Garageband Help!!!

A

AlterGino

New member
Hello,

I am using my mac's garage band to do some home recording, but when i record with a heavy distortion i keep getting a cheap, muffled sound. Recording clean sounds good, but with a heavy distortion it sounds like im playing through a gorilla tube cruncher!

My amp is a Marshall G100R CD head, through a Marshall MG412A cab.( i know not the best) im using a Sennheiser e609 Dynamic mic, to mic the cab. I have a M-Audio fast track audio interface, and a monster XLR cable. my guitar is a dean soltero

But the sound that i hear in garage band doesnt sound like whats coming through the amp. i am doubling the tracks but it still sound muffled and very cheap sounding. if you listen carefully, soon all you hear is this ambient swirling sound. it is very frustrating. i tried different mic placements but still get that same sort of sound.

can anyone help me??

Thanks-Gino
 
I doubt it's Garageband's fault :)

How are you micing it (distance, placement)? Are you using a lot of gain, if so turn down the gain and record multiple tracks, It should cut down on muffledness and fizziness?

Also, if you are going to get serious about recording, I'd step up to Reaper and leave Garageband behind. Reaper has a great free demo and is only $40 when you decide you like it better than Garageband.
 
You have to experiment with mic position. Also did you try just using the direct out on the amp? Most of the pros use multiple mics on a single guitar speaker, so you can't try to compare the sound you're getting with Slash or something like that. They surround his cab with various mics at different distances.
You could still do well with the optimized mic position, it just takes some time to get it right. This is why direct can sometimes be a good option.

As far as the debate between reaper and Gband. I have both but I tend to use garageband because I bought a plugin which causes reaper to crash unless I disable it. Reaper has a lot of compatability and crashing issues.
 
You may need to reduce the gain on your signal for double tracking, too. I had similar results and realized as I doubled the guitar, I was doubling the distortion as well. A single guitar sounded great, but adding another with the same settings, not so much. The end product sounded like a mushy mess. With cleaner settings the guitars have more clarity. Less is more.
 
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