When a high gain tone sounds so much better through headphones, the dynamics of the low E and B strings punch through the way you want to hear, better than through your monitors, what are some of the first things to tweak to try to get a little closer to that sound through the monitors. I know they'll never sound exactly the same in both as the headphones tend to color certain frequencies (is it really "coloring" or just bringing forward elements that are just harder to hear in monitors?) Just looking for some tips on where to start looking to bring what I hear in each device a little closer together. At the moment I'm using Yamaha RH-5Ma headphones and Event bas 20/20 monitors.
Guitar tone: headphones vs monitors
- Thread starter Blast
- Start date
You know, if you spent more time at the amp and with mic placement, you wouldn't have to "high pass in the mix anyway".
rayc
retroreprobate
Work on getting good sound through the mic, then just roll.
Amp in a room isn't the same as amp with a mic in front of it.
I had to high pass some guitars in my last mix until the real fundamental problem became obvious - that was too much bottom end in the bass guitar track. Once the bass was sorted out I removed the pass from the guitars and they sounded much, much better. I had mic'd them up pretty well, (that took time, effort and thought but I am now able to use those positions etc. as my beginning set up for any tracking), to get the best possible mic'd sound for my gear and that showed through in the end.
Amp in a room isn't the same as amp with a mic in front of it.
I had to high pass some guitars in my last mix until the real fundamental problem became obvious - that was too much bottom end in the bass guitar track. Once the bass was sorted out I removed the pass from the guitars and they sounded much, much better. I had mic'd them up pretty well, (that took time, effort and thought but I am now able to use those positions etc. as my beginning set up for any tracking), to get the best possible mic'd sound for my gear and that showed through in the end.
Schwarzenyaeger
Formerly "Dog-In-Door"
I agree with you that high passing guitar is usually a good idea since there is nothing in a guitar's low-low range that contributes to a mix that couldn't be better filled by a bass guitar or a kick but saying that guitarists worry about their tone too much is silly.
The extension of that argument is that it doesn't matter how things sound. It does and you agree, or you wouldn't be here.
Schwarzenyaeger
Formerly "Dog-In-Door"
Yeah, you've got A/B it in the mix and see.
Right. I'm not saying that high passing is never the right thing to do. I'm saying that just doing it blindly by default because you think there's no value in a guitar's low end is foolish. And if you take better care with your tone and tracking then you'll probably never have to high pass at all. But that would require caring about your tone, and too many guitarists do that.
The truth is that if more people cared more about their source sounds than fixing things in the mix, there wouldn't be so many goddamn shitty home recorded mixes.
Okay, so what are you playing where low mids means mud?
Bass, keyboards, usually several layers of guitar. The lower mids build up fast. I don't think the issue is my guitar tone, which sounds good to my ears both out of the amp and miced. Recording good sounding guitars is really the least of my worries. Getting a clean-sounding mix with all those parts competing for frequency space is harder, for me anyway. I have found high passing guitars to be helpful. I can tell you are aiming for a chunky guitar sound. I'm aiming for more of an ambient sound where a number of parts can be heard without having to be particularly prominent. Are there better ways of achieving this? Probably so.
I put up a couple of songs for criticism on the songwriting forum. I've taken them down while I revise based on the comments I received. I'll be posting more songs fairly soon. I'd like to have your critique.
I put up a couple of songs for criticism on the songwriting forum. I've taken them down while I revise based on the comments I received. I'll be posting more songs fairly soon. I'd like to have your critique.
Raz Klinghoffer
New member
Headphones cut the low end, so if you, and create an acceptable low-end free environment.
Also, a lot of mixes cut the low end, and though I m not an expert in live sound engineering, I would try cutting some low end and adding some mid to the sound
Also, a lot of mixes cut the low end, and though I m not an expert in live sound engineering, I would try cutting some low end and adding some mid to the sound
ashcat_lt
Well-known member
I'm dangerously close to agreeing with Greg on this one. It really doesn't matter what it sounds like out of the amp or through a mic on its own. It's how it sits in the mix that counts. If it's not sitting in the mix without high-passing, then it wasn't the right sound to begin with. Turn the knobs on the amp, move the mic, swap the mic, swap the amp, swap the guitar, rethink the overall arrangement...
Yup. Too many guitarists dial in what I call a "bedroom tone". They beef it all up and get it all chunky, for lack of better terms.
What they are doing is actually compensating for the lack of a drummer and bass player in their bedroom. They'll spend hours, days and maybe even months dialing in that "killer tone",
only to have it be useless once the bass and drums are actually there.
What they are doing is actually compensating for the lack of a drummer and bass player in their bedroom. They'll spend hours, days and maybe even months dialing in that "killer tone",
only to have it be useless once the bass and drums are actually there.