Power chords Distorted?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ecktronic
  • Start date Start date
ecktronic

ecktronic

Mixing and Mastering.
Has anyone experienced this?
I can get a pretty nice dist guitar tone when playing single notes, but when I do chords the definition seems to disappear and it sounds messy and muddy.

Heres a small sample of what I mean.
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=8951

The single notes go up to 27 seconds which sounds good, then the guitars just fall apart.

Any ideas what to do to get less muddy sound when playing chords?

Cheers,
Eck
 
without listening....
probably too much distortion.

in order to get single notes to sound good and distorted, you usually have to have to gain good and up.
 
Just being honest, I could tell as soon as I heard those single notes that the chording was going to be bad news. You can hear a whole layer of nasty fizz on top of things. This is obviously some sort of serious distortion pedal at work, I'd lose it.

Some other things that muddy up power chords in my experience, although I don't think it has much to do with this problem. Intonation, especially if you're multitracking. Also, playing too hard on light gauge strings. I've gotten onto alot of guys who hit the chords so hard that for the first couple seconds the chords all sound sour and muddy - and if they don't hold anything out long enough to hear it settle down it just all sounds like shit.

I think what you're dealing with is just too much gain, and nasty sounding gain at that. When those chords get going, I wouldn't bet on it, but it almost sounds like a distortion pedal straight into a board.
 
Yea, too much distortion. For power chord riffing, you just need enough distortion to break things up, anything more is overkill. Let the speakers, mic placement, and most importantly, your playing convey the heaviness.
 
That distortion pedal you are using needs to go up on ebay.

You should work it the other way around. Get a good sound with the chords, then play the single notes. However, that distortion isn't going to work with either.
 
one big reason chords sound like mush has to do with IMD (Intermodulation Distortion). Low IMD amps do not exhibit this issue. I can post a clip I just reamped for a guy that has as much or more gain than your clip, but does not exhibit this. it's very tight and clear. but, IMO your distortion quality is low. whenever I hear "turn the gain down" to fix a distortion quality problem, it's generally just a work around.

...and, now after putting up your clip and giving it a hard listen, my recommendation is to practice dialing a distorted tone. it's awfully harsh.
 
Last edited:
Way too much fizz and fuzz and harshness. Sounds like the sound I got when trying to record direct with a crappy guitar and a distorted amp sim (no offense). The tone itself seems okay but there's too much fizz/fuzz/crap on top of it.
 
giraffe said:
without listening....
probably too much distortion.

in order to get single notes to sound good and distorted, you usually have to have to gain good and up.
Click to expand...

Im using minimal distortion as is.
My Boss GT6 FX pedal goes up to 100 for distortion and I use 25.
Could it be the pedal?

Eck
 
metalhead28 said:
Just being honest, I could tell as soon as I heard those single notes that the chording was going to be bad news. You can hear a whole layer of nasty fizz on top of things. This is obviously some sort of serious distortion pedal at work, I'd lose it.

Some other things that muddy up power chords in my experience, although I don't think it has much to do with this problem. Intonation, especially if you're multitracking. Also, playing too hard on light gauge strings. I've gotten onto alot of guys who hit the chords so hard that for the first couple seconds the chords all sound sour and muddy - and if they don't hold anything out long enough to hear it settle down it just all sounds like shit.

I think what you're dealing with is just too much gain, and nasty sounding gain at that. When those chords get going, I wouldn't bet on it, but it almost sounds like a distortion pedal straight into a board.
Click to expand...
Your totally right.
Its a Boss GT6 pedal straight into my soundcard (Realtek HD).
Don't think my soundcard is meant for recording really. :)

I only used 25/100 for distortion using the Metal Master setting.
Would you advise just using pure amp distortion instead?

Cheers,
Eck
 
Thanks all.
I'll not use the GT6 pedal for recording when it comes down to serious recording.
This was just a wee tester to see how good a sound I could get from the GT6 going direct to my crappy sound card.

How much distortion do yous use normally for style similar to this?
I know it will be well less than half the full distortion amount. :)

Cheers,
Eck
 
ecktronic said:
Thanks all.
I'll not use the GT6 pedal for recording when it comes down to serious recording.
This was just a wee tester to see how good a sound I could get from the GT6 going direct to my crappy sound card.

How much distortion do yous use normally for style similar to this?
I know it will be well less than half the full distortion amount. :)

Cheers,
Eck
Click to expand...


Do you have a convolution reverb plugin? You should try using a guitar cab impulse on a direct recording like that. It'll smooth it out alot.
 
metalhead28 said:
Do you have a convolution reverb plugin? You should try using a guitar cab impulse on a direct recording like that. It'll smooth it out alot.
Click to expand...

Sorry not sure what either of those things are you mentioned. :(
I used 2 Rverb plugs on the guitar. 1 was for the low end and 1 was for the high mids.

Could you tell me what you mean by a "guitar cab impulse" please?

Cheers,
Eck
 
ecktronic said:
I only used 25/100 for distortion using the Metal Master setting.
Would you advise just using pure amp distortion instead?

Cheers,
Eck
Click to expand...
It's not how much distortion in this case, it's the type of distortion that's the problem. Try using something like 'overdrive' instead of 'metal master'. "Metal" settings on cheezy all-in-one effects boxes normally suck balls...like yours does.

If you are recording direct, turn down the highs-turn up the mids.
 
ecktronic said:
Sorry not sure what either of those things are you mentioned. :(
I used 2 Rverb plugs on the guitar. 1 was for the low end and 1 was for the high mids.

Could you tell me what you mean by a "guitar cab impulse" please?

Cheers,
Eck
Click to expand...

Here's the wiki on convolution reverb:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_reverb

It's usually used for reverb, hence the name, but the "real space" impulses can be substituted with impulses from things like analog hardware, guitar cabinets, etc.
Capturing an impulse from a mic'd guitar cab will allow you to impart those sonic characteristics onto the sound you are processing with the convolution plug-in.

You can find guitar cab impulse responses posted all around for free.
 
Farview said:
It's not how much distortion in this case, it's the type of distortion that's the problem. Try using something like 'overdrive' instead of 'metal master'. "Metal" settings on cheezy all-in-one effects boxes normally suck balls...like yours does.

If you are recording direct, turn down the highs-turn up the mids.
Click to expand...

Cheers man.
Eck
 
metalhead28 said:
Here's the wiki on convolution reverb:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_reverb

It's usually used for reverb, hence the name, but the "real space" impulses can be substituted with impulses from things like analog hardware, guitar cabinets, etc.
Capturing an impulse from a mic'd guitar cab will allow you to impart those sonic characteristics onto the sound you are processing with the convolution plug-in.

You can find guitar cab impulse responses posted all around for free.
Click to expand...

Cheers for the info man.
I'd prefer to just use my cab for serious recording, not a fan of direct recording.

Eck
 
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