
RecordingMaster
A Sarcastic Statement
Hi there,
Started tracking some guitars last night for a couple songs on a demo my rock band will be releasing shortly.
Here's the chain:
Guitar>Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 2x12 combo amp>sm57 on grill and an Apex435 Wide Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser as a room mic>cable snake into control room>Tascam US-1800 Audio Interface>27" iMac OS X Snow Leopard w/ 16 G Ram and Terrabyte Hard Drive>Adobe Audition CS 5.5
Here's what we were going for:
A nice full, rhythm guitar track with good sustain and panned to one side (then we'd try a diferent amp or setting and/or guitar for the other side). It's for a good solid straight ahead alternative rock song with a medium-slow tempo (not quite a ballad).
Here's the issue:
No matter what we tried, I couldn't get a good combination of rich tone and a good smooth overdrive. The overdrive was too in-your-face and when I tried turning it up to get more sustain for those chords that hold for a 4 count, it just hot more harsh and in your face. So if I tried lowering the overdrive, raising the master and giving it more bass, it would be warmer and creamier, but lacked the sustain we wanted and sounded weaker (the sustain) and not really a good sound as an alternative rock rhythm guitar sound. Not full enough and still too whiney. Maybe I'm not not liking that close mic'ed sound of tube distortion? Maybe I need to be driving a huge stack with a tube amp instead?
Edit: The amp sounded awesome in person!
Here's what we tried, I will focus more on the SM57 techniques we used. Imagine we had the room mic on mute for now while we dial in a good close-mic'ed tone first:
- SM 57 right up to grill (too in your face)
- SM57 6" away(too weak)
- SM57 2" away (still not right)
- Tried each speaker for their different sounds (none were any better or worse)
- Angles tried at the above positions included 1) mic on axis with speaker, slightly off center from cone, 2) mic on axis with speaker, centered on cone 3) mic slightly off axis
- Acoustic isolation included a small baffles on left and right of amp consisting of blankets draped over chairs, and a slab of rigid fiberglass about a foot behind the amp. The room is also acoustically treated and has bass traps in corners. It was too isolated, so I removed the fiberglass panel from behind the amp to make it more open and natural sounding. Was a little better and bassier.
We have limited amps to work with right now and don't want the same amp tone for every song so we're basically wanting to use this amp for at least 3 out of 5 songs for at least one side of a rhythm guitar bed. So I'm hoping I'll get a better answer than "use a differentamp".
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
Started tracking some guitars last night for a couple songs on a demo my rock band will be releasing shortly.
Here's the chain:
Guitar>Fender Hot Rod Deluxe 2x12 combo amp>sm57 on grill and an Apex435 Wide Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser as a room mic>cable snake into control room>Tascam US-1800 Audio Interface>27" iMac OS X Snow Leopard w/ 16 G Ram and Terrabyte Hard Drive>Adobe Audition CS 5.5
Here's what we were going for:
A nice full, rhythm guitar track with good sustain and panned to one side (then we'd try a diferent amp or setting and/or guitar for the other side). It's for a good solid straight ahead alternative rock song with a medium-slow tempo (not quite a ballad).
Here's the issue:
No matter what we tried, I couldn't get a good combination of rich tone and a good smooth overdrive. The overdrive was too in-your-face and when I tried turning it up to get more sustain for those chords that hold for a 4 count, it just hot more harsh and in your face. So if I tried lowering the overdrive, raising the master and giving it more bass, it would be warmer and creamier, but lacked the sustain we wanted and sounded weaker (the sustain) and not really a good sound as an alternative rock rhythm guitar sound. Not full enough and still too whiney. Maybe I'm not not liking that close mic'ed sound of tube distortion? Maybe I need to be driving a huge stack with a tube amp instead?
Edit: The amp sounded awesome in person!
Here's what we tried, I will focus more on the SM57 techniques we used. Imagine we had the room mic on mute for now while we dial in a good close-mic'ed tone first:
- SM 57 right up to grill (too in your face)
- SM57 6" away(too weak)
- SM57 2" away (still not right)
- Tried each speaker for their different sounds (none were any better or worse)
- Angles tried at the above positions included 1) mic on axis with speaker, slightly off center from cone, 2) mic on axis with speaker, centered on cone 3) mic slightly off axis
- Acoustic isolation included a small baffles on left and right of amp consisting of blankets draped over chairs, and a slab of rigid fiberglass about a foot behind the amp. The room is also acoustically treated and has bass traps in corners. It was too isolated, so I removed the fiberglass panel from behind the amp to make it more open and natural sounding. Was a little better and bassier.
We have limited amps to work with right now and don't want the same amp tone for every song so we're basically wanting to use this amp for at least 3 out of 5 songs for at least one side of a rhythm guitar bed. So I'm hoping I'll get a better answer than "use a differentamp".
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!