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Greg_L
Banned
Best thread ever.
Kingofpain678
Returned from the dead
indubitably.
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Greg_L
Banned
Glad to help.
Kingofpain678
Returned from the dead
Ya I bet .
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Greg_L
Banned
It's a gift.
Kingofpain678
Returned from the dead
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Greg_L
Banned
You're welcome. Glad to help.
Kingofpain678
Returned from the dead
<3 .
SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
In order of importance, from most important to least, IMHO:
1. 90% of guitar tone comes not from the recording gear or amp or guitar, but from the fingers. If what you have going into your pickups sounds harsh, what sticks to your hard drive will sound harsh.
2. Replace your guitar strings. Seriously. One lesson that repeats itself to me constantly when I record guitarists is that a guitarist should never step in front of a studio microphone without fresh strings.
3. Depending on what you mean by "cheap microphone", if you're using a toy, bite the bullet and dump it for a real pro-level mic. Even a cheap SM57 or i5 will sound a million times better than a toy designed for computer use or a karaoke machine.
4. Turn down the gain in your amp head. What sounds like an appropriate amount of distortion on a live stage or in a practice room usually winds up being too much distortion for a miked recording situation.
5. Get your microphone off the center dustcap of your cabinet speaker and on the cone driver itself. The closer to the voice coil, the brighter and sharper the captured image, the closer to the edge, the basier but flabbier.
6. Rotate the axis of any directional microphone to taste. Chances are it'll have less HF sensitivity off-axis.
G.
1. 90% of guitar tone comes not from the recording gear or amp or guitar, but from the fingers. If what you have going into your pickups sounds harsh, what sticks to your hard drive will sound harsh.
2. Replace your guitar strings. Seriously. One lesson that repeats itself to me constantly when I record guitarists is that a guitarist should never step in front of a studio microphone without fresh strings.
3. Depending on what you mean by "cheap microphone", if you're using a toy, bite the bullet and dump it for a real pro-level mic. Even a cheap SM57 or i5 will sound a million times better than a toy designed for computer use or a karaoke machine.
4. Turn down the gain in your amp head. What sounds like an appropriate amount of distortion on a live stage or in a practice room usually winds up being too much distortion for a miked recording situation.
5. Get your microphone off the center dustcap of your cabinet speaker and on the cone driver itself. The closer to the voice coil, the brighter and sharper the captured image, the closer to the edge, the basier but flabbier.
6. Rotate the axis of any directional microphone to taste. Chances are it'll have less HF sensitivity off-axis.
G.
Kingofpain678
Returned from the dead
This could be where my problem lies, my guitar is pure shit. But to at least make a half of an effort, I raised the pickup height so i'd get a little more of the pickups tone and a little less of the guitar tone and turned the gain on my amp down to compensate for the higher output.
The I have now aren't all that old, but I have new strings on the way just cause it's time for a change.
it's a nady something or other, it's a POS. I just need to pick up an SM57, I just don't wanna give up hope/recording till then...
My amp is based on old british tube amps (my amp is a tube amp) but given that it's based on old british rock, it doesn't have oodles of gain, not to mention I keep the gain down somewhat.
right now I've got the mic on axis with the cone of the speaker right inbetween the dust cap and the edge of the cone, rather than 90 degrees with the grill and pointed straight at the dust cap. I used to have one mic at the edge of the dust cap and one at the edge of the cone but found that was pretty much useless since it was only picking up highs and low which gave a "scooped" sound. This way is much easier.
I've been experimenting with that, something I sorta seemed to notice is that different areas on the same speaker tend to sound different
I'm not sure if that's normal but I guess it's part of my learning process?
I think I'm doing everything right, it's just that my actions can't fix terrible equipment
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Greg_L
Banned
The new string thing is bullshit. I mean sure, you don't want mis-matched or rusty strings, but a little bit worn in strings sound better to me than brand new strings.
Kingofpain678
Returned from the dead
Agreed. I think brand new strings are too bright... I think they sound a little thicker after they've been worn in a bit...
Just don't ever try flatwounds for a rock sound... It doesn't work
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Greg_L
Banned
Agreed. I think brand new strings are too bright... I think they sound a little thicker after they've been worn in a bit...
