Guitar Trouble

[SteveCPerrino]

Okay, so I'm kinda new to recording, and I'm kinda confused with the guitar.

I record mainly metal/hardcore guitar and as you may know, on 99% of all well recorded metal CD's the guitar has a huge almost monstrous sound to it.

In order to get this sound, is it all about the amp/cab, the mic, or the editing, or all of it?

Thanks!

[audiogeography]

I found that this was incredibly helpful. It's also a hilarious read, somewhat out of the box. Hope it helps!

http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sou....html#contents

[DrewPeterson7]

Originally Posted by SteveCPerrino

Okay, so I'm kinda new to recording, and I'm kinda confused with the guitar.

I record mainly metal/hardcore guitar and as you may know, on 99% of all well recorded metal CD's the guitar has a huge almost monstrous sound to it.

In order to get this sound, is it all about the amp/cab, the mic, or the editing, or all of it?

Thanks!

Geez, huge topic. A few general pointers.

1.) A HUGE part of that "huge, monsterous sound" is multitracking the guitars. Record one track, pan it to the left, record another, pan to the right. Repeat to taste. Simply copying and pasting a single performance won't get the same effect - what you want is the ever-so-slight timing and timbral differences between the two tracks.
2.) Also worth keeping in mind - as you layer tracks like this, they tend to sound "gain-ier" together than they do alone. You'll probably need to compensate by lowering your preamp gain.
3.) Likewise, sometimes a bunch of tracks that individually DON'T sound very big, but together do are your best option. Try things like a really mid-heavy guitar on one side, with a fairly scooped, bright guitar on the other - they'll compliment each other, and sound bigger for it.
4.) Finally, don't forget that part of a "big" guitar sound is how it fits with the bass. Especially if the bass is just doubling the guitars, you don't need a guitar sound that sounds massive if you solo it - rather, dial it in with the bass, and try to make the two of them together sound big (but, don't forget that you need to fit a kick drum in there somewhere, too).

[SteveCPerrino]

thank you guys!

[Teleman78]

Two techiniques you could try in respect to sick power chords: One is to record the rhythm track with your drive dirty, then re-play the same part on a second track, but CLEANER, not same amt of drive. This result in a huge sound when mixed back together. Another way is to use two amps miked at two different gain settings and record a single pass in Stereo. A Voodoo Labs Sparkle drive pedal will do this for you, provided you play it through a miked tube amp.

[kentiro19]

Try to set up your guitar tracks in depth (Reverb, Delay) and width (Pan L/R) and height (EQing).

You can also try to compress within groups and add that to the original sound (comparable to the NY compression technique for drums)

Good luck!