Sound Search...Please help

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Katauskas
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David Katauskas

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Here are 2 quick clips of my latest search for a heavy guitar sound. It is a single track using a Sennheiser e609 and MXL990 up close. The first clip is raw, the second has some EQing, compression 1.7:1 and some pre-delay on the left channel.

Please let me know if this is workable...I've been struggling with this for about 2 mos. I'm also trying to talk the wife into buying a PSA-1 so I can double track the guitars.

Raw track:


Mixed track:
 
TTT - anybody...somebody...?
If the sound sucks that bad, just say so...my feelings won't be hurt...um...maybe :D
 
Sorry to say but yeah the recording does suck. The lo end is far too overpowering. Sounds like quite a weak signal. Try close micing as much as possible and making sure the signal on the way in is as close to 0dB as possible. Use a soft limiter or hard compressor to ensure no peaking, but make sure that the limiter or compressor only limits/compresses very seldomly as too much limiting will produce unnatural dynamics and maybe even a wavey or tremelo effect.
Try cutting the lo, maybe boosting the hi and maybe boosting the mids on your amp. Could be that the amp you are using just isnt recording friendly. If you are using a seperate distortion pedal, play about with the settings. Cut the distortion a bit, cut the lo end and play about with the mids and hi's. Hope this helps. Recording distorted guitars is one of the hardest things to record and i still havnt managed to get really good results yet.
The effected tracks sounds alot better, but is isnt even in the panning. When you clone the track to double make sure that the pannings are equal at each side and that the volumes are equal also. Only nudge one track a tiny bit. Maybe 5-10ms. Just listen and get a good stereo spread but no actual sound of a delay if you know what i mean.
 
ecktronic, I appreciate the candor. I'll try turning the distortion down a bit, and pumping the mids and highs. Thanks!
 
Hi David. Good guitar playing. I liked the Raw1 sound more and think it's pretty good. Definitely useable in a mix compared to other mixing clinic guitar sounds I've been hearing. Overall I'm hearing a lot more compression squash of the midrange than in the lows and highs. Maybe it throws the sound out of balance a little. The Mix1 sound just seemed to intensify those characteristics, raise the file's level and it gets a little harsh. How does the Raw1 file sound in comparison to how it sounded live?

Tim
 
Just be sure to watch those lows as when you are palm muting or whatever the lows are too overpowering. Turn the lows down on the amp and when mixing cut the lows at about 50Hz maybe if mixing in with bass guitar etc. Cut the los on most tracks to clean up a mix.
 
I liked both tones, but the mix one is pretty loud. Seems to be nearing the clipping stage. Back off a couple of db, and see what it sounds like. You can turn it up in a mix later. The raw one is pretty cool. It's very dirty, without being overly muddy. Reminds me of the guitar sound Hatebreed gets. I like it.
Ed
 
Timothy, thanks. The live sound seemed to have more mids. Maybe the e609 is hiding them...? I'll also try placing it closer to the center of the speaker. It's currently about 1" inside the rim. The MXL is dead center. I'll take a look at the compression too...maybe I inadvertently squashed it more than intended.

ecktronic, good advice. Once I get close to a sound that is usable, I'll start introducing other instruments and probably start the whole process over again.

Dogman, thanks...I still may try to turn the gain down a bit on the amp. That may give it just a tad more of bite.

You know, it's times like these that make the amp modeling solutions very attractive. Who knows, I may still get that PSA-1 pre-amp for double tracking, but I won't give-up on the mics.
 
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