Guitar sounds too raw.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Coz
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Coz

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I am having trouble recording a good guitar sound. The set-up I'm using is simple, its a Les Paul going through a Boss DS-1 distortion pedal into a vintage Fender tube amp. The amp is mic'ed with an SM57 (on axis, right on the grill). The signal is being recorded onto a Roland VS1680. The trouble is that the guitar sound is too raw (too much crunch) and its making the recording sound amature. I have tried rolling off some of the distortion on the pedal. I have also tried bringing the mic back about 2 inches off of the grill.
Neither of these changes fix the problem. Should I be using a compressor to try to get a 'smoother' sound? Does anyone out there have any recommendations?
 
First off, you might wanna turn you mic to 30 degrees of axis so you dont get any loud harsh sounds due to bursts of air from the cone. To get a less harsh warmer sound you can almost always simply move the mic farther back in your case try say 8-12". YOu could also try using more then one mic.

It seems that almost every time i record a hard guitar part i have this problem and its almost always solved by experimenting with the mic placement. Up so close to the grill your gonna get alota high end crunch and not so much the smooth low-mids. lower frequencies are much longer in physical size therefor they take more space to develope. If you turn it up there will appear to be more clarity when micing at a farther distance.

Also the sound you love when your jamming and playing live is just about never going to work in recording applications for many reasons. You may wanna experiment with the pedal and amp settings and listen through your recording devise. If you record the part then listen after its even better. Theres something about listing to a sound and playing at the same time that just isnt good. Its a left brain right brain thing.

Hope this is good advise for you.
 
The easiest and quickest way I know of to make a guitar sound become smoother is to double the take and split the two tracks hard left and hard right.
 
Something that worked really well for me was to put the mic at about the same level as my ears were when i was in a good position to hear the amp the way it sounded best... it was about 5 feet off the ground pointed at an angle down towards the amp and about 3 feet away from the speakers. Dont be afraid to move it around.. try anything.. you'll get a good sound eventually..
 
Move the mic back to get a fuller sound...maybe. For a heavy sound I've found that moving the microphone back 8-10" works well...though you'll need more gain. You really have to play around and there is no one answer. Let your head be the judge. Plug one of your ears and pretend the other is a microphone...move your head around the amp until the sound is where you want it...and stick the microphone there. Silly funny-looking technique that seems to work pretty well :)

Also, make sure that your sound is good to begin with. Really. I'm coming to the realization that my setup will NOT give me the sounds I want, no matter where I stick the damn microphohne or what kind of processing I do to the signal.

Slackmaster 2000
 
Thanks to everyone for the advice. I have actually started using my ears as a microphone. I'm able to hear the same sound in the speakers nearfield that I was hearing from the monitors.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find a sweet spot w/ the mic. I am actually looking at different amps that can produce a heavy sound w/o the use of a distortion pedal. I think experimenting with a Mesa Boogie amp may be my next step.
 
One of my guitar players has a Boogie 50 watt
with 1-12, be prepared they are screamers!!
Aside from that the have got one of the best tones for a small, self contained amp that I've been around (unless you want to go with
a Matchless!) :D :D
 
a les paul through a ds-1 and fender amp is NOT going to sound smooth EVER. try the ds-1 with a DI box (and some serious EQ) and maybe a different guitar.
other than that, youll need a new rig. mic placement wont matter here.
 
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