Thin guitar sound

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GuitarTricks

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Registered: Apr 2002
Location: Toronto
Posts: 1
Thin guitar

... not to mention 'picky' sounding and weak.
I've spent like a week doing this cover tune in
Cubase VST then went to add the lead guitar and no
matter what I do it sucks the big bean.




(This take is with reverb, playing hard and with a
very quiet doubled guitar in the background...)

I've tried at least 15 takes and nothing works...
ie, recording really hot and playing softly,
doubling up the lead, different guitars, no reverb,
more reverb...

So is it just that this particular tune doesn't
lend itself to a guitar lead or is there some
secret I'm missing out on?
 
um, i think your putting yourself down too much.
Im not sure it sounds as bad as you claim.

sorry, i cant really help with how to make it better though. :)

sounds nice though.
 
also...the original is "picky sounding". thats what makes it such an unique song.

maybe you could just bring the reverbed guitar track up some. other than that...not sure.
 
I think that the problem is the 'interpretation' that the lead gtr is doing, rather than the tone and all that other stuff...but that would also certainly be part of it.

when you go into the segment at 1:28, look what you do to the lead line...it was much more imaginative than the lead that you're trying to play...and to me works fine there.

maybe...as a thought. ... think how Sting is singing....he gets to belting it out...so a solo instrument should maybe do the same...a little more racous maybe???

I think if you STICK straight to the melody line with your lead gtr, you're gonna get into trouble, or it's going to sound like elevator music. Take some liberties... How would Steve Vai play the lead??? get my point? Now, I'm not saying it needs an Eddie VanHalen lead, but maybe a tone TO DIE FOR, with some good sustain... That "tone to die for" can be a clean sound too, ya know.... keep at it!!
 
man...your so right about it being outa tune.
I tuned up right before recording it too. I checked it this morning & it was sharp as hell.
Glad you pointed that out... one of the things that's hard to notice with headphones and tired ears.

Here's a redo from this morning. Different patch, different phrasing. There's some obvious errors in the playing but they can be fixed...for now I just wanna get the right sound and playing style figured out.
Any opinions welcome

 
maybe consider less Staccato on the lead...the supporting guitars already have this covered. maybe a really distorted full bodied guitar with a lot of sustain that will carry for the whole note and double this...but don't have this (these) guitar(s) out front.

just a thought...
 
The melody guitar sounds overcompressed to me, kinda strange with a little bit of a sythesized electric sitar sound...is this thru a Pod or what?
 
I think Sonixx gave you some excellent advice!A saturated lead guitar with a lot of sustain would be a perfect play off of the choppy rhythm guitars.It sounds like the lead guitar is actually using the same exact sound and EQ settings as the rhtyhm guitars.
 
Yup... appreciate the advice and learned a whole buncha stuff. Mostly that my guitars are in really rough shape from years of road abuse and not ready for prime time recording without loads of overdrive covering up the dead spots
I need to get something called T-Racks too. Somebody mentioned it & I tried it out in Demo mode.
Man, what a difference. 90% of the things that are bothering me about the straight recordings are fixed by tinkering around with compression, limitation and tube stuff.

As far as this song goes tho... the point is moot.
According to the licensing agencies in Canada, they aren't very interested in having a person do cover tunes for use on the web unless you want to pay big $$. EveryBreath has gone in the dumpster along with a dozen other tunes I was working on. The links won't work anymore btw... don't wanna get sued for copyright infringement & all that... blah.
 
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