Please Help! I have the FAKEST recorded guitar tone EVER

  • Thread starter Thread starter GLMrScary
  • Start date Start date
It sounds like a poorly treated room. You said your cab is isolated. How big is the isolated area? Are you using any room treatment? Again, a little sample will tell us a whole lot more than words.
 
Yeah 1 mic can be better than tonnes. :)
Id try adn get the best sound out your amp then maybe use 2 different mics. When mixing, mix each mic into the mix seprately as if you were onnly going to use 1 of the mics in the mix. get the best possible sound from both the mics, then mix them both in. You may find you only want a little bit of 1 of the mics or none at all. Whatever sounds best.

Eck
 
With everything that you have tried, has anything helped? Did going direct make things worse?, better?, what mic's? What sound are you looking for? I use either a peavey classic 30, or a marshall TSL602 for my sounds with either a 57 or re20. I can go from "and justice for all" to SRV to rancid and back with just that.
 
Did you manage to fix it yet?

#1...if you use multiple mic's, you can end up with phase problems...IE: cancelling out your sound and eating up a lot of harmonics

#2...if you are using any sort of effects/distortion pedals, make sure it is running through your amp's FX Loop, instead of going (GUITAR-> PEDALS -> AMP/HEAD), depending on the circuitry of the Amp/Head, this could change things like night and day

#3...not familiar with your recorder by far...but since you are micing it direct in, does your recorder have on board Effects?
I've done that before.....trying to track drums for hours, and getting the worst possible sound.....then I realized that the FX on my recorder wasn't bypassed, and was actually adding some "Honky Tonk" guitar setting to drums
 
GLMrScary said:
All of my distorted guitar sounds sound like I am playing a million miles away from the microphone.
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You have got something wrong somewhere. A good sounding amp is hard to make sound too bad, let alone a "million miles away". Start with a 57 pointed straight at the cone 2 inches from the grill. That should at LEAST generate something decent.......

And, as everyone has said - POST A CLIP!!! :D
 
I will try to take your advice and also try to post a clip. I do honestly truly understand about how hard it is to diagnose over the internet. I am just new to this whole thing and it may take me days to figure out how to hook this thing up correctly to a computer. I have been playing guitar for 17 years now (11 of them professionally) but only recording for 2 months.

I meant that I have used several mics...not at a time though. Just one at a time. I have also tried doubling. It just sounds DOUBLE the fake.

I run the 57 directly into the 2488. I have tried a compressor...then 2488. Did not help.

I am doing this in a bedroom not a "studio" so there is not much possibility of trying several places to isolate a cab. I have tried in hte open room...in its own 4' cube I built for it. I built 3 of them...all different. Nothing changed.

I turn up the trim knob on the 2488 until it clips...then back off a hair until it does not.

Closest that I can describe it is that it sounds like I am playing into a dixie cup (no matter HOW I eq or how much I adjust the mid range freq).

Gimme a couple of days. I am working 2 doubles the next 2 days then I'll be able to try to get a clip up here.

Thanks for all the help here folks...REALLY. I do appreciate all your are doing to help my tone.

Eric :)
 
Oh and I only use the gain from the head. I use NO pedals and record BONE DRY. Also...effects are all off on the 2488.

Eric
 
GLMrScary said:
I turn up the trim knob on the 2488 until it clips...then back off a hair until it does not.
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You are recording way too hot. You want to average around -18db. You are overdriving the preamps. That won't help.

Doubling the guitars (playing the part twice) will help only if you pan the performances.
 
GLMrScary said:
If I don't the tracks are not audible

Eric
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Are you using the same channel on your 2488 for the electric as you used for the vox?
 
GLMrScary said:
I am just new to this whole thing and it may take me days to figure out how to hook this thing up correctly to a computer. I have been playing guitar for 17 years now (11 of them professionally) but only recording for 2 months.
Click to expand...


This would explain a lot.

You're probably doing something screwy with the gain staging. It happens.

Keep on experimenting with stuff, and after a while, you'll figure out what it was and you'll probably kick yourself for it. This stuff takes time. Be patient.

.
 
GLMrScary said:
The only way I can post a clip is if I completely master the song and then burn it to disc then upload it. My recorder won't let me do it any other way. I don't really want to go through all of that right now

Eric
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I have the 2488. You don't have to master anything if you want to post a file of your guitar track. And you certainly never have to burn a disc, even if you want to send a 2 track master of the song out. You can use the USB and transfer any wav files into your computer.
 
GLMrScary said:
If I don't the tracks are not audible

Eric
Click to expand...
That is because everything else is recorded too hot, or your monitor volume control isn't turned up loud enough.

-18db is the average level that your tracks are supposed to be recorded. The big problem with these Rolands is that the mix buss is only 24 bit and will run out of headroom almost instantly, even when you record at the proper levels. Much less when you are running everything 10 or 12db too hot.
 
When I first started recording distorted guitar I came across a problem where it sounded very distant. I was using a very nice JCM2000, with a Marshall 1960 Lead cab, and very reasonable EQ (Lows at like 8, Mids all the way up, Highs at like 5, Gain at like 4). Now, it sounded extremely far away when I mic'd with a 57, a little off axis.

I was so confused, but then I just realized that the dudes cab was on Mono, and the speaker I was Miking was off, so it was just picking up the sounds of the other 2 speakers, and it sounded far off.

This may not be the problem, but put your ear to the speaker you're miking and make sure you're getting a little speaker noise from it. It might be on Mono, or it might be blown, don't know, just might be one thing.

Peace!
 
Yup, without the volume too loud put your ear in front of the speaker and see how it sounds. Or put on some headphones and while playing move the mic around to find "the sweet spot". But definitely record -18dbFS...turn up your master volume to hear it, but it makes a huge difference because recording hot sounds like shit. Experiment with panning out 2 doubled takes...works for me.
 
When you say fake, are you saying its all distorted fuzz? Try lowering the gain quite a bit and recorded 2 tracks seperately and panning... If it still sounds thin, record 2 more.
 
i have this problem too.

live it sounds ok...recorded it sounds like a bee is buzzing a melody.

i have no idea. i think it might be the room or my lame distortion. clean sounds ok for me though. i have a 30 watt tube delta blues..i use little distortion..tin can every time.

i just need to expiriment, though i hardly ever use my electric. i sometimes wonder why i have it...but it's a sheraton...and it's pretty.
 
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