Guitar loud and in your face...

V

voodooguitar

New member
ok, ive been doing research and experimenting, but i cant get my guitar loud and in your face. The way ive been recording is, one dynamic mic. in the center of the speaker cone (jcm 2000 dsl 50 half stack) and one condenser mic. about 4 feet above the ground pointed towards my amp. Im running my mics through a mixer and straight into my comp. and im using adobe audition. Ive messed around with every thing.....mic placement, amp placement, different amp volumes, and i cant figure out how to get my guitar to sound "upfront" it sounds kinda distant, ill get a link of how my guitar sounds here shortly.....any suggestions,tips,anything would be awesome.

-Voodoo
 
There are no rules so take these observations with a grain of salt. Lose the condenser for the moment. If your room is less than ideal the condenser is probably accounting for the "distance" and not helping with the in your face portion.
Next play around with the dynamic mic some more. Put on a set of phones, crank the amp and get someone to chug some chords for you. Move the mic untill what you hear in your phones remotely resembles what you hear in the room or what you want to go to "tape". I won't say its not possible but I have yet to mic a cab that dead center of the cone was the best spot. Typically the center is very midrangey and thin/bright. Moving further away from the cone produces a darker/ and often more full sound. You want to find a happy medium between these two.
Less distortion = a more focused and heavier tone. If you are using too much gain your never going to get "large" and in your face sounding guitars. It doesn't make much sense but thats the way it rolls with audio. Also remember that most rock or metal albums have double tracked (often alot more) rhythm guitars. Try tracking 2 rhythm parts and panning hard left and right or close to all the way out.
Lastly don't be afraid to hi-pass your guitar tracks for clarity. The bass is supposed to hold down most of the low end. Started around 100hz and move it up untill you find a comfortable balance.

Maybe one of these suggestions will help. If not, there is always the search function.
 
don't forget to add mids. More mids are needed for recording. Try two mics. I like the sound of a E609s and an SM57 together, with the former being on axis and the latter, off axis coming from a 40 degree angle.
 
I'm on PTLE/002R

I've found the best sound is a SM57 off axis at the speaker and a second SM57 about 4' back level with the speakers.

My condensers OL and I find the dynamics more forgiving from powerchord saturation
 
I would take the condensor out of the picture completely. I would also put your amp in a closet with a bunch of stuff around it. Room ambiants can ruin it for you. You don't want the sound bouncing around the room. You only want to capture sound from the speaker directly. I usually place the dynamic mic pointing inbetween the dust cap and the cone seam. The next suggestion is to record your rythm tracks twice and use both of them paning one hard left and one hard right in your software mix. This doesn't work for everything, but in getting a strong distorted guitar sound it works like a glove. You may want to play with compression in the software mix on the guitar tracks with a 3:1 ratio, but sometimes it's not nessesary. Also when eq'ing don't eq or modify your guitar sound til it is in the computer. You just want to start with the raw recording. When you do eq in the software try not to over do it. I wouldn't go + or - 2-3db on any freq.

It's a lot to take in but, there are so many factors. The main advice would be to try everything you can think of. No one way is right.
 
The way I get a more in your face rock sound is less dist,more volume,thicker picks,thicker strings and really dig into the strings.Im pretty sure this wouldnt work for everyone but thats how i get my loud and in your face sound i always use my bridge humbucker also.I usually place my dynamic just of centre to the speaker cone.
 
Wireneck said:
Try tracking 2 rhythm parts and panning hard left and right or close to all the way out.
Click to expand...

THis always works for me. Recording on the computer lets you do this very easily, as long as you can play the same part twice. Also the cleaner tone sounds louder part that I edited out already. Super distorted guitar is all mushy when you record it. Sounds like tepid tomato soup.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top