Can't Get Guitar to sound right when recording

[TalismanRich]

I never run treble that high on an amp, especially with a Strat.

The DS1, to me, is a very thin strident sounding pedal. I much prefer either one of the hundred Klon types or Tubescreamers. Back in the day I had an original Fuzz Face, a Jordan Boss Tone fuzz, and a Fender Blender. I never really liked the super heavy distortion. I know the grunge crowd loves them, and Cobain used the DS1, but he also put humbuckers in his Jag. There's more than just the pedal involved in guitar sound.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

*Even 5W will produce 107dB SPL at a metre through a proper guitar speaker. That's more than most small studio monitors can manage.

never said studio ,monitor. I said and 6"orange 10 watt speaker those are 8 ohms. perfect .
myMesa 50/50 has a switch kicks it down to 7.5 watts. Bet your ass the tube drive comes in a much quieter volume.
Then drag the rendeer back into reaper and make it bigger.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

"10"

Got that treble dimed huh? iS that awesome?

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Is a Sm57 meant to be placed infront 1-200watt amp?

people sing around 100-110db
every 3db = x10 louder

 

[60's guy]

For what's worth, IMO, it's possible to record HUGE tones from amplifiers whether or not they are rated at 5 watt or at 100 watt.

My recording room is 12' x 24', fully treated with absorbers and bass traps. The largest problem I encountered was the loudness of my amps whenever I recorded because it annoyed the lady of the house whenever I cranked it

I constructed a small 6' x 6' double insulated walled room within a room to house my amps. 90% dB reduction.

I wired up and installed XLR connections between the the small room and larger room to connect with my recorder. I also use a wireless AKG WMS between my guitar and amp freeing me up to monitor the recorder.

 

[Simplex09]

So I turned up the guitar amp a little, I didn't want to do anything like blow my sm57 or anything but here are the results. I don't personally know that much about audio but honestly you can hear the difference between post 1 and this post its honestly night and day difference and the uploaded file is raw audio. Thanks so much guys! If you have anymore suggests just to improve it more then drop it below. I also returned the audio mixer and waiting for my Focusrite Scarlett USB Interface 18i8 to come so I can mic it up with a few mics and can control each channel in a daw. I also have Audio-Technica at2020 which I want to do some messing around with because I hear that's good for that 'far away' sound or micing the back of the open cab.

-Fender ultimate chorus
-Early 2000s Vintage 30 + SM57
-Fender Jag with dimarzio pickups
-Fender 90s MIM strat with Seymour Duncan 59n

Again for everyone who helped out here thanks again for your help and suggestions.

 

[Simplex09]

For what's worth, IMO, it's possible to record HUGE tones from amplifiers whether or not they are rated at 5 watt or at 100 watt.

My recording room is 12' x 24', fully treated with absorbers and bass traps. The largest problem I encountered was the loudness of my amps whenever I recorded because it annoyed the lady of the house whenever I cranked it

I constructed a small 6' x 6' double insulated walled room within a room to house my amps. 90% dB reduction.

I wired up and installed XLR connections between the the small room and larger room to connect with my recorder. I also use a wireless AKG WMS between my guitar and amp freeing me up to monitor the recorder.

Quite a interesting setup! Looks like you got a good home recording studio.

 

[Simplex09]

I never run treble that high on an amp, especially with a Strat.

The DS1, to me, is a very thin strident sounding pedal. I much prefer either one of the hundred Klon types or Tubescreamers. Back in the day I had an original Fuzz Face, a Jordan Boss Tone fuzz, and a Fender Blender. I never really liked the super heavy distortion. I know the grunge crowd loves them, and Cobain used the DS1, but he also put humbuckers in his Jag. There's more than just the pedal involved in guitar sound.

I also have a tubescreamer + a fuzz face mini + Joyo american sound. But I haven't had a chance to mess around with them because I bought them years ago then stopped playing guitar for like 2 years and started playing like a year/half ago

 

[bouldersoundguy]

So I turned up the guitar amp a little, I didn't want to do anything like blow my sm57 or anything

I've had an SM57 on the grill cloth of an amp that was painfully loud from 20' out. I think the mic will be fine.*

If this has already been said, it bears repeating. The amount of distortion that sounds right in the room can be too much in the recording.

My default mic position is about a quarter inch from the cloth, closer to the edge of the cone than the center. If that's too dull, I move it toward the center.

*Condensers are a bit different due to the active circuitry, which is possible to overdrive. That's why many condensers have a pad switch, to enable them to handle high SPLs cleanly.

