Recording Distortion Guitars

[Pinny]

Hello! Whenever I try to record distortion guitars for my band's demo, it sounds really messy and muddy, like you can't clearly hear what I'm playing.
Is it my distortion effect? Or should I be using some plugin on my DAW (SONAR 7)? Is it my audio interface (Edirol UA25)? Or just my guitar (Epiphone Les Paul Custom)? Hehe, any help is greatly appreciated!

 

[Minion]

Hello! Whenever I try to record distortion guitars for my band's demo, it sounds really messy and muddy, like you can't clearly hear what I'm playing.
Is it my distortion effect? Or should I be using some plugin on my DAW (SONAR 7)? Is it my audio interface (Edirol UA25)? Or just my guitar (Epiphone Les Paul Custom)? Hehe, any help is greatly appreciated!

well what I do to get a OK guitar sound is to Put a Mic (SM57/58) in front of my amp nice and close to the speaker and crank up the amp but use less distortion than you normally would and record.....after recording I usually use a EQ Plugin to Boost/Cut whatever frequencies needed to get a good guitar sound (I usually do a 3db cut at about 1khz and boost the highs a bit but it might be different for different guitar/amp combos and the type of music) and then I will usually throw a compressor/limiter plugin to bring the Track out a bit more in the mix.....I usually get a Fairly good sound this way.....


You might also experiment with mic Placement and/or try with a Dynamic nice a close to the Amp and then maybe a LDC and bit farther back and record and then eq/compress and Mix/Pan till you get the sound you want....


Good luck

 

[jdier]

Hello! Whenever I try to record distortion guitars for my band's demo, it sounds really messy and muddy, like you can't clearly hear what I'm playing.
Is it my distortion effect? Or should I be using some plugin on my DAW (SONAR 7)? Is it my audio interface (Edirol UA25)? Or just my guitar (Epiphone Les Paul Custom)? Hehe, any help is greatly appreciated!

Check this out. Good place to start. http://badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html

In general, you should be using an SM57 for a mic. You should get your guitar and amp so it sounds good to you. Put the SM57 right up to the grill and press record.

Few things to consider....
- you rig might sound different down on the ground vs. where your ears are when you are standing up next to it.
- you might have your amp a hair too loud.
- your rig might now sound good.

 

[splooiesir]

I've found that this is usually due to using too much distortion. A good amount is a lot less than you think.

 

[rayc]

If you were going from pedal into comp there's the problem!
If pedal to amp to line out - there too!
If pedal - amp - mic then it'll be a combo - a really hard thing to do well!
The sound you like on the amp rarely records as the same sound - you have to EXPERIMENT!

 

[Dani Pace]

If you like the way the guitar/efx/amp sounds when you just play, a lot of experimenting with mic placement is the way to get that sound on the recording. A mic does not "hear" quite the same as your ears do so you have to find where the mic is "hearing" the same sounds that your ears are. A good point already made is that some amps simply record better than others. Amps that sound good to your ears do not always record as well. Moving a mic a few inches or changing it's angle to the amp will make more difference than you might think. Your ears (hearing in general) tend to smooth out a lot of distortion, a mic does not, this is why less distortion is needed for recording. Try a few different mics, sometimes a different mic will make a world of difference in how an amp sounds recorded. fFind a mic that sounds close then work with placement to get the sound you want. It's a lot of experimentation, and trial and error but thats how the rest of us figured out how to mic an amp for the best sound.

 

[omo]

When I record guitar I have a 57 placed about an inch away from the amps grill.
I have a Fender Hot Rod Delux, so there is only one speaker, I place the mike a little left of centre to the cone.
I try to keep the volume down on the guitar and the volume relatively high on the amp just to get a use out of the valves.
About 2-3 foot away I point my condenser mic (se2200a) towards the mike.
Record both mikes onto seperate channels and pan/blend to taste afterwards.

With your pedals. Set them up before you record so there are no huge leaps in volume. Keep the overall volume consistant. You can give it the "push" it need in the mix afterwards.

This is what I do.

 

[jaz49]

It's not the guitar for certain. I play an Epi Les Paul and it's got a great sound clean or distorted. It could be for sure your distortion pedal. Some of those can destroy your tone!! I use the Amplitube LE plug-in, but there are others out there that you can try. Amplitube is better than most pedals if you experiment with it to get the sound you want. My tunes on Myspace. Check the distortion on the guitar on the first tune...the instrumental outro especially.

 

[omo]

Pinny,
What pedals are you using?

