Fx

[Jayme]

When I come to record my band, I have the problem of wondering if I should let them choose there distortion! But then I fined that when I mix it it creates problems! Am I supposed to have control over all the fx settings or is there a way round this?

 

[bennychico11]

you can request things from them but you can't control what you want their sound to be while recording. a guitarist usually wants himself to have a certain sound when playing. it's HIS defined sound. if he isn't open to suggestions then you just need to do the best you can. besides, he's the client paying YOU.

 

[guttadaj]

Yeah, guitarists will often have a distortion setting that they're used to, and some might not be able to play as well if you start messing with it. It's possible though to let the guitarist keep his sound while recording but also give yourself some options for tweaking it later.

You could try splitting his signal and sending one into a DI box and recording that one totally dry while sending the other split into the amp where he can use his distortion setting. Don't put any of the dry signal into the monitor mix, so all he's hearing is his distortion sound. Then, when you go to mix, if you find his distortion is really nasty, you can use this dry track by blending a little of it in as is with the distortion track and pulling the distortion track back a bit for a little more clarity. Or, you might try experimenting on a copy of the dry track with some distortion plug-ins, or better yet, try re-amping the dry signal and use a more mix-friendly distortion. That way, you capture a comfortable performance, but you aren't trapped with the sound.


-Jeff

 

[bucchild]

I'm not certain of this, but I think Jayme is saying that the guitars sound fine alone, but the effects don't blend well together when mixing. Am I correct? If so, that's a problem I have too. Is there a trick to making 2 distortion settings that each sound good alone blend well together? Or are you always going to have problems when they have different reverbs, etc.?

 

[Jayme]

I'm not certain of this, but I think Jayme is saying that the guitars sound fine alone, but the effects don't blend well together when mixing. Am I correct? If so, that's a problem I have too. Is there a trick to making 2 distortion settings that each sound good alone blend well together? Or are you always going to have problems when they have different reverbs, etc.?

Bang on! that's what i mean! it is mostly to do with the reverb on the distortion, but i also like guttadaj's idea of recording them seperately! that way i can try and mach the destortion with the clean guitar but just take off some reverb! But...
Is it better to use the fx you get with a guiter fx peddal than to use the ones in the computer (ones that come with cubase sx)?