Rhythm and solo guitars sound bad

  • Thread starter Thread starter Qwalz
  • Start date Start date
Q

Qwalz

New member
Hello,

I've been trying to record rhythm and solo guitars for my project, but they end up sounding unpleasant, especially solo guitar. I've tried changing guitar amp settings, moving microphone further from the speaker center, but nothing helps. Here's how it sounds:

Only rhythm guitar with no eq:

Only solo guitar with no eq:

What am I doing wrong? Thank you.

P.S. I'm using Shure SM57
 
Last edited:
What amp and guitar are you using? That's important. Honestly your recordings sound like how I'd expect a distorted electric guitar close miked with an sm57 to sound like. In my opinion, the recording ends up sounding unpleasant because the tone is unpleasant to start with. I'll give you a few tips that may help. First, turn down the gain a bit on the amp. High gain tends to sound fizzy on recordings. Try to get an aggressive sound with the performance. Second, experiment more with mic placement. Try not to point the 57 at the very center of the speaker. Try doing that and post again so we can see your progress. Hope this helped a little!
 
I have to agree with ^^^ - did you actually listen to your guitar tones before recording? Put your ears down where the mic is. Get a good tone from the amp (and turn down the gain/fuzz a bit), then work on mic placement to capture what you hear.
 
I dont agree with the approach of 'listening' to your guitar tone.

Sticking your ear where the mic is located is absolutely insane! What, you want to blow out your eardrums?

An amp at any kind of level where it's in it's sweet spot, you dont want your ear a couple of inches from the cone.

Telling someone to just stick their head down there is bad, and potentially harmful advice

Besides. a mic will 'hear' something completely different than your ears.

In the end, you are going to hear the recorded guitar through the tracking and monitoring chain.

Listen to the guitar sound coming out of your monitors.

By all means, get a good tone in the room, but what matters is what is printed, either to tape or digital and how that sounds in the monitors and the context of the mix.

It's going to take some experimenation with amp settings, guitar choices, mic choices, mic positioning, ect.

But with some trial and error, you'll get to a tone that you're happy with.
:D
 
I agree that it's dangerous sticking your head in front of a cranked speaker cab...but you can lower the volume some, and what I will also do if I want to keep it cranked, is get down while wearing my headphones or a set of ear plugs...just to keep my ears safe, but I can still get some idea of what's happening there.

The other, even safer options is to use headphones while monitoring the mic source as you try different mic positions.
You want to somehow get an idea of what the mic is hearing, and what the differences are with different mic positions.
 
Best is to have an assistant in the amp room while your in the control room. Or whatever you want to call it.
Have the assistant move the mic around. Or get one of those remote controlled 'robot' mic stands.
:D

But in a one man band/ one room scenario, it may just be lots of experimentation.

Keep in mind the 'best' soloed guitar sound may not be what sounds best in the context of the mix.
 
RFR said:
Keep in mind the 'best' soloed guitar sound may not be what sounds best in the context of the mix.
Click to expand...

That's really the key...and a lot of folks miss it.
They will obsess over some isolated "tone"...which may sound fantastic on its own...but doesn't work in the mix.

I rarely do guitar solos or even think of what the tone will be until I have most of my other tracks recorded.
So when I dial in my tones, I'm listening to all my tracks, kinda pre-mixed, and while I do dial in the tone listening in the room, at the amp...I do more dialing in while listening to the playback after doing some test tracks.

I mean...it's not that critical for me to stick my head in the cab while playing. I only get down there to position the mic, so I can see where it's pointing at the speaker....then form there, I'll adjust as needed, based on the test tracks.
 
I've seen many a 'bedroom guitarist' with no band experience, spend endless amount of time dialing in 'the oerfect tone'.

Often times it becomes a dismal failure in a band or recording situation.

Flying solo, so many are trying in 'their tone', to compensate for lack of a bass player.

The bass player adds much punch and low end energy to a mix.
 
