How to get guitar to sound more natural?

T

thikpurple

New member
Hello folks,

I've been getting into recording more lately now that I've got plenty of gear to mess with. Not really plenty but a lot for me. I'm trying to figure out to how to get my guitar sound more natural, and clean. Whenever I record the tracks sound fake and I lose the tonal clarity that I get straight out the amp. Is this a mic problem or a software problem? Or maybe even EQ? It has this weird, compressed, fake sound to it and I want it to sound like the amp does.

Check out a sample here: https://soundcloud.com/user-379041556/jamtrack2
 
Not sure what software you are referring to...but capturing the amp sound is mostly about what you do at the amp...the mic(s) and their position.
 
thikpurple said:
... and I want it to sound like the amp does.
Click to expand...

You might have an unrealistic expectation. What you hear with your ears and what the mic 'hears' are two separate things. If the mic is close up to the grill, it's only hearing the speaker. If you aren't right next to the grill, then you're hearing the speaker, the cab, the room, etc.

How the guitar and amp sounds solo is different than how they sound in a song. It is competing and integrating with freqs from other instruments and tracks.

You can tweak mic position/angle/distance, EQ, compress, reverb/delay, to get it closer to what you hear in the room, but you may not get an exact sound. The more important thing is how your guitar sounds in the song.
 
When you listen to recorded guitar tracks...it really helps to listen to them within the mix rather than solo.
Now, if you have no other tracks recorded, then you have to estimate the tone you want...but point being, it doesn't matter how the guitar sound to you in the room...or how it sound solo after recording...it only matters how it sounds within the mix.

Often guys will go over the top with distortion, because in the room, it sounds great to them coming out of the amp...then they put the track in the mix, and it sounds mushy and lacking balls because it's over-compressed with all that distortion. You just can't go by how it sound in the room....it's about the mix.

I spent this past weekend trying to find the tone I wanted for a song. I went through 3 different amps, 3 different mics and 3 different guitars....not to mention a few OD pedals...and while I could get a nice tone in the room, it just wasn't laying in the mix the way I wanted it.
It wasn't anything crazy, but I just wanted a slightly exaggerated sustained tone, but without going into a compressed or over fuzzy thing. I kept ending up in semi-fuzz territory...which is not what I wanted. I was looking more for a clean sustained tone.
So...this weekend I'm going to step back, dial it all back down and start over. :)

Sometimes you get caught up going down a certain path, and you think you can keep tweaking it to make it better...and it just keeps going south on you. At that point, just stop, and start fresh.
 
Many a time ive been through the same thing.
Sometimes the amp and mic ended up being completely eliminated, and in the context of the mix, the best sound came from just plugging straight into the board.
 
RFR said:
Many a time ive been through the same thing.
Sometimes the amp and mic ended up being completely eliminated, and in the context of the mix, the best sound came from just plugging straight into the board.
Click to expand...

Which is why I record a dry signal at the same time as the miked amp these days. yeah it takes a few extra minutes to set up, but in the end it has eliminated retracking due to not getting the right sound for the mix (that I thought I had when adjusting the amp).
 
mjbphotos said:
Which is why I record a dry signal at the same time as the miked amp these days. yeah it takes a few extra minutes to set up, but in the end it has eliminated retracking due to not getting the right sound for the mix (that I thought I had when adjusting the amp).
Click to expand...

Meh...it's an option, but IMO, playing against the actual amp you are using is much more reactive than reamping, and I think it makes a difference in the final result...how you work the bends and the accents, is often tied to what the amp is doing as you play.

I prefer to re-track, but then most of my leads are based on evolving improvisations, and I tend to play lead through the entire song, rather than just the "lead part". The lead part is usually in place of a verse, so by playing through the entire song I have multiple "lead parts" I can pick from wherever there's a verse.
IOW...there's rarely one lead part that I memorize and just play in its chosen spot...so reamping wouldn't be of any real benefit to me.

I don't get hung up about some perfect lick that I think I may never be able to nail again etc.
I guess I'm saying that I enjoy replaying the lead guitar as many times as needed/desired.
It's more like a jam for me since I don't get to just sit and play guitar too often. :D
If things work out as they should (which they do in most cases)...by the time I've developed my improvisations into something that works for the song...I've also sorted out my tone/amp/guitar choices. I'm working out the lead guitar at the same times as I sort out which sound I want and what gear I need to make it happen.
 
thikpurple said:
Hello folks,

I've been getting into recording more lately now that I've got plenty of gear to mess with. Not really plenty but a lot for me. I'm trying to figure out to how to get my guitar sound more natural, and clean. Whenever I record the tracks sound fake and I lose the tonal clarity that I get straight out the amp. Is this a mic problem or a software problem? Or maybe even EQ? It has this weird, compressed, fake sound to it and I want it to sound like the amp does.

Check out a sample here: https://soundcloud.com/user-379041556/jamtrack2
Click to expand...

Who's JF?
 
This does make alot of sense. I never thought about it that way. The dynamics of the mix and the other tracks add and/or subtract from each others tones. Like when I listen to Frusciante's guitar tracks on BSSM, they sound much more feasible when its isolated. I guess I can't count my pickin' chickens before they track. (Sorry.)
 
miroslav said:
Meh...it's an option, but IMO, playing against the actual amp you are using is much more reactive than reamping, and I think it makes a difference in the final result...how you work the bends and the accents, is often tied to what the amp is doing as you play.

