Recording Distorted Gutiar

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artCROSS

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Hey everyone, this is my first post, and I am a beginner, so please bare with me...

I want to record a guitar that's going to be in a mix with drums, bass, and piano. I want it to have that distorted, punky sound which is best heard in Something Corporate's album Leaving Through the Window. Right now, when I record, it sounds very thin. I own a Digitech rp2000, which is a multieffectspedal/amp modeler. However, i just use it as a distortion pedal.

I record by plugging the guitar into the pedal, which then goes to my amp (Behringer 2x12). I mic the amp with an MXLv67g condenser (not the best for micing an amp, but it's all i got) which goes through an ART Tube MP OPL Preamp, which then goes to a Presonus COMP16 Compressor, which then goes through an M AUDIO Duo which goes into my laptop. (for an example of the guitar sound, visit http://www.purevolume.com/YouHaveFive/music2 and listen to Each Day, Visible. There are a lot of things wrong with this mix, but lets just focus on guitar for now :)

I'm thinking i may need to adjust the actual tonal qualities of my amp, but I have no idea where to start. Also, I want to work with the equipment I have (I also own a Studio Projects B1 condenser) Any advice would be appreciated, again I am a beginner, so please don't hassle me about the recording too much :)
 
welcome to the bbs, art, I'm pretty new myself.

I'm no expert, but the bassist in my old band recorded two demos for us, claiming he could make something of it, and the guitars always came out thin and weak.

Digitech has some pretty weak factory settings on their distortion, but with a little tweeking, they can sound really good. I don't know, maybe you've already done this.

I assume everything sounds full through your amp. If so, then you should be able to mic your amp to get that sound recorded, too. I'm guessing that all you have to do is play with your mic placement until your sound gets better.

You might want to try a second mic, maybe a few feet away from the amp to change the sound you're getting, too. There are some good posts on here about mic technique. Do a search on amp mic techniue and see what you come up with.
 
yup well said bucchild

I agree with you.

If you like the sound you are getting from your amp you may want to make adjustments on the reocrding part. try placing the mic in new spots. Somebody at this forum sad to put your ear to the amp (not loud of course) and listen for teh "sweet spot", then place the mic pointed at that. Allso have you fiddled with the EQ at all? maybe try lowering the mids and raise the lows.... i don't know, fool around with that.
 
Lose the compressor, change the mic and use a dynamic mic like a shure sm57 placed about 6" off the edge of the cone pointing towards the center. The less you have in your signal chain the better. Adjust your amp to the sound you like and then back off just a wee bit on the distortion. Give that a listen. If you like then you can process the sound a bit when you mix the guitar with the rest of instruments. Keep in mind that a great full sounding solo guitar track may not fit well into the mix and you may need some panning and eq to get it to fix the mix just right. Read this article and you'll get a good idea what to do when it comes to mixing. G/L
http://www3.sympatico.ca/bvaleria/bluebear/articles/mixing101.htm
 
Start with as LITTLE distortion as you can and increase from there. Most distorted punk / rock / metal guitars start out CHUNKY - not FUZZY. Use your tone controls to thicken it up a bit, but you'll probably want that presence up a bit to give it that pop-punk bite also.

Don't listen to what your ears are hearing - Listen to what THE MIC is hearing and you'll wind up in a better place.

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com
 
I have good luck recording from the guitar into a distortion pedal into a DI. You have to have a distortion pedal you like, obviously.
 
Probably back off the distortion a bit and double your tracks, either by recording twice or copying and pasting - then pan the tracks to either side (as much as it takes to sound good, it might be hard left and right). That'll probably make it sound quite a bit thicker. If not, then you need a much better mic, probably an SM-57 would be fine. :)
 
These are all good suggestions that I'm gonna try out. Thanks for the replies. I'm gonna look for a cheap SM57. Also, does anyone know anything about the preamps on the Behringer Eurorack series? I've actually heard good things about them, but not sure if i wanna get one...thanks again.
 
we blind tested three mics on distorted guitar last night (sm57, sp b1, mxl990) and the b1 came out on top by a long shot for the sound we were after. so don't hesitate to use that mic.

Massive Master:
"Don't listen to what your ears are hearing - Listen to what THE MIC is hearing and you'll wind up in a better place"

that is pure gold...

if you have them, use some nice isolated headphones and move the mic around infront of the cab while someone is playing, its the best e.q. ever for guitar...

good luck with it all
 
dr.colossus said:


Massive Master:
"Don't listen to what your ears are hearing - Listen to what THE MIC is hearing and you'll wind up in a better place"

that is pure gold...
Click to expand...

What I meant was to get up on the cabinet. There are a lot of cool guitar sounds out there that sound kind of crappy in the room. More so the other way around - A guitar that sounds great in a room might sound like crap up close where the mic is hearing it.
 
Massive Master said:
What I meant was to get up on the cabinet. There are a lot of cool guitar sounds out there that sound kind of crappy in the room. More so the other way around - A guitar that sounds great in a room might sound like crap up close where the mic is hearing it.
Click to expand...


Once I figured that out, I was in a much better place. That and backing WAY off on the gain. I am now getting great results(IMO) on those really crunchy guitar tracks.
 
I realize that "fix it in the mix" is not the way to go, but I've found that once recorded, thin sounding guitar tracks can be helped a great deal with use of the PSP Vintage Warmer plug-in. This is essencially a compressor, but it does seem to do an exceptional job (at least as far as software goes) on solo guitar tracks and vocals to warm them up and make them stand out better in the mix.

Regarding doubling a guitar track, I've found that simply copying the track and panning them L and R doesn't do anything at all to fatten or improve the sound, unless you introduce a short delay between L and R.

A better way to go is to play the same part twice and panning those two tracks. That's of course assuming one can play the same part in the same or similar way more than once!

Obviously good mic placement and a great mic pre may avoid you having to resort to any of that...
 
What you hear while recording distortion and what actually gets recorded has plagued me for years. Using lesser distortion and lesser gain, especially when going direct. I keep trying, and haven't finished anything in years. More demos that have crappy guitar sounds, except with the odd exception.

As for panning same track hard left/right, and with the comment of using some delay, I stumbled onto recording with one mic about 6 inches away (panned hard left), and a second different model mic about 3 feet away (panned hard right) It sounds like two guitars.
 
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