Guitar Recording Sounds Bad?

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LikeABigBoi

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I am recording guitar directly through my Yamaha Audiogram 3 into Cubase, and it sounds bad. This is not me being picky and expecting professional tone. Does anybody have any tips on how to improve it? It kind of sounds bland and muddy and simply not how my guitar sounds before recording. Any help will be appreciated.
 
I don't have that rig, so I can't tell you how to tweak it (especially without hearing your results), but I'm sure you can get something better out of it than what you have so far.

That said...my best advice would be to stick a mic in front of a real amp and see how that works for you. :)
 
Is is an electric or electro-acoustic you are plugging in?
What type of pickup(s) doies your guitar have?
 
Capriccio said:
Is is an electric or electro-acoustic you are plugging in?
What type of pickup(s) doies your guitar have?
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I have an electric Ibanez RG370DX. I think it has passive pickups. To be specific, the INF3, INFS3, and the INF4.
 
Download amplitube 3 for free and it gets some pretty good tones. It's a plugin amp sim. Just plug your guitar direct and pick an amp and record. Pretty good sound for free.
 
Hello,
I don't have this rig, but you probably could get some clues on how to get a better sound by describing the following:
- what is your signal chain?
- Is your guitar cable going straight into Yamaha Audiogram 3 then to the computer?
- Are you recording DI?
- do you use any amp soft amp sim (plugin or hardware)?

If you don't have any amp sim and plan to record DI then you could experiment with some free amp sim plugins like:

FreeAmp, Guitar Suite, Juicy77 etc...

BTW how do you find the Ibanez RG370DX? I have one and was forced to find some trick to get in there 4 springs as this Edge tremolo never stays in tune
 
If it's electric you're doing, you should be OK going into that interface, as long as you've got a good level to record with. The sound will depend on what software amp simulator you're using. What have you got? Check this out for the pros and cons of recording with amp simulators MixTips: Avec Amps or Sans Amp?

You won't need to spend much to get a mic good enough for recording electric guitars. An SM57 is pretty much industry standard for cab (or used to be anyway) and they are only about £50-60 on the net (not sure about US prices if that's where you are). The simulators presets should give you a good enough starting point to work from tho.
 
Spare Dougal said:
An SM57 is pretty much industry standard for cab (or used to be anyway) and they are only about £50-60 on the net (not sure about US prices if that's where you are).
Click to expand...

the cheapest ones I've found in the U.S. are right around $100 new. you can get them used for about half that, and typically not worry about them being busted. they're built like tanks.
 
bolenti said:
Hello,
I don't have this rig, but you probably could get some clues on how to get a better sound by describing the following:
- what is your signal chain?
- Is your guitar cable going straight into Yamaha Audiogram 3 then to the computer?
- Are you recording DI?
- do you use any amp soft amp sim (plugin or hardware)?

If you don't have any amp sim and plan to record DI then you could experiment with some free amp sim plugins like:

FreeAmp, Guitar Suite, Juicy77 etc...

BTW how do you find the Ibanez RG370DX? I have one and was forced to find some trick to get in there 4 springs as this Edge tremolo never stays in tune
Click to expand...

RG ----> Audiogram ------> Comp via USB.

I have also tried to same thing except putting my Vox Tonelab after the RG, and well it sounded nice on a clean setting with Chorus/Delay, the distorted setting did not.

I have tried with and without amp sims. I've only tried one Poulin amp sim and some ones in Cubase. I haven't experimented very much with amp sims simply because even before I put the amp sim on, I can tell that it doesn't sound very good.

So far I've been happy with it. Mine usually stays in tune.
 
LikeABigBoi said:
I haven't experimented very much with amp sims simply because even before I put the amp sim on, I can tell that it doesn't sound very good.
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DIed electric guitars rarely sound any good without an amp or amp simulator. The only time they do is with the big semi-acoustic guitars with flat wound strings for trad jazz.
 
Amp sims don't always sound bad. I rarely used them, but some of the new stuff is outstanding.
 
If I had to guess, its an issue of input impedence... I once tried my electric (and acoustic through a pickup) into an alesis multimix and the sound was extremely poor. Add a $30 art tube preamp and viola, MUCH better tones with the capability for a decent tube distortion.

I'd bet a preamp would solve this issue completely.
 
I'm assuimg you've got the mic/instr button on instr haven't you? If you haven't this would help. A different pre amp would give you some better results, but you really should be fine using an amp simulator and that pre. It won't be 'insert favourite guitar players name here' but you could get somewhere close.
 
Spare Dougal said:
I'm assuimg you've got the mic/instr button on instr haven't you? If you haven't this would help. A different pre amp would give you some better results, but you really should be fine using an amp simulator and that pre. It won't be 'insert favourite guitar players name here' but you could get somewhere close.
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Yes, it's on Instr.
 
Also, I should mention that I didn't try using impulses yet. As I said, it already sounded bad so I didn't try and I'm not even sure what impulse I should use. Any suggestions?
 
Damn some of you are clueless.

LikeABigBoi said:
I've only tried one Poulin amp sim and some ones in Cubase.
Click to expand...

If you are talking about the cubase 6 stuff, I have not yet used it very much so I can't comment. But the old "AmpSimulator" plugin sucks ass.

Lepou stuff MUST be run through speaker sims to sound right (Poulin stuff does not model anything other than the amp, you need the speaker simulation). If you wish to use impulses you have to have a convolution reverb plugin (Reverence works fine if you have the full version of cubase).

So the way you run his amp modelers is his amp modeler FIRST as an insert effect on the guitar track THEN a convolution reverb plugin with a loaded impulse (everyone seems to like guitar hacks stuff). When you load said impulse you have to have it 100% wet, no dry signal should be running through the reverb plugin.

OR!

You can download a sim that does it all: Like guitar rig free (if they still have a free version), or Amplitube 3 free. These sims model all aspects of the guitar amp chain.


As far as how you have it hooked up it sounds like you have it correct (guitar--->guitar cable--->instrument input on audio interface).
 
What software are you using? If you are using something like Audacity and don't have a degree in sound engineering that could be the problem. I have had the same problem in the past. I never was able to get the sound I wanted. I used Riffworks, Audacity and Magix Audio Studio. They were all too complicated to be of much use to me. I recently switched to Mixcraft 5 and have found it much easier to use and my music sounds 100% better.

Also what type of microphone are you using?
 
Guitar Hack said:
What software are you using? If you are using something like Audacity and don't have a degree in sound engineering that could be the problem. I have had the same problem in the past. I never was able to get the sound I wanted. I used Riffworks, Audacity and Magix Audio Studio. They were all too complicated to be of much use to me. I recently switched to Mixcraft 5 and have found it much easier to use and my music sounds 100% better.

Also what type of microphone are you using?
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facepalm8.jpg
 
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