 

[jaz49]

I just re-read your original post and see that you are using Sonar. I think they have a plug-in called Amp Sim which has some pre-sets for distortion...American lead and British Crunch, etc. I have Sonar LE(light) (it came with my audio interface) and I like this plugin ...especially the cleaner amp simulation sounds.
http://www.soundclick.com/lejaz

 

[Hi_Flyer]

what kind of amp are you using? I am not a fan of digital plug-ins for guitar distortion, but I suppose they may work better comapred to a crappy amp (if you are using an amp at all?). are you using pedals? give us more info on your recording chain.

 

[starbuck26]

at the risk of appearing stupid...

I know that when recording less distortion is better sounding. It's tried and true. I wholeheartedly completely live by the rule. I turn down all gain knobs when the guitarist isn't looking.

But here's the question. I know it works better.... but WHY?

 

[jaz49]

Hi hi-flyer,
I challenge anyone to tell the difference between a recording of a real amp and one made properly using Amplitube or one of the other decent guitar amp sim plug-ins. I know I will get some strong disagreement on this statement, but I have spoken about this with a great guitar player I know who has many years of experience under his belt recording guitars in a very good home studio, and he agrees with me. http://www.soundclick.com/lejaz Listen to "the Bigger They Are..."...especially the clean part of the chorus. The distortion on the lead guitar track is a little 'over the top', but that was intentional.

 

[Elton Bear]

I know that when recording less distortion is better sounding. It's tried and true. I wholeheartedly completely live by the rule. I turn down all gain knobs when the guitarist isn't looking.

But here's the question. I know it works better.... but WHY?

I'm no expert on the subject, but I believe it has something to do with the way a mic works, adding a slight amount of distortion, and the fact that you generally place it right up to the amp grille.

Back to the original post - nobody has mentioned double-tracking, which can help a lot. The principle is very basic - back off quite a bit on the gain, record your track, then record another take.
DO NOT SIMPLY COPY THE ORIGINAL - this does not have the same effect.
You can get much 'heavier' sounds with cleaner guitar sounds, but lots of them. If it's not quite enough then take your muddy disgusting overdrive sound and bury it in the mix underneath them all...

Hope that helps a bit

 

[liv_rong]

I'm no expert on the subject, but I believe it has something to do with the way a mic works, adding a slight amount of distortion, and the fact that you generally place it right up to the amp grille.

Back to the original post - nobody has mentioned double-tracking, which can help a lot. The principle is very basic - back off quite a bit on the gain, record your track, then record another take.
DO NOT SIMPLY COPY THE ORIGINAL - this does not have the same effect.
You can get much 'heavier' sounds with cleaner guitar sounds, but lots of them. If it's not quite enough then take your muddy disgusting overdrive sound and bury it in the mix underneath them all...

Hope that helps a bit

yeah, isnt that how corgan gets his sound on the pumpkins records? a shit load of guitar tracks?

 

[DrewPeterson7]

yeah, isnt that how corgan gets his sound on the pumpkins records? a shit load of guitar tracks?

Ever heard Devin Townsend's "Terria?" I bring it up not because I think it's the greatest guitar tone I've ever heard (it's not), but because if you want to hear a wall of sound approach to tracking, this is where to start.

Devy's MO seems to be, "why record a single track of anything, when I can record sixteen tracks instead?" It's a balancing act, certainly - everything on that album individually sounds pretty thin, from the guitars to the drums to the synths - but taken together it's the most overpowering album I've ever heard. You just lose yourself in the waves of sound...

EDIT - also, if you're tight, a track of fairly clean, bright guitar with a lot of snap and attack to it layered against a darker, slightly gainier track can sound seriously massive. It's not just using less gain, though right off the bat that's what's going to help you the most. It's also mixing tracks that sound slightly diifferent - that individually may not be the greatest tones, but sum together to something that's more than the sum of it's parts.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

I know that when recording less distortion is better sounding. It's tried and true. I wholeheartedly completely live by the rule. I turn down all gain knobs when the guitarist isn't looking.

But here's the question. I know it works better.... but WHY?

Just spotted this - and a Somerville native here, just off the Cambridge border. Sup?

It's because distortion is really a form of compression - it squashes your signal and evens out the dynamic peaks. A lower gain signal is less compressed than a higher gain one. Less compression translates to more impact, more clarity, and more presence in the mix.

Also, I have a feeling it has something to do with the way gain "saturates" a signal - taken to extremes, a completely overgained signal turns into something akin to white noise. You know, the kind of stuff that gets absolutely lost under cymbals...?