Just don't ever try flatwounds for a rock sound... It doesn't work
I used to use flatwounds on my basses. Cool, thumpy sound.
Kingofpain678
Returned from the dead
I think flatwounds would be cool on basses, just not on guitar. At least not for rock and metal... It seems like it just kills everything about rock guitar sound that's supposed to be there.
When I was trying to learn about strings I read that chrome flatwounds would give you the darkest tone... I didn't know what they meant by dark so I went out and bought a set. That was a huge mistake, I hate em, not just for their sound but for their feel too.
They look kinda cool though, at least in comparison to normal round wounds
SouthSIDE Glen
independentrecording.net
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Greg_L
Banned
Spoken with the true expertise of a drummer.
G.
Um, I've played guitar longer, dummy, and you can't play anything.
Nice try though, dumbfuck.
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Greg_L
Banned
I think flatwounds would be cool on basses, just not on guitar. At least not for rock and metal... It seems like it just kills everything about rock guitar sound that's supposed to be there.
When I was trying to learn about strings I read that chrome flatwounds would give you the darkest tone... I didn't know what they meant by dark so I went out and bought a set. That was a huge mistake, I hate em, not just for their sound but for their feel too.
They look kinda cool though, at least in comparison to normal round wounds
I played in psychobilly bands. Flat wounds on electric hollow-body basses sounded awesome.
miroslav
Cosmic Cowboy
57s are great for a lot of things, and have their uses for guitar miking...though I find that if you already have some brightness/harshness coming from your amp/cab...a 57 will only accentuate it.
Consider a ribbon mic instead..they tend to naturally smooth out that upper end.
There are many choices, from expensive ones to affordable. One that is in the same general price range as a 57 is the Cascade Fat Head (OK a few $$$ more, but worth it).
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benherron.rrr
New member
Every one here is right, you can have a crap mic and still get a good sound from it so look at the source.
I read somewhere that many people fuck up guitar tones because they listen to the tone 10 ft away from the amp, which is why many people use the mid scoop idea, which sounds good from that position but when its close miced live, or for recording, it just sounds like mush. So as many people have said try to listen close to the amp (without blowing your ears) and get the tone right there, try not to go mad with volume, I have also read that many people like to use smaller amps at lesser volume as the tone it transmitted a bit clearer.
As little as I know on the matter, I have got the tone I want out ofthe amp, and then turned the gain/distortion down a fair bit, for some reason it has come across alot more clearly, with the distortion I want and the tone as crisp as I imagin it being. or you could record like 5 takes of the guitar, going from really clean staging it up untill its really distorted and then mix the clarity of the clean sound with the best attributes of the other takes, It makes the guitar have the distortion your after, with clarity so you can really hear it shine.
Another Idea, is to record the guitar part clean or very slightly distorted and record that then use a simple distortion plugin to add that little extra crunch
Have you cheacked the gain of your mic, try reducing that? Ive found I have had really good results recording with next to no gain on the mic input.
Hope this helps
I read somewhere that many people fuck up guitar tones because they listen to the tone 10 ft away from the amp, which is why many people use the mid scoop idea, which sounds good from that position but when its close miced live, or for recording, it just sounds like mush. So as many people have said try to listen close to the amp (without blowing your ears) and get the tone right there, try not to go mad with volume, I have also read that many people like to use smaller amps at lesser volume as the tone it transmitted a bit clearer.
As little as I know on the matter, I have got the tone I want out ofthe amp, and then turned the gain/distortion down a fair bit, for some reason it has come across alot more clearly, with the distortion I want and the tone as crisp as I imagin it being. or you could record like 5 takes of the guitar, going from really clean staging it up untill its really distorted and then mix the clarity of the clean sound with the best attributes of the other takes, It makes the guitar have the distortion your after, with clarity so you can really hear it shine.
Another Idea, is to record the guitar part clean or very slightly distorted and record that then use a simple distortion plugin to add that little extra crunch
Have you cheacked the gain of your mic, try reducing that? Ive found I have had really good results recording with next to no gain on the mic input.
Hope this helps