 

[rob aylestone]

Forget damaging a 57. You wont, ever, unless you drop it in a bucket. Forget recording for a bit and find the sound you want in the room. It helps if you try it with earplugs too as this often reveals what the mic can hear. If volume needs to go up to get the amp driving well put the amp in a big cardboard box or wardrobe cover it with a couple of duvets and it gets quieter. Experiment. The only rules there is no rule! Try different mic positions amp settings effects setting and eventually you will have your own rules of what work and what don’t. Lazer’s ideas work for him. He has a custom built amp built by the band spinal taps guitar tech. It has three features. Four knobs for compression, three for loudness and five for thrash and he loves it. You might too? I wish I had a single knob for mellow and one for adjusting how special it sounds. We all want different. Try everything and eventually you’ll get there.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Forget damaging a 57. Lazer’s ideas work for him. He has a custom built amp built by the band spinal taps guitar tech. It has three features. Four knobs for compression, three for loudness and five for thrash and he loves it. You might too? I wish

no they dont. im still waiting for yall to give it up. say try this for squeals and give the formula to do it. Or a nice tom petty overdrive at home with common stuff.
i miss tom petty. full moon fever.
give me hope
give me comfort
get me to a better place

fuck WWIII

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

I tried getting a strong bass sound too. never could get it into the computer.It sounds terrific in the room.

MBA400, and a ADA Stack complete for the magic item set bonus..

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Playing all the instruments, but never finding out how to sound like it did on the radio drives me nuts.

limited time left...I just wanted to know

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

I was convinced it was being recorded loud and then turned down for the mix.
Then I switched, thinking it was recorded quiet and bumped up loud...like a LP
Compression in DAW seemed useless..Just make the wave bigger and smooth it manually.
Limiting seems to be the way.
Then clipping.
pull an mp3 into Reaper its a solid block. Giving nothing away.except a level. If you match, it sounds nothing the same.

 

[Simplex09]

Forget damaging a 57. You wont, ever, unless you drop it in a bucket. Forget recording for a bit and find the sound you want in the room. It helps if you try it with earplugs too as this often reveals what the mic can hear. If volume needs to go up to get the amp driving well put the amp in a big cardboard box or wardrobe cover it with a couple of duvets and it gets quieter. Experiment. The only rules there is no rule! Try different mic positions amp settings effects setting and eventually you will have your own rules of what work and what don’t. Lazer’s ideas work for him. He has a custom built amp built by the band spinal taps guitar tech. It has three features. Four knobs for compression, three for loudness and five for thrash and he loves it. You might too? I wish I had a single knob for mellow and one for adjusting how special it sounds. We all want different. Try everything and eventually you’ll get there.

Thanks for the tips!! going to try some of that helpful info!! I'm waiting on a Focusrite Scarlett 18i8 audio interface so I can record more then one mic at a time really looking forward to it!!

But in the meantime I recorded this using the AT2020 as the "Main mic" on the speaker right off the dust cap and but at the same time I was recording the playing using as looper pedal so I could come back and record the back of the amp using the SM57. Then mixed them together a bit of a weird work around yes but I wanted just to see if what it would sound like.

Fender 1980s Twin Reverb (Stock Speakers)
Squier Classic Vibe Mustang with seymour duncan jb
JOYO American Sound with high drive.
AT2020
SM57

As I said above looking forward for my new audio interface to come and I appreciate all the helpful info everyone has giving in this post!!

 

[rob aylestone]

I would stick with one mic until you are really comfy with solving your basic problem. It’s like a bottom mic on a snare. It can, with great skill produce a certain sound, but most times it’s just worse! So tell us what you hear in the clips? What is better what is worse?

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Forget damaging a 57. You wont, ever,. . Experiment. The only rules there is no rule!

Yeah, man the pop guard goes on the whistle, not the microphone..theres no rules...no proper way to do it...SO this method is all aces.

No there is a specific way to use the tools in a particular order and step by step that evolved over time. IT AINT EASY! IT IS A SECRET!

Cant use the 4x12 speaker cabinet as the microphone...
I love music but hate life, why is it even like this?
Show us all you so called experts. Make a fuckin video and show me.

 

[Papanate]

I will interject here and point a couple of the problems as I see it. First your guitar is out of tune - second you have to woodshed/practice a lot more (if you can) -
those two items will improve your sound quite a bit - as for the recorded sound - it sounds to me like you aren’t positioning the microphone correctly and don’t have the amp loud enough - a Twin Reverb is meant to be played with a volume of around 3 - 4 - you might get it okay on 2 but it will be exponentially harder - there is going to be sweet spot where the sound is right and the tone comes into focus - the way you could find it is by putting on headphones and playing - moving the Microphone around - and I mean by 1/4 inches from the center out - and trying it on both speakers to see which one sounds better - it’s pretty obvious when you get the tone spot for the sound you want.

 

[Simplex09]

I would stick with one mic until you are really comfy with solving your basic problem. It’s like a bottom mic on a snare. It can, with great skill produce a certain sound, but most times it’s just worse! So tell us what you hear in the clips? What is better what is worse?

Ok excellent thanks for your help! Im looking for a live stage sound if that makes sense rather then a studio sound. So i heard micing the back could help you get this. The at2020 also has a lowcut mode and a pad mode.

 

[TalismanRich]

So i heard micing the back could help you get this. The at2020 also has a lowcut mode and a pad mode.

You hear and read a lot of things on the internet... It doesn't mean much. I can't remember anyone I know micing the back of the speaker.

As for the lowcut switch, you really don't need to use that. Your recording lack the balls that a good guitar track has. That comes from the lows. Especially with the DS1 engaged, you're all sizzle.