How to get a tight smooth heavy rock guitar sound?

GONZO-X said:
that's all in the hands of the player.
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I never understood this phrase. No great guitarist is ever going to make the tone of a Peavey Vyper sound like an AC30, or an Acoustic brand amp sound like a Mesa Dual Rectifier just by how they play the guitar. It's ridiculous to think so.
 
MrWrenchey said:
I never understood this phrase. No great guitarist is ever going to make the tone of a Peavey Vyper sound like an AC30, or an Acoustic brand amp sound like a Mesa Dual Rectifier just by how they play the guitar. It's ridiculous to think so.
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For guitar recording (as with most recording) the quality of the final product is directly related to the quality of playing, and secondarily the equipment used. Regardless of any ability to set up amps to sound one way or another or use one piece of kit or another, having it played 'right' in the first place is the most important thing.

I think the logic behind it is that if you want your guitar parts to sound like x you have to be able to play them so they sound like x to begin with, rather than worrying what processing you can do or kit you can buy to make it y sound more like x.
 
The Hitler/SRV video comes to mind.


Mike placement, balls to the walls tone. A great amp with a great setting. All important. How you play the song...vital.
There is a whole guitar tone thread here. It's 100s of pages long. Take a look at what they've been doing over there for the last 10 years.
 
MrWrenchey said:
I never understood this phrase. No great guitarist is ever going to make the tone of a Peavey Vyper sound like an AC30, or an Acoustic brand amp sound like a Mesa Dual Rectifier just by how they play the guitar. It's ridiculous to think so.
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as time goes by,
and you play more and more,
and get more experience,
you will come to understand what i'm talking about.

its not about gain, and eq, and speaker choices, and how loud you play.
if you think THAT is what it's about, you got a long way to go.

don't get hung up on 'gear', it's just a means to an end.
 
Ibanezez said:
Like this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk1M3Esm-S0
at 0:35.

It sounds smooth, you don't hear the picking and it isn't harsh. Is there a specific technique to get that sound?
Thanks!
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Are you commenting on the rhythm or lead guitar tones?

The rhythm tone sounds like a baritone or 7-string guitar. A moderate amount of preamp gain, most likely a high-powered tube head through a 4x12 cabinet (I only say that because that's by and large the most common setup for heavy guitar tones, not because I can identify it by listening). The guitars are most likely doubled and panned wide. The more you layer individual performances of the same guitar line, the "smoother" and more homogeneous they start to sound. Try layering up 2 or 3 takes of the same guitar line on both the L and R sides. Even if you perform it tight, it'll start to lose some of the definition that a single guitar layer has.

A compressor with a very fast attack might get rid of the small amount of picking transients that are left after a guitar goes through the natural compression that results from distortion/overdrive.

Seems to me that this is all a recipe for a pretty "blah" guitar sound though. Transients are good. That's what gives the feel of "punchiness". Take away too much of that, and you're left with the aural equivalent of vanilla pudding.
 
or you could use 8dio ...

VST, AU, AAX Kontakt Instruments & Samples by Award Winning Composers - 8dio




hard to tell its fake in the track you posted the guitars don't do much,and its a poo mix,but there's more telltale signs in "already over" ...

cant find the lib im looking for,but check out epic guitar,there are other pretty convincing libraries out there that seem to work better using midi guitar,for that check out jam origin Jam Origin | MIDI Guitar 2 its a vst,works in your DAW without midi hardware ...



loved the 2 tracks i listened to btw :D (mixes are poo,but with 13 million views wtf do i know!)
 
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