Apr 30, 2007 07:06 pm if you can, try a second mix in the room a few feet back, maybe up in a corner to catch some of the natural reverb of the room.
Cleaning the heads on your recorder may have some impact too...
Guitar tone help required…
Posted on Apr 30, 2007 06:58 pm
MikeJ
Member Since: Apr 30, 2007
I'd really appreciate any help anyone can give me regarding my awful guitar tone results when recording. I'm trying to get a good general hard rock/overdriven sound. What I'm getting now is generally a flat muddy sound like someone threw a blanket over the cab.
The guitar set up is: Fender Strat, Marshall DSL 50 watt head, Mesa 4x12 cab.
The recording set up is: Shure SM57 plugged into an old 4 track X28H 4-track cassette recorder (using this as a mixer) into the old free Pro Tools version (5.1) on an old G4 Mac.
When recording, I isolate the cab in a large walk-in wardrobe (so the neighbours don't kill me), set the Shure to about an inch from the cab grill pointed at the center of the speaker cone. I crank the amp to about 2 thirds master volume and a bit of gain. I use no EQ, compression, plug-ins etc on anything (a little bit of bass and treble on the amp).
The sound is fine to the ear when playing but the recording process is not reproducing anything close. While the wardrobe provides a "dead" sound, I always though it is better to add reverb, delay etc when I come to mixing.
Pro Tools works fine and the G4 has plenty of power, the guitar rig sounds ok-I'm wondering if the old Fostex is the problem and wondering also if I should be applying EQ, compression, limiting, effects and plug-ins while I am recording. If anyone can point out where I'm going wrong, I'd be grateful.
Cheers,
Mike.
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Apr 30, 2007 07:06 pm if you can, try a second mix in the room a few feet back, maybe up in a corner to catch some of the natural reverb of the room.
Cleaning the heads on your recorder may have some impact too...
Apr 30, 2007 09:00 pm Yep, it sounds as though the Fostex Might have an EQ issue on its own. Not for certain but that could be partly to blame. As well, I rarely ever do the center of the cone thing pointing straight in. If you do try it with it right smack on the grill, not touching of course. My favored position for the SM57 is about 1 to 2 inches in from the edge of the speaker and pointing it slightly angled toward the center. Depending on the speaker/cabinet used it can vary slightly so try moving it around a a little bit. dB is on with the extra mic if you can, it really makes a difference.
You don't say what type of sound card you are going into though. If it is the onboard card that could also be part of the issue as well.
May 03, 2007 04:48 pm move the mic away from dead center of the cone...angle that mofo between the dustcap and the outter edge...record yourself moving the mic (real slowly) and you'll hear your mic placement acting as an eq.
May 03, 2007 05:56 pm Also I suspect that the preamps in that Fostex aren't of the highest quality. A cheapie preamp can really suck the life out of a good signal.
There's tons of potential with your setup to achieve an awesome tone. Just remember that what sounds good in a room can be completely different than what sounds good to a microphone that's right up against a blaring speaker cone.
My stock advice: turn down the distortion, turn up the mids.
May 03, 2007 07:05 pm oh yeah good call there tad, turn down the gain! oversaturation is dull and lifeless sounding....
also double track your guitar part, and pan 'em out.
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