EQ Guitar Tone

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the edzell

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Can anyone give me tips on EQing guitar tracks. Right now their kind of thin and I want to give them a little more fullness and beef to them. I messed with EQ, Normalizing and Compressing and all I seem to get is a louder verision of the tone that I have
 
What mic are you using?

Normalizing won't add "fullness" to the sound, just make it louder.

Warning : the following is advice not sanctioned by this board, and therefore should not be taken as a canonized text that has utmost authority.

Record two guitar tracks(Or transport current track to a new track), Pan one hard left and one hard right.

Just my advice. IMHO
 
the clean is drawfing the dirty in fullness

I've tried that. It's improved the tone but I'm still not getting that booming fullness.

I've been recording DI with a PODxt. I've been recording through a USB port as well as direct to the sound card. Kind of the same tone.

I put a mic (shure 57) in a ear piece of my sony headphones. It seemed to capture the tone a little fuller. I can make it a little warmer with the EQ, but it doesn't have that fullness and bottom end I thought I had.

I've been working on a piece that goes from acoustic / clean guitars to distorted rocking guitars. When the dirty guitars come in it doesn't have the in your face guitar sound I want. The guitar sound is dwarfed in fullness by the clean tone that preceded it. It’s a real let down and doesn’t add the “pow” to the song that it should.

I’ve been listening to tons of different music from different genre. The best example of what I’m trying to achieve is the clean to dirty transition in Warrant’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Just the way it goes from the light airy acoustic / clean tones to the smash in your face dirty.
 
i had some problem with that for awhile too. i think electric guitars (maybe even guitars in general) can be difficult to get sounding clear with some bite. Maybe it has to do with the wide frequency range that a guitar has. I generally like to stay away from the low end unless the guitar player is playing some bass notes in arpeggiated fashion and like to boost some of the highs. Not TOO high that you get hiss or anything, just enough to bring out some picking and the individual strums on the strings.
 
the edzell said:
I put a mic (shure 57) in a ear piece of my sony headphones. It seemed to capture the tone a little fuller. I can make it a little warmer with the EQ, but it doesn't have that fullness and bottom end I thought I had.
Click to expand...

You can't be serious about the mic in the headphones.

Try a different preset on the pod. The 'uncle toms cabin' thing was all marshalls. Change the cabinet simulator on the marshall preset. Double track everything. (actually play it twice) and if it still sounds thin add some 400 or 500hz with a broad Q.
 
actually what edzell said reminded me of something. i've heard of people getting good results using a lavalier mic taped to the body of the guitar (acoustic at least)
 
got the idea here

I got the idea from another poster who said he got a sweet tone. Of course I've never heard any of his demos.

Right now I'm so desparate for a good tone I'd run the rack through the cat. Of course it hasn't been one thing it's another.

I started 4 months ago after seeing Prince in concert and realizing that being over 30 with a full time job didn't mean I had to give up making music.

So I went to the local guitar shop to buy a guitar since my others were bought back in the 80's and weren't in good shape. Well while there I had to buy a processor to play it through. I was going to get one for less than $100.00 but after seeing the Digitech RP400, lets just say I asked for the wife's forgivness instead of premission.

Well that was my first mistake, since I bought it because it came with Pro Tracks which in my haste I mistook as Pro Tools (big dummy I know.) Ok, I can still learn from the Pro Tools book I bought. Also bought Home Recording for Dumbies.

Didn't like my guitar tone. So I went out and put a seymore duncun EVH pickup in the guitar as well as bought a PODxt. Better but not there yet. So I go out and upgrade to Adobe Audition 1.5 thinking I can EQ the stuff. Slightly better but not as good as some of the demo's I've heard.

In the mean time I've also bought a external hard drive because I can't be limited to just 12 tracks. I also start reading and posting on these sites to get tips on how to record better. Oh and I've also bought about $250.00 worth of drum loop CDs.

