Need help with Distored Guitar

[SinepTaf]

Need help with Distorted Guitar

Me and a friend are tinkering around with some recordings. We are trying to stay away from micing. The way we are doing it now is running strait from the distortion pedal to a mixer then to my computer. The Guitar just sounds wimpy. Any advice as how to make it sound more full? You can hear the recording here

We are willing to try micing but would like to get a better sound without it so we can record at any time of day and not bother anyone. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[metalhead28]

Me and a friend are tinkering around with some recordings. We are trying to stay away from micing. The way we are doing it now is running strait from the distortion pedal to a mixer then to my computer. The Guitar just sounds wimpy. Any advice as how to make it sound more full? You can hear the recording here

We are willing to try micing but would like to get a better sound without it so we can record at any time of day and not bother anyone. Any advice is appreciated.

Distortion pedal + direct in = wimpy

That's just the way it is.
If you absolutely do not want to mic your guitar amp get you some sort of modeler rather than just a plain old distortion pedal. Those things are not really meant to provide a good DI sound.

 

[legionserial]

Agreed. But then I have never seen a distortion pedal I liked.

You would be better of micing. I'm pretty sure you can do it without disturbing too many people. I live in pretty close quarters to my neighbours, and I always mic now, and they have had no complaints. It doesn't neccessarily need to be uber loud to mic. Just dont do it in the middle of the night.

 

[SinepTaf]

Awsome. A friend of mine is going to let me borrow a POD that he is not using. I will toy around with it see if I can get a beefier sound.

 

[giraffe]

Awsome. A friend of mine is going to let me borrow a POD that he is not using. I will toy around with it see if I can get a beefier sound.

that'll probably help.

 

[kludge]

Any of the cheap modeling boxes (Vox, KORG, Zoom, etc) will do a kind of adequate job sounding like a mic'd guitar amp. Programming them carefully supposedly helps. They can sound good, but rarely great.

I'm guessing you're trying to mic stage amps, right? Hence the volume problem. Another possible solution is to use a really small tube amp. Guitar Center has the Epiphone Valve Junior for $99 right now - five watts, 8" speaker, all tube. Sounds pretty darn good! It's still loud, but not LOUD, y'know? Nevermind the fact that it only has a volume knob, and no channel switching or graphic eq or all that crap. A well-designed guitar amp doesn't NEED anything but a volume knob!

 

[Humbucker]

After selling my Fender Super 60 all-tube amp in the summer I am currently recording with my Korg AX1500G multi-effects using the cabinet sims. Obviously I'd prefer to mic a really good amp but I currently don't have the money(spent all my 'toy' money ) and also I'm quite limited in what I could buy that would give me the satisfactory output as I live wall-to-wall with my neighbours who have 2 young kids, and also I have a 3-year old. The Vox Valvetronix modellors seem to be highly recommended, I was gonna get a AD50VT to replace my Super 60, but in the end I had to use the money for something else. They have a 12AX7 in them which makes them a kinda hyrbrid tube/solid state amp. Also the big upside is that they have a built in attenuator which means you can turn the wattage down and still get a nice tube-like sound. Aswell as this you have a bunch of different sound possibilites with all the different models etc.

I'm pretty happy with my AX1500G at the moment, it does a decent job so long as you have decent gear in your signal chain. My chain usually goes like this:-

Les Paul Studio-->Korg AX1500G-->M-Audio DMP3-->M-Audio Audiophile 192-->Cubase SL3

Here's an improv clip I did using this chain a few days ago:-

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=3030

I was using the 4x12 modern cabinet sim and there is no post-processing at all, just normalisation.

Another possibility is amp sim software such as Amplitube or even Simulanalog, which is free. I actually use Simulanalog from time, the JCM900 and Fender Twin Reverb sims are really good. Overall, there are lots of possibilities if you don't use the traditional micing the amp method, although correctly so it is the preffered method of most. But there's no doubt you can still get a decent sound without micing an amp. Hope this helps.

 

[SinepTaf]

Humbucker

That did have a good sound to it. Thanks for the info! And while I agree micing is ALLWAYS the better answer. Sometimes We like to record at 1 am or laiter. And thats just asking for trouble. I have a set of v drums I record match it with complete DI instruments and I can record untill the sun comes up.

kludge

Actually that recording was all DI. From instrument to distortion pedal to mixer to pc.

 

[SinepTaf]

Got the POD and all I can say is WOW. Check it out let me know what you guys think.

 

[Humbucker]

Got the POD and all I can say is WOW. Check it out let me know what you guys think.

Sounds pretty good to my ears - personally I'd like a bit more bottom end on it though, but it's a definete improvement and I'm sure as you get to grips with the POD you'll get the sounds you are striving for.

 

[gcapel]

Go to the microphone forum. There is a thread on this very subject. I made a sample in one post. Like said before if you go DI with your guitar it's going to sound thin. Your going to have to mic to get something pleasing.