I prefer to re-track, but then most of my leads are based on evolving improvisations, and I tend to play lead through the entire song, rather than just the "lead part". The lead part is usually in place of a verse, so by playing through the entire song I have multiple "lead parts" I can pick from wherever there's a verse.
IOW...there's rarely one lead part that I memorize and just play in its chosen spot...so reamping wouldn't be of any real benefit to me.

I don't get hung up about some perfect lick that I think I may never be able to nail again etc.
I guess I'm saying that I enjoy replaying the lead guitar as many times as needed/desired.
It's more like a jam for me since I don't get to just sit and play guitar too often. :D
If things work out as they should (which they do in most cases)...by the time I've developed my improvisations into something that works for the song...I've also sorted out my tone/amp/guitar choices. I'm working out the lead guitar at the same times as I sort out which sound I want and what gear I need to make it happen.
Click to expand...

No doubt, true - I usually do many lead tracks but I don't often do radical changes to the amp's sound when doing this. We were talking about the sound of the part not blending in well with the rest of the tracks when mixing down.
 
mjbphotos said:
We were talking about the sound of the part not blending in well with the rest of the tracks when mixing down.
Click to expand...

Right...but I'm saying that reamping doesn't save the day for me.

When I'm tracking lead guitar...ALL my other tracks are already recorded and I have a rough mix going that I can play against.
So at that point I start working on the lead guitar parts, playing against that mix and just improvising over it...and at the same time, I'm also auditioning amps/guitars/tones to find what I like best for the mix I'm playing against.

Usually, by the time I've got somewhat of a direction with the improvisational playing,while sticking to the same feel on each pass just jamming away rather than playing a very specific, worked out, note-for-not lead...
...I also fine tuning my amp/guitar/tone choices....and the two end up meeting at some point and that's when I will lay down the final takes, as they fall...done.
I don't want to then later on during mixing , revisit that whole tone searching process via reamping.
 
I agree with miro, except for the meandering lead crap. By the time I get to tracking guitars for real, I already have an idea of what kind of sound I want. I know which guitar I'll use for what parts, which amp head, which cab, which speakers, and which mic to get the results I want. If you spend some time with your gear it's not that big a deal to figure these things out without a ton of trial and error at the tracking stage..
 
Greg_L said:
I agree with miro, except for the meandering lead crap. By the time I get to tracking guitars for real, I already have an idea of what kind of sound I want. I know which guitar I'll use for what parts, which amp head, which cab, which speakers, and which mic to get the results I want. If you spend some time with your gear it's not that big a deal to figure these things out without a ton of trial and error at the tracking stage..
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I agree with Greg, except for all that tracking guitars crap. It's easier to just hook up the casio, select the "dist. gtr" patch, and play two-note power chords with the index finger on each hand.
 
famous beagle said:
I agree with Greg, except for all that tracking guitars crap. It's easier to just hook up the casio, select the "dist. gtr" patch, and play two-note power chords with the index finger on each hand.
Click to expand...

And that's pretty much what some off yall's guitar tracks sound like. Shapow!
 
Realize also that sheer SPL is an important part of our perception of sound. We almost always have our amps noticeably louder than we end up hearing them through the monitors at playback. Nobody really complains that a 57 in front of an amp through a PA at a live gig doesn't sound real, but record that same mic feed and play it back in the studio, even at rather "loud" levels, and...

This is not to take anything away from some of the good advice above, just another consideration.
 
Greg_L said:
I agree with miro, except for the meandering lead crap. By the time I get to tracking guitars for real, I already have an idea of what kind of sound I want. I know which guitar I'll use for what parts, which amp head, which cab, which speakers, and which mic to get the results I want. If you spend some time with your gear it's not that big a deal to figure these things out without a ton of trial and error at the tracking stage..
Click to expand...


Just to clarify the "meandering lead crap" ... :D

I always have some idea of the tone I'm after, but I get nit picky, and want to fine-tune it. So rather than just grabbing a go-to solution, which I know I can do....I mean, I keep notes on all my recorded tracks from the past, so even if I don't remember what I used 3 years ago, I can easily/quickly dial it in from the note...I like to start from scratch.
I'll intentionally avoid the known go-to solutions in favor of just experimenting...which is where the fun in recording is for me.

If I was doing a sessions with other people, on the clock...etc...then shit yeah, I'm with you...I would grab the known go-to solution based on the sound I've already thought about, and cut to the chase....but I'm not in that situation.
Not to mention...if I was doing a similar style from song to song, like a band might do...then it might be more about reusing known stuff. I'm doing everything from sappy/easy ballads to up-tempo Rock to some Latin flavored shit...so yeah, it's one constant experiment.

So...recording lead guitar for me is usually about trying out things rather than grabbing the known go-to solutions.
Yeah...I admit that it IS more of "meandering lead crap" approach... :p ...but that's the pleasure I get from recording.
What can I say...it's how I like to work with guitar. As I said earlier, I don't get a chance to just jam/play guitar all that much...so when I start working on the lead...I admit, it's more of "let's have some fun" rather than just thinking about knocking out the lead guitar track.
 
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