Guitar palm mutes gives insane hum

[elsenator]

Hello people,
This is my first post on this forum and i expect to be using it quite a lot in the future as i am a very passionate home studio engineer.

I run my 1-man metal band called Muldjord and i have a burning question concerning heavily distorted guitars and the humming i get just after a palm mute.

After almost each palm mute in my recordings, i have some insane boosts at around 126-135 Hz. I know it is quite normal for these hums to be there as they are part of what makes the palm mute sound so powerful. But in this case it makes it impossible for me to eq boost the 80-200 Hz area with a wide Q because the humming around 126-135 eats everything else for breakfast.
I've tried EQ'ing my way out of it, but the problem is that i am only interested in scooping them whenever they become a problem, which is only about 5% or my entire recording.

So my question is:
- Is this a standard problem, and is there an easy way to fix it?
- How can i accomodate this? Should i apply a multiband compressor which only works from 126-136 and then just make sure that it never gets out of control?

Any thoughts or suggestions are very welcome.

Further info:
------------
The guitar recording is a reamped clean signal i made using my Radial DI box. It has been reamped through an Ibanez tubescreamer, into a Bugera 333XL amp and an EGNL 12" cabinet. Then recorded into an sm57 at position 2 (mid, slightly bended towards cone). The EQ on the Bugera was about 70% bass, 30% mid, 75% treble, 85% presence.

Any comments to the above settings would also be much appreciated. I have only reamped a few times, so most of the time i am just trying out stuff without any reasons to back it up.

 

[jimmy77611]

Maybe it's an issue with your palm muting technique. Since you're recording clean, you aren't able to hear what it really sounds like when amped, and aren't able to give it the needed "finesse" to control these weird overtones. If you already know what setup works for you (mic, amp settings, placement, etc) why not try recording it through the amp from the get-go, instead of re-amping it after the fact. You can always take a DI at the same time for future use/security.

 

[elsenator]

You might be right

Hmmm, yes, you might be onto something with the finesse. I do have a metal zone or a very silent amp on when i record the clean signal, but i guess it just isn't enough if i want to make sure i can actually hear the humming while recording (i also record the distorted guitar, but since it's very silent it's of no good use).

Concerning recording directly, that's unfortunately not an option for me. I do have a nice setup back at home for mixing, but i have to go down to an external location for reamping because of neighbors. And at that place i just don't have the time to do the recordings directly.

Thanks for your reply.

If anyone else has any thoughts on this, please let me know. I am always eager to learn.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Then recorded into an sm57 at position 2 (mid, slightly bended towards cone).

"Position 2"? You know, I once saw a vid where some guy went through maybe 8 or so "positions" he liked to use. FWIW, that's not really a widely accepted terminology. Most people just describe their mic position in terms of dimensions - inches from edge/center of cone, inches from cab, angle in degrees, etc - rather than using an arbitrary numbering system.

Anyway, more to the point, why are you trying to boost your guitars in the 80-200 hz range? Are they missing something there? Especially distorted, a lot of the "character" of the guitar is in the upper harmonics, and that's really the range of the fundamental of a guitar in standard tuning, I'm a little surprised you find you have to boost there. Admittedly, I play a pretty bass heavy rig (Recto Roadster), but I play a seven string in B standard, generally, and I often find myself cutting rather than boosting in that range, to keep the low end clear.

Anyway, Slipperman goes into that low-end "swing" in palm mutes a bit - this is a pretty cool reference:

http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html

EDIT - also, your settings, I've never played the Bugera, but the 333XL is based on the Peavey XXX, right? If so, does it still have active EQ like the Peavey? Because if so, that's a SERIOUSLY mid-scooped tone, with a lot of low end to it. Guitar, even metal rhythm guitar, is ALL about midrange. Those settings probably sound pretty awesome on their own, but I bet if you roll back the bass somewhat and let the bass gutiar hold down the low end, and then bring up the mids to move the focus of the guitar up there, your problem will magically go away and your guitars are going to sound much bigger to boot. Also, are you double tracking? Not just reamping the same performance twice, but reamping two seperate performances?

 

[starbuck26]

My first thought was that you're probably recording with way too much gain. Lower the gain and try doubling or tripling the parts to thicken them up. Also, find a way to isolate your amp and track with headphones. This will cut down on feedback, which I assume is your problem.

Another idea would be to use a gate which will snap shut when you stop feeding it.

If you're getting the hum through the amp, live, in the room though, your fix is right there on the amp and the guitar, not in mix.

And I do agree with Drew that if you're bumping 80-200hz you're not getting enough balls to begin with.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

And I do agree with Drew that if you're bumping 80-200hz you're not getting enough balls to begin with.

Cosidering his bass settings on the 333XL, it makes even less sense. If he's boosting the bass and then cutting most of the mids on an amp with active EQ, is signal ought to be almost ALL bass and treble. My hunch is he's listening to the playback, thinking the guitars sound indistinct and don't "punch" enough, read somewhere that strengthening the fundamental can help, and decided a broad low-end boost was the best way to go. Really, though, this isn't a bass problem; my money says this is a midrange problem.

BTW, reading between the lines, I don't think he's talking about a guitar that's "humming," like a bad ground or hiss or something, but rather that there's just a ton of energy in that frequency range that makes his guitars peak quite a few decibels higher whenever he chugs. Either way, less gain should help.

BTW, starbuck, haven't seen you around here in a while. How've you been?

 

[elsenator]

Anyway, more to the point, why are you trying to boost your guitars in the 80-200 hz range? Are they missing something there? Especially distorted, a lot of the "character" of the guitar is in the upper harmonics, and that's really the range of the fundamental of a guitar in standard tuning, I'm a little surprised you find you have to boost there.

Mainly because my chucks sound vague without it. No doubt there's something very wrong with my signal, i'm sure of it, so i'm just trying to remedy that. Why it needs more low-end in general, especially when considering my amp settings when i recorded this is as confusing to me as it is to you reading this.

EDIT - also, your settings, I've never played the Bugera, but the 333XL is based on the Peavey XXX, right? If so, does it still have active EQ like the Peavey? Because if so, that's a SERIOUSLY mid-scooped tone, with a lot of low end to it. Guitar, even metal rhythm guitar, is ALL about midrange. Those settings probably sound pretty awesome on their own, but I bet if you roll back the bass somewhat and let the bass gutiar hold down the low end, and then bring up the mids to move the focus of the guitar up there, your problem will magically go away and your guitars are going to sound much bigger to boot. Also, are you double tracking? Not just reamping the same performance twice, but reamping two seperate performances?

I will keep that in mind next time i am reamping. I've read a lot about this but i never really figured it out. Mainly what i hear is obviously not what the mic hears. Concerning the bugera, i don't know about active EQ or not or what it's based on.
And yes, i am double tracking both guitars to get a thicker sound overall.

My first thought was that you're probably recording with way too much gain. Lower the gain and try doubling or tripling the parts to thicken them up. Also, find a way to isolate your amp and track with headphones. This will cut down on feedback, which I assume is your problem.

The problem is not a constant humming, but only while chucking. More precisely at the very end of a chuck.