Getting a good guitar solo sound...

[Ivo V.]

Hi,

Yesterday I was trying to record my electric guitar. I played a solo and recorded it with Cubase SX. Unfortunatly I hate the way it sounds when I record it. I'm playing thru a 100-watt tump (KOCH amp, great tone).
I'm looking for a great guitar lead sound like : satriani, gilmour, petrucci and lukather. I know a lot of tone is comming from their fingers/guitar, but they all use a delay and lots of reverb. My question is : when I record my electric guitar dry (no reverb, delay,not anything) how en which effects(plugins) do I apply to create a nice lead tone. Everytime I use a delay it just totally f*cks up the track. I'm looking for a way to combine the delay and the reverb (and anything I don't know of....) to create that 'heavenly' lead guitar sound :d

Any thoughts, methods, suggestions or tips to help me out with this problem ?

GreetZ,
Ivo

p.s Did anyone notice the alliteration in my subject line

 

[JR#97]

do you have any effect boxes or units? if you do, experiment with getting the effect sound your after before you record and then use the same or similar settings with the plug-ins after you've recorded dry.

 

[LocusLarsen]

I would tell you how I get my lead sounds but unfortunately they are trademark secrets that would ruin my whole hope at releasing something original to the public. (and leave me broke and in debt my who life. NOT FUN)

Instead I will give you a pathedic attempt at a proverb that I just made up....

"Shape each stone one at a time, and build from the ground up, one stone at a time." -the great LocusLarsen

 

[LocusLarsen]

...and when all else fails.......saturate with gain, flip on your rythem pickup, and add a touch of reverb.


GNFR

 

[Ivo V.]

I don't have any effect boxes. I used to have a Boss gt-3, but I sold it as it ruined my Tube Amp sound. The advantage of putting effects after the recording, is that you don't mess up the power tubes with the effects.
I read somewhere that it is possible to put a delay over your reverb (??) and get a nice deep sound this way without any mudiness.

Pleaze help out,
Ivo

 

[KaBudokan]

I would tell you how I get my lead sounds but unfortunately they are trademark secrets that would ruin my whole hope at releasing something original to the public. (and leave me broke and in debt my who life. NOT FUN)

I hope you're kidding...

Generally, I use a tap tempo or delay calculator to set the delay in tempo with the music. This will keep it sounding more natural. Sometimes less is more, as well, so don't feel like you need to set a huge delay level with hours of feedback. I generally go delay and then reverb in the effects chain, as it seems more natural to me. Again, with reverb, don't overdo it.

 

[Aaron Cheney]

Generally, I use a tap tempo or delay calculator to set the delay in tempo with the music.

There ya go.....

Keeping the delay time consistant w/ the song's tempo is the key to the whole thing.

As far as reverb goes, be careful. Too much reverb is a sure-fire sign of and amateur producer.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com

 

[Tom Hicks]

1)Get the sound you want to hear live.
2)Mic with an SM57 on the surround.

Lots of processing sounds cool,but with electric guitars the basic tone has gotta be there first.

" I'm playing thru a 100-watt tump (KOCH amp, great tone). "

Ok,mic that up and get that great tone tracked.Mic placement is hugely important,in that moving the mic just a little bit can make a surprising difference in the sound.Lots of mics can be used,but the Shure SM57 is the standard for recording electric guitars.
You didn't mention your amp is tube or transister.Tube amps are preferred by many for tone. If you use a tube amp,the power tubes are as important for tone as the preamp tubes.If you can,turn it way up so that the power tubes get saturated.You will get natural sustain and the distortion will be sweeter and less grainy.Good luck!

 

[Speeddemon]

Or record with 2 mics.
For instance, SM57 and Sennheiser MD421 (thicker sound).
Or an SM57 and a condenser (Studio Projects C1?). Put the SM57 against the amps grill, and the condenser a couple of feet away from the amp. Mix the 2 to your liking. This way you've just added some natural reverb. And phase problems if you don't watch out.

 

[Tom Hicks]

Speedy
Speaking of phase,the old favorite technique with open back cabs is to mic the front and back of the cabinet,with the back mic flipped out of phase like you would do a snare bottom mic.Gives a massive beefy tone with old tube amps.

 

[Doug H]

You may be missing some tone because you aren't or can't crank up that 100 watter into the sweat spot. I'm not familiar with the amp, but gain tends to sound better the louder the amp gets.
As previously mentioned, if it's a tube amp, power tube saturation is a big part of "the sound".

Doug

 

[Ivo V.]

Listen to this...

I recorded the guitar over a backing track by a friend. Tell me what you think of this guitar sound. It was record direct-out of my tube amp as I still have to buy the sm57

What do you think ? The amp was completly dry (www.koch-amps.com => multitone) en effects were added in Cubase SX
It definatly gets closer to the sound I'm looking for.

Greetz,
Ivo

 

[fkoliveira]

Great sound!
I'm still green on recording, so let me see if I understood what you guys do: you record the clean guitar and then put all the effects in Cubase? Is this the way you got this sound? Does it work the same way for Cakewalk?

 

[Ivo V.]

Well I am looking for a great solo sound and I don't have any guitar effects (yet) and I heard the studio recordings all apply effects afterwards. So what I did was : record the guitar-amp with distortion thru direct out, no reverb, just my guitar and the amp. Once I got the track I first applied a reverb then a compressor and finally a delay (about 350ms).
This is the result and I'm quite pleased with it, but the tone could be more defined, more in your face. But it's a good first try.

Greetz,
Ivo

 

[amt7565]

THere is something you can miss by using effects after playing the guitar. Live effects make it more fun and exciting to play. It gives a much better feel and can enhance your playing abilities.

That's my opinion.

 

[flapo1]

My dear friend Ivo.

You will notice when you buy the SM57 (hopefully very soon) that the distortion will sound a lot smoother and fuller this way instead the direct-out. Personally, I don't like any kind of direct-outs at all for recording. I didn't find the time to hear your sample but a miked cabinet should be closer to what you'r looking for.

Good luck!

 

[Skull]

I went direct thru a Joe Meek Compresser EQ (VC3Q), then used the Warp VST amp modeler plug-in with the "Warp" head and the "British" cab. then added some Delay with Timeworks 6022 delay. I was very pleased with the results.

if you want more details on the settings, let me know.

 

[Ivo V.]

Yeah sure, I would like to know how it sounds and what kind of gear you used. Do you have a sample online somewhere ?

Lemme know,

Ivo

 

[Skull]

Yeah sure, I would like to know how it sounds and what kind of gear you used. Do you have a sample online somewhere ?

Lemme know,

Ivo

the only other gear I didn't mention is the guitar, it's a Dean MLX7. I'm in the process of mastering the song which has the solo I'm talking about. I can probably make a zip file with a mp3 of the solo and post it here. I'll try and get that up.

 

[Skull]

I tried to zip it, but I have to make the file such low quality (to make it fit on this site) that it sounds like crap. if you private message me your email address, I'll send you a small clip.