp tubes and gain, more output tubes and volume to good speakers. Let the speakers give you some breakup. Combining two separately recorded tracks in this way together correctly will give the clarity and heavy sound you are looking for. If solid state amp, then have fun even trying...
 
I have to say I can get a pretty good sound from small solid state amps with sm57 or even a ribbon. Its all about the mids really. Once it's tracked you can do what ever with eq, but you have to get the tone first. I was just messing with an inexpensive Ibanez through a fender frontman 25 and got seriously close tone-wise to classic lynyrd skynyrd. Flip to a different pickup, tweak volume and tone on guitar, classic Stones. One thing that I like to do is get that wise-ass totally distorted sound going then just backing down on the guitar volume knobs so that I'm just getting enough dirt to help sustain, then cranking a little bit for different parts or crank a bit more volume for double track. For a lead track I do prefer tube amps and lots more push, usually power stage. But even with leads I can work with solid state if necessary.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top