To make a long story short: Jaekae and I have been experimenting furiously with impulses, in an attempt to improve our recorded guitar tones beyond that possible with the more common boss, pod emulation.
I don't have an interface, so all the recordings were made by Jaekae. His soundcard has a 1/4 line in for the preamp tracks, and he used a mic preamp with instrument in for the DI tracks.
We've been reading a lot, and we've also been listening a lot to recordings made using impulses. We've also been experimenting with various plugins etc. but we can't seem to figure out why our recordings won't compare to some of the much better recordings we found.
Example: the last recording on this page
http://www.netmusicians.org/index.php?value=Engl Blackmore§ion=amp
Example:
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/467560-engl-special-edition-preamp-video.html
First we set about to make DI tracks. We have absolutely no idea if these DI tracks are any good. They were made with an Ibanez RGA321 with dimarzio pickups. We decided to put these up here, because if something happens to be wrong with the DI signal, it might explain the fallacies of the final product.
DI track 1: http://www.box.net/shared/cvtxl00sey
DI track 2: http://www.box.net/shared/frcgzitiur
Second Jaekae recorded the output from his ENGL Screamer effects loop, for the preamp tracks. We compared these clips to the direct out of a Peavey 5150, and noticed the 5150 sounded better (supplied by Sora, thanks!). Is this due to the DI? The amps? EQing? We don't know...
ENGL preamp track 1: http://www.box.net/shared/8zl3kgbtds
ENGL preamp track 2: http://www.box.net/shared/kynan3be3f
After these recordings we set about with VST plugins to simulate whatever is missing. In this case, a poweramp + cabinet. We used SIR2 to load the ENGLv30higherpres-01 impulse, double tracked the recordings 90/90.
double tracked result: http://www.box.net/shared/86o7cgyilu
I think we can all agree that it sounds pretty damned nasty. Not at all what you'd expect a miced up ENGL screamer 50 with a 4x12 V30 cab to sound like. The ENGL was dialed in pretty much like we would for some brutal metal playing, yet it came out sounding like a dry fart.
In an attempt to improve upon the clip, I added in a poweramp section (Revalver 6505+) and another cabinet (revalver stock 4x12)....yes I ran two cabinets and two poweramps in serial.
Attempt to improve upon tone: http://www.box.net/shared/4iqrghm1j7
To me it sounds better...but I cheated with double poweramps and cabs. I don't think this is how its supposed to work. We want to produce better tones than we got from Boss and Pod systems...clear fail.
We are posting all our steps, because we are hoping someone might be able to isolate the problem. What are we doing wrong, or what are we missing that we can't sound anything like the real thing. We don't sound anywhere near that Blackmore clip, near the 5150 output or that SE video.
Any advice, guidance or assistance would be much appreciated. If any important information is missing please let me know, and I'll get it up here.
Thanks, Jaekae and Mark
*edit*
I believe this one is obligatory ¯\(°_o)/¯ ?
I don't have an interface, so all the recordings were made by Jaekae. His soundcard has a 1/4 line in for the preamp tracks, and he used a mic preamp with instrument in for the DI tracks.
We've been reading a lot, and we've also been listening a lot to recordings made using impulses. We've also been experimenting with various plugins etc. but we can't seem to figure out why our recordings won't compare to some of the much better recordings we found.
Example: the last recording on this page
http://www.netmusicians.org/index.php?value=Engl Blackmore§ion=amp
Example:
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/467560-engl-special-edition-preamp-video.html
First we set about to make DI tracks. We have absolutely no idea if these DI tracks are any good. They were made with an Ibanez RGA321 with dimarzio pickups. We decided to put these up here, because if something happens to be wrong with the DI signal, it might explain the fallacies of the final product.
DI track 1: http://www.box.net/shared/cvtxl00sey
DI track 2: http://www.box.net/shared/frcgzitiur
Second Jaekae recorded the output from his ENGL Screamer effects loop, for the preamp tracks. We compared these clips to the direct out of a Peavey 5150, and noticed the 5150 sounded better (supplied by Sora, thanks!). Is this due to the DI? The amps? EQing? We don't know...
ENGL preamp track 1: http://www.box.net/shared/8zl3kgbtds
ENGL preamp track 2: http://www.box.net/shared/kynan3be3f
After these recordings we set about with VST plugins to simulate whatever is missing. In this case, a poweramp + cabinet. We used SIR2 to load the ENGLv30higherpres-01 impulse, double tracked the recordings 90/90.
double tracked result: http://www.box.net/shared/86o7cgyilu
I think we can all agree that it sounds pretty damned nasty. Not at all what you'd expect a miced up ENGL screamer 50 with a 4x12 V30 cab to sound like. The ENGL was dialed in pretty much like we would for some brutal metal playing, yet it came out sounding like a dry fart.
In an attempt to improve upon the clip, I added in a poweramp section (Revalver 6505+) and another cabinet (revalver stock 4x12)....yes I ran two cabinets and two poweramps in serial.
Attempt to improve upon tone: http://www.box.net/shared/4iqrghm1j7
To me it sounds better...but I cheated with double poweramps and cabs. I don't think this is how its supposed to work. We want to produce better tones than we got from Boss and Pod systems...clear fail.
We are posting all our steps, because we are hoping someone might be able to isolate the problem. What are we doing wrong, or what are we missing that we can't sound anything like the real thing. We don't sound anywhere near that Blackmore clip, near the 5150 output or that SE video.
Any advice, guidance or assistance would be much appreciated. If any important information is missing please let me know, and I'll get it up here.
Thanks, Jaekae and Mark
*edit*
I believe this one is obligatory ¯\(°_o)/¯ ?
