GUITAR RECORDING HELP

[BLOODROOT]

Ok. I have a noob question. Sorry to irritate all you pros, but I need some help. How do you record distorted guitars and get rid of the scratchy fizz sound ?
Check out this tune "words to say"
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=479598
and puke on the guitar sound and give me some advise. I haven't ever gotten good results from using and OD in front of my amp. it just makes tube amps sound solid state to me. So i don't really want to go that route.

I'm using a Engl Powerball and an Engl Savage with Dean ML , Dimarzio x2n and Marshall v30 cabs. I tried both amps and even used my ESP EC1000 and got the same results with the active pickups so I'm at a loss. I tried to eq the highs out a bizz then it just gets a blanket affect. It sounded decent on my stereo and in my car but fizzy as hell on any computer system. I even dialed the gain down to 4 instead of normal 8. I had bass on 4, mids on 4 treble on 7 precence on 5. I used a sm57 off axis. Just trying to give all my info I can so you guys can offer some great words of wisdom like get a 5150 or something which I had and got rid of due to the same fizz thinking Engls wouldnt do that. Please help. I'm stumped. Thanks


kris

 

[Metaltastic]

Experiment with mic positioning - that can make a HUGE difference, and the closer it is to the cone, the bigger the difference moving a centimeter or so left or right will make

 

[BLOODROOT]

Right now. I have it placed between cone and edge of paper. Tomorrow Im going to try to move it further towards the edge and turn the amp up really loud and record it. Tonight I lowered my pickups to be flat with body of the guitar and it helped just a bit but Im still getting that scratchy fizz sound. Someone on another forum said to use crappy pickups and tape the nut on the guitar to record a better less scratchy fizz sound. Another said to drape like a tshirt over my cabinet between the mic. Any thoughts guys?

 

[JBroll]

Lowering your pickups will not help. Crappy pickups will not help. Taping the nut will not help. You simply need to be prepared to spend hours looking for the right spot on the speaker. I wish there were a simple way to go about that... but there isn't. If you can feel a bit of 'swing' in the tone, some actual dynamic response instead of constant, grating SKREEEEERCH, you don't need to fiddle with gain (although 4 on a Powerball still sounds pretty high...) or different pickups or moving the pickups from the strings - you just need to tinker with the mic position and that's all there really is to it.

Honestly, unless you've got a fifty-foot version of those grappling hooks old people use to grab things from high shelves you'd probably get a lot out of hitting record, putting in some earplugs (you ARE cranking the fucker to the point where you need them, right?), and slowly - fucking slowly, now - sweep across the speaker from different angles, different axes, different distances, different pants... whatever. I do mean fucking slowly - you have to figure out what sounds come from what part of the speaker. If I didn't say it enough... insanely fucking slowly. Pretend you're in a dark room holding a flashlight over the last naked woman you'll ever see, and if you don't find a birthmark the size of a pinhead somewhere on her gorgeous curves you won't even get to do anything to her. Implausible? Fuck yes. But it's the kind of detail you're looking for here.

Another thing to consider is that the density of the mix will leave a lot of that fizz harder to hear. Even after days without sleep searching for the right way to put the mic to the speaker, you won't be happy with the recorded sound, but you'll find something that works in the mix - you're probably expecting to hear the same density out of your single tracks that you would hear out of a whole mix, complete with bass to add that low end you think is hiding behind the curtains and cymbals to make it seem like your fizz is hardly even there.

Jeff

 

[fatalforce]

Bring your mic over to the outside of the woofer. The closer to the center the more high frequencies the mic will pick up. This might help get mask the sound your describing. Also I wouldn't put a shirt or paper between the mic and the speaker.

 

[JBroll]

Having more high frequencies will... mask problems with high frequencies? You lost me there, somewhere...

The center is going to sound fizzy and scratchy, period.

Jeff

 

[poidaobi]

I've been trying to find the right mic position for m ENGL for 3 years...

I can get a nice chug...the hi end fizz/fuzz is the major problem I have.

 

[BLOODROOT]

Thanks JBROLL. the mic position for the win huh. I'm thinking of a very large hammer or explosives personally. You'd think Engls would sound good for how much they cost in the USA but I'm thinking they are a live amp only. This scratchy sloppy fizz is going to be the death of me.