can anyone help me with this?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DamnationBlack
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DamnationBlack

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i'm having this problem with recording electric guitars....well, recording anything wih distortion, pretty much. here is my setup, i mic the amp, mic runs into a mixing board, mixing board runs into the computer. now, everything i record clean sounds fine. it has a good full sound. but, whenever i record distortion, i get this flat, thin, buzzy kind of sound. i've tweaked everything eq-wise, i've done numerous amounts of overdubbing, i've tried plugging directly in to the mixing board, i've tried using only a distortion pedal plugged directly into the board, i've also tried using different amps. this problem is not only with the guitars, though. i also use distortion on my vocals, and i get the same problem. for some reason i think it has to do with the sound card. does anyone know what this problem could be? am i missing something? anyone know?
 
Distortion adds a great deal of complexity to a waveform. This complexity may be difficult for your A/D convertors to cope with. What kind of sound card are you using? What software? What sampling rate and bit depth?
 
If you are happy with the way your clean guitar is recorded, then I would suggest that you try recording it clean, and then distorting it afterward with something like a Sansamp plugin.

In my opinion, however, a distorted guitar just doesn't have the richness or fullness that an undistorted guitar has. In order to make up for this lacking, I have at times shadowed my distorted guitar with undistorted, palm muted, power chords. This adds a fullness to the sound, yet it is difficult for the ear to distinguish the added track from the original distorted track.
 
buzzes for me usually come from bad cables, bad strings, or bad amps.
 
You might be clipping.

Check your levels going in to the card.

Check list:

*Mic the amp

*Run the mic to your board

*Make sure to run the output of your board to the LINE IN of your card -- not the mic in.

*Monitor your recording levels on the computer. If they're really high (going all the way to the top of the meters), then you need to turn the output volume down on your mixer untill their peaks are hitting only about halfway to 3/4 of the way to the top of the meters.

*Make sure you're tracking at a decent resolution. 44.1 khz / 16-bit is the lowest I would go. If you're recording any lower . . . say 22 khz or 8 bit of something like that, most distorted sounds are going to sound like complete crap. Most everything will, actually, but it will be really obvious on distortion.

For a beginner, I would recommend picking up a Line6 POD, Johnson J-Station, Behringer V-amp or similar amp modeler. They're easier to work with, and they'll give you an option to fiddle with while you figure out what the heck you're doing.

Good luck.
 
"What kind of sound card are you using? What software? What sampling rate and bit depth?"

I have a Sound Blaster Live sound card. I use Sound Forge 5, Cool Edit Pro 2.0, and Wavelab. I'm not too sure of the bit rate. I've been thinking about getting the POD, also I've been thinking about getting the FOSTEX MR-8. I recorded into a four track and the distortion sounded fine. everything was full sounding and all. I don't know...
 
i usually agree with chessrock, but i would avoid the amp modelers. unless you really know how to use it, or have some magic touch that i don't have, most of the sounds they get are pretty generic and don't have much character IMO. for the money you could get a set of good mics that should get you pretty far in recording electrics with distortion.
 
Do the guitars sound bad in the mix, or is the recording just plain bad even with the guirars soloed? What kind of audio monitors are you using? If you are using weak computer speakers you might be recording a decent sound, but they might not be able to re-produce it in playback.
 
no, it's not the monitors. i've burned the songs onto cd and the guitars sound like crap on stereo too. it's just that there is no power behind them. it's really thin. to see exactly what i am talking about go here: http://www.mp3.com/secrets_she_kept and listen to the song "Leiden". you will here how the clean and acoustic guitars pick up fine, but when the electric guitars come in there's just nothing to them. even though it is an mp3 you will see what i'm talking about.
 
Overall I'd say your recording is pretty impressive. If you hadn't said anything about the guitar tone I wouldn't have noticed it. If you back off on the distortion a bit, does the guitar sound fuller? I mean, does this "thinness" happen all of a sudden when you use any distortion, or just get gradually worse as you crank it all the way up?
 
Something sounds wrong.

Are you sure you're not clipping on the way in to the card?

Cool vocal effect on the flanged parts, by the way.
 
thanks for the compliment. and i'm pretty positive that i'm not clipping. i make sure that i check all of that before i record. could it be that i'm only running the the mic straight into the mixing board then into the computer? should it be running through something else before it hits the board or computer?
 
No. So your guitars don't sound like that when you monitor them before they hit the computer, right?

It's only after you listen back, correct?


What's running between the mixer and the computer? Like where are you taking the output from? And what kind of cord do you have running from that to the card? And what is your input labeled? You're sure it's not a "mic in," right?

If all of this checks out, then I'd guess your card might need replacing. Probably not a bad idea, either way. You'll eventually want something better than a Soundblaster at some point. Maybe it's a sign. :D
 
yeah, none of it sounds like that until after it runs through the card. nothing is running between the mixer and the computer. i'm using the "stereo out" from the mixer and using RCA cables to run it into the LINE IN on the computer.
 
Well, the big question then is does it sound funny like that when you run the same RCA outs in to something else . . . like a tape deck?

If not, then it's likely the card.
 
i'm going to go against the grain here and say it has nothing to do with the sound card. i think it has to do with amp settings and mic placement. try looking for the sweet spot on the amp. have a friend play the guitar and take the mic and start doing a counter clock wise spiral until you find the spot that sounds the best to mic. to me this track just sounds like the mic is in the wrong place. also if you still aren't getting results after you've found the sweet spot, trying eqing the amp based upon what you hear through the mixers headphone out, rather than using the eq knobs on the board.
 
whenever i run it into my four-track recorder i don't have this problem. everything sounds fine. the first song on the mp3.com site was done using nothing but the four track. everything sounds fine (except for the fact that it was done in one take). i really do think it has to do with the sound card. i just wanted to ask people who knew, just to make sure that i was doing everything else right.
 
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