So I finally 4 months later after spending all this money, doing all this research, I've recorded, mixed and mastered my first demo. And the guitar tones still slurp sewage!!!!! :eek: I didn't expect it sound like "Dark Side of the Moon" but I've done 4 tracks that sounded way better than this. :mad:

So now I'm tweeking and retweeking, reading and re-reading and doing more tech stuff than actual writing and recording. It's getting to the point where I'm about to give up and just put everything on Ebay. What's the point of doing all this when most of my time is figuring out what went wrong or how to fix something instead of putting down lyrics or solos.

So I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I've looked and buying a new computer with a top shelf sound card. I've even looked into taking online classes or seeing what the local universities have in way of mixing and recording.

So I'll try any and all good suggestions. Right now I couldn't be more clueless or frustrated if I looked like this :confused:

For those who stayed, thanks for listening to the rant.
 
um okay...
money cant buy skills....its all about experience
all the money that u bought with all those stuff.....their all great but that's not what you need.
You need to try things out with the equipment you have, not buy a new thing when it's not perfect.
sorry for my grammar....i just got used to typing like this because its easier.
anyways, keep your stuff now, and try things out. Try alot of things...effects on guitars, tracking more than 1 guitar part, try amp settings....and ur pod...that must have a lot of settings try all of them out...see which one works

wel hope this helps
 
Stop playing with those electronic kazoos and get an amp!

Seriously. They will sound much better through an amp. Mic that and Bob's your uncle.

Plus what systmovadown said.
 
the edzell said:
I've tried that. It's improved the tone but I'm still not getting that booming fullness.

I've been recording DI with a PODxt. I've been recording through a USB port as well as direct to the sound card. Kind of the same tone.
Click to expand...

You just answered your own question. Ditch the Pod!!! They can be OK on clean stuff, but almost always awful on distrorted guitars. Others on this board do not share my views on this, but after mixing hundreds of guitar based records the Pods have always been among the worst guitar sounds I have had to deal with, and in my opinion ruined many good records.

I love your idea about micing the headphones, not that I think it will get a great sound, but its creative and unique, something that is lacking in a lot of recording these days. Rock On!!!
 
You have everything you need to make a good recording. Just slow down and find a good guitar sound (you can find one on a pod, you just have to tweak them, alot) on the pod. The pod will never be good enough for tone snobs (like myself) but it sounds much better than any amp and cabinet combination that you could get for the same money.
 
Try double or triple tracking, using differant amp sims and guitars, if possible.Use less gain than you think you need. Make sure to keep the composition interesting, play chords on the doubled parts in differant positions, to keep from getting muddy. Try throwing in a clean rhythm guitar in the back ground. Amp sims can do a good job, you need to tweek the presets and find sounds that will compliment each other.
 
boingoman said:
Bob's your uncle.
Click to expand...

Bob's MY uncle too! ;)

Seriously, get a smallish tube amp and crank it. Even something small and cheap like an Electar Tube 10 or an old Univox U45 will do the trick. IMO guitars, especially distorted guitars, need to go through tube amps to sound right. The closer to a cranked non-master Marshall the better...

If you have the patience and desire to risk death, the ax84 HiOctane variant with an EL34 is a great recording amp. I stuff 10-20W amps in the closet with an SM57 on them and the sound comes out about right without the neighbors complaining.

And remember, every song needs a cranked Marshall.
 
Thanks

I've taken notes from what everyone has said. I rerecorded the tracks and their coming out better, fuller and deeper.

Yes, I have a small amp on my list of needs. Right now it's all a matter of talking the time to find one that meets my needs. For now I'm just wanting to get a halfway decent tone for demos and ideas. Nothing ruins the translation of a good idea like bad execution.

I downloaded a trial version of Amplitube. It seemed to give the fuller sound that I'm looking for. But I'm getting some high pitched hissing sounds. I'm sure it's something I'm going to have to slow down and educate myself on. So if anyone has worked with that program and has any tips, I'm all ears.

Thanks to all for the imput.
 
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