How to get the "Great wall of distortion"

B

brokenwindow

New member
I've been screwing around with some recording options trying to get a really thick guitar sound..but can't seem to get the results i'm after...any suggestions would be appreciated..thanks
 
I have been trying a few different methods. I was micing and then double micing my lil' fender amp and panning them and eqing them a touch different. Or I was trying to record a guitar track and double it and placing one just a little off time w/ the other one. Do I have the right method just the wrong way of doing it? Or do i just need different kinda distortion? I tried my amp distortion and all the distortion on my Roland VS-880, and all the distortion plugins I can find.
 
What kind of guitar are you using?

My recording problem is too thick. I use a strat with a bridge humbucker, an old beatup peavey w/celestions, and a digitech (don't know the model off hand) rackmount processor.
Along with a metal pedal.

Of course I don't use it all at once but it's still plenty fat. And oh yes you'll hear plenty about POD's here but I haven't used one yet.
 
I use a Fender strat usually in the bridge position for distortion. I think part of my problem is that my pickups are 3 really hot single coil tex mex pickups. It sounds good..(I can cut through any mix with this guitar), but it's too thin sounding. If I try other pickup settings, my tone is a little too muddled for my tastes. I'm looking for a tone like the one in the Smashing Pumpkins album Siamese Dream. I guess i'll have ta screw around with doubling the guitars and the tone a little. Maybe some stereo fx or something....

[This message has been edited by brokenwindow (edited 04-06-2000).]

[This message has been edited by brokenwindow (edited 04-06-2000).]
 
I would say that you have some great ideas so far. I mean it is hard to get a sound to be exactly like the album you model after, but you are thinking and that is the key. If you just experiement, like doubling tracks, do one in the bridge pickup then turn up the lows and do one with the neck pickup, stuff like that. You also might want to change mic placement etc... Just keep playing with it. Remember if you can imagine it, you can do it...somehow.

MIKE
 
I've found out through my years (44 today...ouch) that I can never quite get the same sound as many of my favorites. Don't have the same equipment or money to get the sound. And for the most part artists usually don't have the same sound live as they do in the studio. Keep plugging away and at some time you will find your groove.
 
Try running your guitar signal thru 2-3 sources into different amps (maybe a Roland, POD, and Mesa Boogie or something) - Usually, by playing with EQ's and adding 2-3 guitars into the mix, you'll get a fat sound. (usually in the studio, you have to overdo what you would do live to make it work.)
 
Buck62 is right.
Get a POD

I just got one wednesday. You'll never hear anything this good for the price. It *is* as good as everyone says it is.

Sell your fender and buy a POD.
 
Get the pod!
hey I use singlecoils and get decent fat tone, if you wnt more drive and a thicker tone get a bucker in that strat or get a guit with duel hums.
 
The pod is cool..even if you get the pod or stay with what you got I'd try doing multiple tracks {stacking} for that cool wall o' sound that you seem to be looking for..Pumpkins...and try to keep a wide L/R image 9 and 3 oclock on your pans..this will give you room to keep your center open for your bass and voxs and hard pans for the drums asuming that you do your thing in stereo_One thing that I've found to be true is that you need to have a cleaner sound recording than you do live this will give you more punch...I know this is a old referance..LOL but if you listen to Jimmy Page of Led Zep.his sounds were always smaller than perceved ...its a starting point anyway....Good luck
 
I've used a pod, zoom 505, miked Deville and either way the best thick rythm sounds are when I put 2 rythm guits right and 2 left.
For a really sweet rythm sound I mike right up on the cone with a sm57 and a little way back with a rode nt 1. The rode goes through an Art mp to the deck and the sm57 goes to the console.
This way you can mix the 2 together with effects or not to get many different flavors.
Jas
 
Firstly, try this on eq: cranking the bass a good bit, cranking the highs a little bit, and pulling back the mids. By varying the amount on each you can get great results. Another trick which I found was great for creating that wall of sound without making it too obvious that there were lots of guitars playing ( which can be distracting ) is to Direct input as well as miking. Have between 2 - 4 guitars which then equals 4 - 8 in reality, with the result of some awesome sounds when you start playing with the panning. And even more if you combine the close mic with an ambient room mic. I know some would cringe at the idea of DI'ing from a processor (in my case a KORG A2) but the results can be amazing. Good luck.
 
I have had some good success with not just doubling but using different guitar parts/different guitars. The idea is to take up different "sonic space" in the mix. For example, double a lower guitar part with something an octave higher. The more I experiment the more I find that really crappy guitar sounds are great for adding depth to a recording. They sound terrible listening to them through an amp and even recorded alone, but add the other parts and it blends really well. Couterpoint parts also works really well with all of this. In terms of gear, I use an old Rocktron Pro Gap and it sounds great and is versatile - good sounds with plenty of the bad ones thrown in. You can pick one up on ebay for usually $75. Just some thoughts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top