metal and hard guitar recording
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Posted on Feb 17, 2005 06:02 am
janez
Member Since: Feb 17, 2005
hi!
i have a problem! i'm doing a very heavy metal band and i don't know how to mik and mix guitars.
does anyone have an idea how to get a real metal sound like korn, limp bizkit or rammstein. how many layers of guitars there should be, how to EQ them and how to pan.
i realy need this, so help me!
THANX!!!
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Feb 17, 2005 12:11 pm use two mikes and go direct if you can (3 tracks total) i put a 57 right on the grill, and a large diaphragm condenson about 2 feet back, and went direct from the pedal board....if there's only one guitar player double track everything, if there's two don't worry about that....ya gotta turn the amp all the way up until the condensor starts to bottom out...back off the gain of the "normal sound" that the guitarist uses, and also the bass and treb, and boost the mid a bit, (play with those knobs) make sure you got a monster sound BEFORE you hit record.....try to put the amp in a vocal booth or use thick heavy blankets for that 'tight' sound....pan each guitarist 70% left and right, and leave room for the drums inbetween. i've got HUGE sound this way...y'all will here it soon enough i promise.
peace
wyd
Feb 17, 2005 12:19 pm oh have an assistant move the mikes around (real slow)....start with the condensor and find a good sound (it'll sound like you're sweeping with eq, it's wierd) then mute that and find a good position with the 57, start dead center then go twards the outter part of the speaker, keepin' the mic lookin' strait at the speaker...once you find a good spot, move the butt of the mic to change the angle it's lookin' at the speaker, (try to keep the diaphragm in the same place and just adjust the angle)....after you get a good sound, bring up the condensor and move the 57 STRAIT away from the amp to check for phase (make sure you're monitoring in mono) go slow here, cuz you don't wanna **** this up. you'll hear it though.
Feb 17, 2005 12:20 pm oh yeah, welcome to HRC!
lol i always forget that.
peace
wyd
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Feb 17, 2005 12:27 pm Quote:
make sure you got a monster sound BEFORE you hit record
I think that this is the best advice Ive seen for a while. Always get your sound nailed before recording. You can't save bad guitar tone after it's recorded. Get it how you want it, then it's just a matter of capturing that sound with your microphones. It shouldn't take much (if any) EQ after its recorded.
It's going to take more mids and less distortion to produce a powerful guitar tone on tape than it does during a live performance. So, back off on the distortion and boost your mids a bit. This is always my advice, but I think that it especially goes for heavy guitar sounds because they tend to be very heavily distorted and mid-scooped. That may be great on stage, but it doesn't translate well to recording.
And definitely record LOUD. this is what lets you back off on your distortion but still get lots of good breakup out of your power tubes and speaker cones.
Feb 17, 2005 12:30 pm not to change the subject, but how do you do quotes????? lol i've always wanted to know.
thanx
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Feb 17, 2005 12:40 pm Down at the very bottom of this page, there's a link entitled "UBBcode Instructions". Click on that and it'll show you how to do several things!
It's kind of like HTML but with square brackets instead of angled brackets.
Feb 17, 2005 12:43 pm sweet!
thanx bro!
Feb 17, 2005 03:17 pm i posted this on another forum when someone was asking about the tone I got on one of my songs. I aim for Chevelle's sound which isn't as bottom heavy as Korn, but it sure does have balls.
"Alright, here is what goes on when I track/mix.
I have been trying to get a thick sound with a stock fender strat and, not to toot my own horn, but I think I am close, so if you have a les paul or similar it should be easier.
I first set the amp up on a bar stool so it is off the ground. I then get my ear on level with the speaker (by sitting in a chair) and start twisting knobs. If this is the first time you have had your amp off the ground, it my sound thin and bad. Turn down the treble! I set the mids first (you need a lot more then you think if you want to stand any chance at mixing) then highs. I do it so I have some bite but it doesn't hurt my ears. I then start with the bass knob at "0" and turn it up just until the guitar sounds balanced, and then back down a touch.
Then I get the mic out and go to work. I usually end up close to the voice coil, aimed at the surround, about 3" off the grill. I track with a high pass filter at 80Hz, with no eq or compression.
For mixing:
When I have my low end somewhat set in the mix, (bass, kick) I will start on the guitars. I let the bass dominate the low end and I think this is really important if you want a solid low end. I low shelf somewhere around 150-180 and take off 3dB or so. I normally cut between 230-300 somewhere to let the bass poke though. I like to have a lot of crunch and not so much fizz to my guitars so I go with a very narrow Q and take a cut of about 10dB or so and sweep 1.5 kHz thru 3.5 kHz. I find were it starts to sound less fizzy and adjust to taste.
I never compress distorted guitars because I always end up taking the comp off. I always have at least two tracks, and sometimes four tracks of guitar. Same thing played with different settings. I use two similar but different distortions with two different pickup combos for a total of four tracks. I never cut the same freqs. With eq on all the guitars (you want variation).
And there you have it."
Feb 17, 2005 03:26 pm yeah keep in mind, when you overdrive/distort a guitar you are compressing it by turning everything into square waves...
on the cd i'm workin' on now we have a total of 14 guitar tracks for two guitarists
guitar 1 has 3 clean and 3 distortion and 2 fluff tracks
guitar 2 has 2 clean and 2 distortion and 2 fulffs (no direct signal was recorded for him, damn line 6 spider)
keep in mind that all those tracks were not accually different "takes" but just the different mics gooin' to seperate tracks on disk.
peace
wyd
Feb 22, 2005 09:59 am when recording heavy guitars less is more.
having a great sound before going to tape does not mean overloading everything to death to get a huge low end sound that tranlsates to mud in the mix that wants to hog the space for the kicks and bass. ever wonder why you cant hear a bass line in metal?
record at half volume of playing live. 2 mics works but is not needed with 2 guitar players. direct in sounds like *** alot of the time on guitars espeacialy heavy distorted guitars. layer it if only one guitar player. pan the distant mic hard left and right(assuming there are 2 guitarists and you double miced them) pan the close mics about 60-70% l&r. leave room in the low end for the bass to do its job.
i strictly record hardcore/punk/metal/death metal/thrash etc. and i have way too many bad guitar recording as a result of bonehead guitar players that wont let me produce their heavy sound (dont even get me started on tuning drums) to something usable for tape.
if you do not typically listen to heavy music dont waste the bands time. instead produce what you are familiar with.
Feb 22, 2005 12:32 pm [quote if you do not typically listen to heavy music dont waste the bands time /quote]
well said, i'm dooin' my first real gig recording another band besides my own, and they are heavy as hell, which is something i'm used to listening to growing up and presant...this by far has helped me more than anything by giving me 'instinct'....no wonder the recording is commin' along so easily!
good point man
wyd
Feb 22, 2005 12:33 pm ahh to hell with quotes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Feb 22, 2005 08:32 pm And the clouds part, and the rays of light shine through....
I've been frustrating myself incredibly trying to get some good recorded metal sound, and this topic was like,..... well.... a godsend.... if any of these suggestions work, then I'll be very very happy.
