Guitar setup/signal chain qurestion

M

musicman9434

New member
Hello,

I am trying to record my Fender Strat HSS(mexican), here is my gear: 1 Alesis Multimix mixer, Boss OS-2 overdrive/distortion pedal, 1 Rapco DB100 direct box and my Roland VS-890 Digital Multimix recorder.

I have been trying to record with heavy distortion but it is just not sounding right. Too fizzy and um well digital lol. Harsh. So I had been doing some reading on various recording techniques and they were saying that if you have a guitar with noisy, loud pickups(mine) to try using EQ to bring down some of the highs, so I figured I'd try using my mixer for that, here is my signal chain: Guitar> Mixer(preamp channel with EQ)> Boss distortion pedal> DI >Multitrack recorder(preamp channel). Is this ideal for what I have?

The effects on the Multitrack recorder are old(2000) so I'm figuring that could be one reason. There are updates but it uses an SCSI connector so how can I get that to work?
 
I'm not saying it's impossible to get usable tone from your gear, but….
I'm betting what you need is an amp and a mic.
 
Im sorry! Yes I'm using one of the Roland's Ampsims. So its at the end of all that. There are around 15 or so in there. The algorithms are old so I was thinking it was a big factor and why it would be good to get the update.
 
I would try taking the Alesis out of that chain, or at least seriously turn down the trim and gain on the Alesis. Not really sure that pedal is looking for a line-level output coming off a mixer for best results. Make up the gain on the other end at the recorder preamp input. You can turn down the volume knob on the guitar too if your pickups are "loud and noisy".

Guitar > Boss pedal > DI > pre channel on multitrack device.
 
The guitar should be plugged directly into the pedal. The pedal into the Di box.

That's if you need the pedal at all. With amp sims, you generally (I say that because I have never used the Roland ones) need to back off the gain to get crunch. But when you do that, there is no sustain and it just sounds weak. The way around that is to insert a compressor sustainer i front of the amp sim.

If you can't get that done, insert an eq after the amp sim and set the high shelf at around 6k and turn it way down.
 
Btw, overdrive pedals tend to add harshness and high end. They were designed to give a reasonably muddy amp a boost in both distortion and clarity.

Using your mixer for an eq is also turning the signal from the guitar into a line level signal, which is much higher than the pedal is expecting, which is probably not helping the harshness problem.

Your pickups aren't the problem, everything else you are using is.

What type of sound are you looking to get?
 
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