M
moresound
Loud Sun Studios
I do lunges.
1 2 3 and lunge 3 4 and lunge 5 6 and rest. Hows my ass look?

I do lunges.
i listened to a couple of your clips and i don't hear the harshness you describe.
lots of advice but I'm not sure how many have really listened...hey kop - i listened to the braniac clip and i'm not hearing harshness (so i'm listening at work on a small pair of headphones...) so not realliy sure what it is that's annoying you...
Man, what a thread.
Flatwounds may work awesomely for some things, as do dead strings, but KoP is a metal guy as I recall so flatwoulds or dead strings are the last thing I'd recommend.
KOP- I use Elixirs, myself. They hold up forever and sound acceptably "new" for an absurdly long time. The set on my Universe has to be more than six months old right now, and are probably closer to a year. I wouldn't record anything important with them right now, but they're fine for demoing and practice. They're more expensive, but $10 a set for something that will sound fairly new for 6 months vs $4 for something you might get a week from strikes me as a no-brainer.
I'll try to listen to some of your other stuff tonight. I'm wondering if it's just your speakers - if you're hearing "harsh" (and presumably EQing accordingly) and everyone else is hearing "distant," then I;m wondering if your speakers just have a ton of upper mids and treble?
Aside from that, what IS the mic you're working with? A SM57 is definitely industry standard for heavy guitar, and can be had pretty cheap - I've seen them for $60 or so used. In the same ballpark, I've got a Nady RSM-4 ribbon that sounds shockingly good - I think I paid $70 for it, new. It's great on leads, and will definitely give you a darker, smoother signal.
yeah breaking in your strings is common... but thats not really what i'm talking about![]()
btw "breaking in" your strings shouldn't take more than an hour
how much do you play everyday?
do you stretch them after you put them on?
when is the last time you changed your strings?
are they're dents on the bottom of your strings from the frets?
(note: you will have to feel the bottom of your strings to check, primarly the plain non-wound strings)
I looked for elixers on sweetwater but I couldn't find any thirteen gauge so I went with D'addario .13 nickel round wounds
That wouldn't surprise me. I'd like some V30's![]()
Have you listened to your work on any other speakers? And what speakers do you mix on?