Guitar tone help

[Fade]

Hi everybody. I am prettynew to this recording thing. I am currently using my room mates VS-840 and I was wondering ifanyone has any tips on getting a descent guitar tone while running straight into the board. Micing an amp isn't really an option as we live in a tiny condo. My amp is a heap anyway. I can get a good clean sound, but as soon as I add distortion it just plain sucks. I'm going for a metal style distortion. Really heavy but still clear enough to hear technical playing. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Cyrokk]

Look into an amp mod, like the Digitech series.. Here is the RP-100

http://www.musiciansnews.com/guitars/69/rp100_guitar_processor.shtml

Also look into Line6 POD's

http://www.samedaymusic.com/product--LINPOD20

 

[Fade]

I was thinking more of just EQ tweaking and such. The VS isn't mine andI am moving soon so I don't want to buyanything for it.

 

[ecktronic]

If you are going straight in to the recorder without any amp modeller or guitar fx processor you wont really even be able to get that great a sound. You almost definetely wont be able to get a decent distorted metal sound!
But if you want to, you could try recording a distorted channel and a clean channel and mix them. This will give you the distortion and the chord distinction you are wanting (to a certain extent).
If it is FX and EQ tweaking you are talking about, then i have found that using a good bit of reverb with a time of around 1 - 1.5 sec. and quite a high tone. For eq, maybe take a little it of bottom end off if it sounds muffled and muddy, and boost around the mid to top end.
One more idea is that you record two tracks for the distorted track and apply eq differently to each. One for the low heavyness and the other for the crisp tones. But still use the clean track idea also.
Hope some of this can help. but i would just try and use an amp, as it really is the way to a good meaty grungy drivin' metal sound.