Last edited:
musicgeekandlvr said:
What amp and guitar are you using? That's important. Honestly your recordings sound like how I'd expect a distorted electric guitar close miked with an sm57 to sound like. In my opinion, the recording ends up sounding unpleasant because the tone is unpleasant to start with. I'll give you a few tips that may help. First, turn down the gain a bit on the amp. High gain tends to sound fizzy on recordings. Try to get an aggressive sound with the performance. Second, experiment more with mic placement. Try not to point the 57 at the very center of the speaker. Try doing that and post again so we can see your progress. Hope this helped a little!
Click to expand...

I also agree here. What gear are you using?
 
For the person with only a single room to record (and monitor), headphones or 'listen through the monitors' isn't really practical. And who says the mic has to be 2" from the cone? Read up on Glyn John's amp miking - try giving the sound some air to 'open up'. No question that how the track sits with the rest of the instruments is important.
 
The pedal sounds like the problem.
That's not a good distortion sound coming from the pedal so the recording won't have a good sound.
 
NI-GuitarRig wins in my gaf. Excluding vocals; I only throw a mic at my acoustic and percussive instruments these days.
 
mmm,id say that was a pretty good recording of a shit sound ... i agree with most comments in here .. specially the "do not stick your ears there" ones ... your no good to anybody deaf ..



less gain,maybe a compressor pedal in front and add a lil room ... and defo play with a lil gusto ... tone is a lot yeah,but performance is everything

the comp pedal will help your lead tone,will need less gain = less fizz

even a small amount of verb will fatten out your tone (you never hear anything ever that hasn't got reverb)
 
mjbphotos said:
For the person with only a single room to record (and monitor), headphones or 'listen through the monitors' isn't really practical. And who says the mic has to be 2" from the cone? Read up on Glyn John's amp miking - try giving the sound some air to 'open up'. No question that how the track sits with the rest of the instruments is important.
Click to expand...

Someone always has the option of moving the amp away from them. Even a studio apt has a bathroom. It probably even has a door. Things can be done to make the room not so reflective

The point being, you can always get the amp isolated enough so you can monitor with headphones.
 
This recording is suffereing from 'Crate amp syndrome'. In the room, it sounds like a guitar sound from a CD, instead of the guitar sound you need to have in order to get that sound on a your CD.

There are no mids, which is where the guitar sound lives. The mids also balance the scratchy highs and the woofy lows. It almost sounds like a Boss HM pedal plugged direct.

We need to know what the setup is, so we can give actual advice for how you can improve the sound with what you have.
 
RFR said:
Best is to have an assistant in the amp room while your in the control room. Or whatever you want to call it.
Have the assistant move the mic around. Or get one of those remote controlled 'robot' mic stands.
:D

But in a one man band/ one room scenario, it may just be lots of experimentation.
Click to expand...

Yes, if it's possible to get the amp out of your control room and monitor through your studio monitors, that is absolutely the ideal setup. There's a reason why pro studios have amp rooms. You don't need an assistant or a remote control mic stand. Just be ready to hop back and forth between your amp room and control room while you are dialing in the mic position. Five or ten minutes, tops. Make a note of the results and it will take even less next time. If it's not possible to get your amp of out the control room, then you're stuck using headphones. It's less efficient but doable. Whatever you do, don't stick your ear near to a speaker, please!!! Even if hearing damage wasn't a concern, your eardrum is not the diaphragm of an SM57. It does not "hear" the same frequencies as a microphone. If you want to know what the microphone is hearing, you must listening through your monitors.
 
Crate amps were much more popular in the late 80's and 90's when I was dealing with the bedroom warriors. I'm not sure what the modern equivalent would be.

The point is, the sound that you hear on the CD (especially in hard rock and metal) isn't what the amp sounded like in the room. The mic colors the sound, the tape (at the time) colored the sound, it was EQ'd to death in the mixing process and colored again by the mastering process. If you start out with that sound and stick a 57 in front of it, it's not going to turn out like you want.
 
Farview said:
Crate amps were much more popular in the late 80's and 90's when I was dealing with the bedroom warriors. I'm not sure what the modern equivalent would be.
Click to expand...

I neither but I just recorded a guitar player with a Crate Excaliber 900. I recorded a direct signal as well so I can reamp with something better. Hell, anything would be better IMO... UGH...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top