Harsh AND Muddy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Monkey Allen
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Monkey Allen

Monkey Allen

Fork and spoon operator
I'm trying to record an amp playing a clean tone playing plenty of chords with open strings up and down the neck in a very moderate paced song like 90bpm or so. Open strings are mainly the b and the e but the low e is involved here and there. Whatever. Anyway, I seem to be able to get a result I like miking an amp when I'm playing lead lines on guitar or things like riffs. But when I'm playing clean chords I always get results that are muddy AND harsh. Like there will be this 100-400 mud and this harsh 2-3khz. In between 400 and 2khz just sounds a mess. I constantly have this issue when recording acoustic guitar chord playing too.

Single note melody lines on a guitar...like a simple melody played one note at time records pretty ok. However the complex nature of clean chords (I guess all those strings...all the complex harmonics or overtones or whatever) just seems to always result in a bad recording. Like I said...plenty of mud...plenty of harshness. Just not pleasing.

I believe my guitars are nice sounding and I'm setting my amp by ear so that I like it. I'm using a 57 on the amp maybe a 1/4 of a foot away. The room is small and boxy...8x9 foot. No doubt this plays a roll. But I'm close miking and I'm usually using traps etc to isolate the amp anyway. I'm also EQ'ing on the way in but not outrageously. I have maybe an 80-100 roll off, a little 200 dropped out.

What am I missing? Have you experienced and overcome this problem?

Thank you
 

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Dave.
 
I have been watching/reading and experimenting. It seems when using in the mix, cutting a lot of the bottom out of the guitar so that it sits in the mix better. Isolated sounds like shit, but in the mix, it cuts through and can be heard.

I know I am working on the very same issue. I can't seem to get the electric to sit just right. I don't have a new mix, and I am not guitar centric in my music, but I start cutting the guitar in the 400 and below. Now you may need the low end, but I usually reserve that for bass, either synth or bass guitar. Could that be a possible solution to your problem?
 
DM60 said:
I have been watching/reading and experimenting. It seems when using in the mix, cutting a lot of the bottom out of the guitar so that it sits in the mix better. Isolated sounds like shit, but in the mix, it cuts through and can be heard.

I know I am working on the very same issue. I can't seem to get the electric to sit just right. I don't have a new mix, and I am not guitar centric in my music, but I start cutting the guitar in the 400 and below. Now you may need the low end, but I usually reserve that for bass, either synth or bass guitar. Could that be a possible solution to your problem?
Click to expand...
Cutting out below 400 Hz seems kind of radical - cutting out some 125hz (For the Kick drum) and 225 Hz (for the Bass) works well - and shaving off the top end also works
( Between 5kHz & 10kHz) - you shave where you can.
 
Papanate said:
Cutting out below 400 Hz seems kind of radical - cutting out some 125hz (For the Kick drum) and 225 Hz (for the Bass) works well - and shaving off the top end also works
( Between 5kHz & 10kHz) - you shave where you can.
Click to expand...
Yes, maybe. That is why generalities are not good. But what my main point was is that the guitar doesn't have to be as fat in the mix as it is when solo.
 
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