Fizz city, need some help

[NicholasDWolfwood]

Hey guys, I'm having a bit of a problem here getting a tone that I want.

Everything should be seemingly perfect. But I'm having just a huge time getting a clear, defined tone out of these DIs.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1186608/Mind Disfigured test03.mp3

Drums are SD2 with some eq/comp/whatever on the individual tracks.
Bass is my GSR200 (stock pickups) -> Firebox instrument in -> AmpegSVX/Eden4x10 + 8505/s-preshigh
Guitars are ESP/LTD EC-50 [I believe? guitar player isnt online at the moment so I cant ask him] with pickups switched to an 85/81 set -> Profire 610 instrument in -> CurveEQ (curve of JeffTD's ROS DI) -> TSS -> Le456 -> Mesa Trad 4x30 V12 57 03.wav -> some notching in the 2.5-5k range trying to get rid of the fizz.

Quad tracked. Outer pair is just the 85, inner pair is the 81+85 @ -3dB with less gain in the sim.

The problem I'm having is that it's very fizzy and undefined. It could be the guitar's wood (which is basswood, I believe) but EMGs are supposed to semi-negate that. I tested several other DIs with the same settings (Marcus' BWP and Holy Diver DIs, the "Detonation" DI from GubbKuk, Jeff's ROS DIs) and they were all far more crisp and defined than these.

Perhaps I'm missing something, or it could simply be due to the dissonant nature of the music. (The first chord contains an open E, a B, and an open D.) I'm not sure, but I'm just looking for some tips on how to reduce the fizz and try to get a clearer, more defined sound. I've also tried 8505 and SoloC with similar results.

Maybe I just don't know how to dial in an amp? If requested I'll throw up the guitar/bass DIs and a section of the drum track bounce for people to play around with.

 

[cloy26]

nothing against you, but what the hell did I just listen to?

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

tone wise or music wise?

tone wise, thats what I'm trying to figure out. music wise, its a clip from a black metal project.

 

[ScootBaloo]

Could be many reasons for your excessive fizz but I do have a story of my own.
Personally, I have 3 guitars which have 81's in the bridge.
All of the 3 guitars have a mahogany body but the body weight and construction differs.
One of these guitars is so bright it is unusable for metal ( LTD Viper 400 ) and another
of the guitars ( Ibanez MTM-1 ) is the best metal guitar I have ever heard.
My story might not be relevant to your case but I found that the guitar body
can lead to a guitar intonation that is excessively bright and leads to a lot of fizz in the mix.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Sounds kinda hollow to me dude, partially fizzy, but more phasey tbh; you're applying the curve EQ of Jeff's DI's to your DI's? Never thought of doing that, pretty clever, but I'd still give it a go without that and see how it sounds (just taking the unknowns out of the equation, at least for troubleshooting purposes). Really dig the music though, evil and atmospheric as fvck Snare is too low though IMO, and I'm not that crazy about the kick (sounds too boosted and kinda pillowy)

 

[Harry Hughes]

That is quite possibly one of the most fizzy tones I've heard in my life No offense intended, but that tone is just horrible.
You just need to totally start again on that guitar tone.
There is no post tracking mixing you can do to possibly save that.
I just don't get how you can get a tone like that from 8505, something is seriously wrong.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1663306/Rose Of Sharyn Nick Crow 8505.mp3

This is my last clip using 8505, to give you an idea of what it can really sound like

 

[NicholasDWolfwood]

It's actually 456 but I understand what you're saying - every other DI that I've dropped into this chain sounds far less fizzy and much better overall.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1186608/20100516 - Tone Test 01.mp3

Only the 85 pair, that's what I ended up with last night. I'm getting closer to where I'd like to be but there's still a ridiculous fizz in the...I'd say somewhere around 4-6k mark. I've notched out ~4370, ~2755, ~7200 and ~9800, using a low (read: small) Q and using the method of "boost to +inf and move the slider around until I hear the nasty nasal tones". I have a high shelf at 3k and 10k to try to get some brightness back after the cuts.

We're going to try

a) a different guitar (with a better body wood than basswood) into the 610 input
b) both his guitar and the other guitar into a DI and then into the 610

and see how it goes. The tone is still very fuzzy and fizzy and isn't my ideal tone, but this one is far better than it originally was I'd say. It's definitely more defined than the original clip I posted.

Sounds kinda hollow to me dude, partially fizzy, but more phasey tbh; you're applying the curve EQ of Jeff's DI's to your DI's? Never thought of doing that, pretty clever, but I'd still give it a go without that and see how it sounds (just taking the unknowns out of the equation, at least for troubleshooting purposes). Really dig the music though, evil and atmospheric as fvck Snare is too low though IMO, and I'm not that crazy about the kick (sounds too boosted and kinda pillowy)

I don't know how to fix phase other than inverting the phase of one track. It definitely still sounds fizzy though, no doubt about it. I flipped between CurveEQ being on and off, didn't make much (if any) difference to my ears. Thanks for the kind words about the music, once we finish the damn thing I'll let you know when it's released (it's supposed to be an EP on a small noise/avantgarde label.)

As for the drums, that's definitely not the final mix. I still have to edit all the velocities, fix rolls, etc before I'll even think about the drum mix and tones.

 

[Behind]

It sounds like there's no cab impulses at all