guitar recording for metal

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Nathan1984

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I have been experimenting lately alot on recording guitars, but something bugs me about how they are sitting in my mix, not very full sounding. What I want to get some suggestions on would be like if I have 2 guitarists, how many tracks should I do to get that full guitar sound, where should I place them in the mix to give it a tight full sound when accompanied by the rest of the music, what post effects to treat them with to set them better in the mix. Everyone has alittle bit different opinions on these matters, so chime in, the more the merrier. I play alot of melodic death metal, progressive metal, hardcore and such. Help me get a full thick metal sound. Let me tell you what gear I have to record with too. I am running a tascam us800 for interface, I have a mxl 990 condensor, senneheiser e609, and a sm57, I have amp modeling sims, and I have a crate bv120 head and a bugera 6262 infinium head running through a egnater tourmaster 2x12. What do you guys suggest so that I can get a killer melodic death metal sound in my mixes?
 
sm57 right on each cab split each guitarist hard L and R and then have them embelish lower parts in a higher register and split those half L and R and put them lower in the mix I find doing more than a single doubling of any specific guitar part makes it muddy and can actually thin the sound more. Here's some examples. Neither of which have any bass guitar yet, that's all guitars and drums

Here's a heavy recording with two hard panned guitar tracks doubled and a continuous higher register part behind and I think it's pretty damn thick.


And here's a more melodic heavy thick part that's just simple doubling hard panned L and R


Bammy wham
 
Oh and turn your guitarists gains down, metal guys always have way too much gain and it always makes their parts thin. If you can't get them to turn their gains down get a DI track while recording their cabinets and reamp it later so you can have control over their gain and such.
 
Pahtcub said:
Oh and turn your guitarists gains down, metal guys always have way too much gain and it always makes their parts thin. If you can't get them to turn their gains down get a DI track while recording their cabinets and reamp it later so you can have control over their gain and such.
Click to expand...

What he said!!!! 57 or the 609. Mess with your angle and mic placement.
 
Maybe I am using to much gain, I got it turned down to four on my 6262 head, with a line 6 uber metal pedal for a little boost. Do you guys think I should turn it down alittle? This amp is still pretty gainy at 4, maybe I should. As for the panning, so I should take say the lead guitar and pan one hard left and one half left, and the rhythm I should pan hard right and half right? I'm gonna play with it some more, there are so many options on placement to mess with, I just want my guitars to fit in the mix well.
 
I would take the uber metal out of the loop and push the gain on the amp up and let those tubes scream. Get anything solid state out of the loop that you can.
 
Yeah, the uber pedal is all that I use, other than a ns-2. I also think that my guitars get muddy in the mix because of the drums sometimes too. I do alot of programming drums with superior drummer, I don't really have much experience with mixing the drums, so I just do my best, the drums sound good when I am done with them, but when I through the guitars in there it always makes the mix a mess.
 
Yeah but you should be using the tubes to get your distortion if possible, digital distortion always sounds nasty, and if you have a boutique amp like that then why use a cheap pedal instead of the built in tubes? At 4 you're not really getting anything out of the tubes. I use superior drummer as well and have no problems getting guitars to cut through, usually their mixes come out of the box sounding pretty good. Some people on here think they're too hot and too much room mic but that's just personal preference, are you sending your drums out to individual virtual tracks or mixing in superior drummer? Are you doing any processing to them after the fact? You should upload a rough mix so we can hear it, that's really the best way to get good feedback here.
 
I do some mixing in superior drummer, and I normally put alittle on in a mixing bus as well. The drums sound pretty good for the most part, but the guitars are what I feel always seem like they are lacking.
 
Post some samples again I always find that adding more gain usually thins out my guitar as far as recording goes.
 
Will do, now that it is the weekend I will have alittle time, later this evening I will do a quick mix and post it up for ya.
 
I don't hear what you're looking for that's a pretty big guitar sound from my ears, any bigger and you're gonna have trouble fitting other elements into the mix.
 
You think that the guitars aren't lacking depth? I guess I am my own worst critic. I just feel it isn't as full as I think it should be. I don't know how to describe it, maybe it is something to do with the bass and or drums lacking and not the guitars at all.
 
Maybe having each guitarist embelish a higher part then eq it to only allow airy sparkle through then blend that lightly into the mix for a bit more dimension.
 
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