Guitar sound suggestions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vagodeoz
  • Start date Start date
Vagodeoz

Vagodeoz

One-Man-Band
I already made a similar topic in the mixing section but I think I could get more help here.
I'm having serious problems with my guitar sounds. I have a very old fender squier, a couple pedals I never use (zoom 505II and FAB metal), an art tube pre-amp (if it helps), and I could borrow from a friend (also if it helps) a small behringer amp with tube simulator, or at least claims so.
So as you see I'm not overwhelmed with gear. But well, you do the best you can with what you are given, the point is I think I can still make it sound a lot better with with I have, I just don't know how :(
Here is what I do. Since most of the hardware I have is crappy I record directly the guitar to the pc, and then I use amplitube or guitar rig.
So well, take a listen and be harsh: I don't like that, I hate that, instead I would do that, how could you come up with that crap!
Oh, also, my friend (the one who could borrow me the behringer amp) just bought the "el toro" pack, that also has a behringer guitar, which he could also borrow me to get more variety of sounds. I don't know if it's better than my squier but it surely is in way better shape.
Thanks in advance.

http://www.last.fm/music/Galvorn/ or http://public.box.net/vagodeoz
 
i'm on a low bandwidth connection right now so i can't listen to all of it. but from what i heard of your music your lead tone sounds really good. the rhythm tone in the second piece was a little thick for my taste but if you like it than you should leave it as is.

the question really is...are you happy with your tone?

the behringer amp would certainly make more options available. give it a try and see if you like it better.


btw, from what i was able to hear, those are some great tunes. i'll come listen again when i get on a 'real' internet connection in a few days.
 
It sounds good. One major thing to work on are those sort of weird ghost notes that occur on the attack of each note. I used to get stuff like that a lot, but I think--someone will probably correct me--that some compression can kill it. Or perhaps you're recording with too much gain.

The tone is not bad, though. I like it. :D And now I can say I've heard a Bolivian metal band. :eek:
 
Sounds fine to me. I wonder if the real question you are asking is how to get it recorded better and mixed better. Sounds to me like the source tone is just fine. Anything you can do to stay away from amplitube will benefit your sounds.
 
I'm not too sure about the tone itself. I'm getting lots of low frequencies, as you can hear. I'm thinking that maybe to solve that I would have to go one step back, to the songwriting. The guitars are tuned in C so they are pretty low, and most of they time they are playing pretty low stuff, and the tone is also has too much low end, which I like (when I listen it alone) but the low frequencies are way too overcrowded with the other instruments.
Anyway tomorrow I start to work on that again. I'll try some different stuff at amplitube/guitar rig, but not after messing with my analog gear, which is my 2 crappy pedals and a tiny behringer amp. Hopefully my many mikes and tube pre-amp will make it up for the lack of guitar gear.
I'll post a clip when I have something decent.
By the way... do you think I should record the tracks directly on the pc? or record it in a tascam 414mkII and then pass it to the pc?
 
The tones are really not too bad at all, I think a remix would help the song out. I listened to the 2nd tune and when the drums and rhythm guitar come in it drowns out the lead part and the bass. Cut back the drums and rhythm and it will all fit together better.
I use some small 15 to 25 watt tube amps for most of my guitar parts, although I will also use a Johnson J-Station for direct parts as well--often mixing the 2 together for different textures.
 
I guess I will have to mess a lot with substractive EQ. Thanks!
As for the amp, it's not even a tube amp, but it has tube simulators, which IMO works great for the price (160$ including guitar and tuner)
Here is the amp. What I do have is a tube mic pre-amp. Is there a way I can take advantage out of it for guitar distortion/tone?
I also have this cheapass distortion pedal, which I bought just becouse it was so cheap :) Here is a sample of that pedal from musiciansfriend. But it sounds too "crunchy" for my taste. I'll see if I can get anything decent out of it.

What's the usual chain for guitar gear?
Guitar-> pedal compressor-> pedal distortion -> amp -> cabinet or something like this?
 
Vagodeoz said:
The guitars are tuned in C so they are pretty low, and most of they time they are playing pretty low stuff, and the tone is also has too much low end, which I like (when I listen it alone) but the low frequencies are way too overcrowded with the other instruments.
Click to expand...

There is far less room in the low frequencies for multiple instruments than in higher frequencies. Anyone down there besides bass and kick drum had better have a very good reason to be there, and just do your business and then get the hell out. I've threatened to cut off our keyboardist's left hand. ;^)
 
Vagodeoz said:
What I do have is a tube mic pre-amp. Is there a way I can take advantage out of it for guitar distortion/tone?
Click to expand...

I don't think you'll get much help from that -- what guitar players normally go after is to overdrive the *power* tubes of an amp, not the preamp tubes (although they get overdriven, too) -- beyond that, you'd need to figure out a way to plug the (line level) output of the tube pre directly into the power stage of the amp, and I've never seen an amp that allows you to do that, and beyond that, the tube pre uses a "starved plate" approach to the tube, which uses it very differently from the way an amp would.

I've got the presonus tube pre, and I've used it for microphones and as a DI for a bass guitar, and it was OK for both functions, as long as I *de-emphasized* the tube by a) replacing it with a quieter tube (mine was hissy for some reason), and b) finding a sweet spot between the tube gain and the regular gain. In this case, though I was getting a pleasing clean sound, not a tube distortion sound. The only distortion I got from it sounded pretty bad. I also have an older version of the art tube pre, and so far it has been so noisy that I can't use it for anything.
 
Here, I did another mix of "A orillas del destino". What do you guys think about it? The base guitars (L and R) and the one that makes the riff were re-amplified with the behringer cheapass amp, for the lead and one of the bases I used an SM57, and for the other base I used a Nady RSM-2
Also this time I used a lot of low cut filters.
 
ggunn said:
There is far less room in the low frequencies for multiple instruments than in higher frequencies. Anyone down there besides bass and kick drum had better have a very good reason to be there, and just do your business and then get the hell out. I've threatened to cut off our keyboardist's left hand. ;^)
Click to expand...

Is this going to be a problem for me, when I start recording my Fender Bass VI, with a solid or hollow body and Fender P-bass (or Epiphone EB3) in the mix? It is likely, however, that I'll be using the Bass VI as a lead instrument (spaghetti western/spy/sci-fi kinda stuff), but there are a few arrangements I'm working on that'll have it more as a "decorative" instrument, along with lead and rhythm guitars.

Matt
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top