Guitar Tone Help....

[Damit]

Hey everyone I'm new here and i just ran across this on accident and let me tell you thanks for everything on here i have sat here and literally read just about every thread on here to gain more knowledge and it is just amazing to find a thread where people actually want to help...now on to my question.

if you go to http://www.myspace.com/dustindamitz and listen to the song "creation" i need help with my guitar tone. i am using a solidstate amp and i know i should be using a tube and that might very well be my only problem but i was also looking into getting a podxt cuz i heard you can dial it in for some metal u just have to know what u are doing. but besides me knowing that i need to prolly get a tube, i for this recording turned my low all the way down and cranked my mids and highs up and i think it might be a no no with a solidstate amp. i even turned my gain way down, do i need to turn my gain down even more? then i cant get my squealz that i want but then if i had a tube amp i would have more warmth? basically i want that crunch and power of todays metal recordings and if anyone has any idea how to do it it would be greatly appreciated. i also replaced my kick and snare in this recording, but my main problem right now cuz i just got drumagog so all i need to do is tweak it but my main problem is my guitar tone and i know it. thanx for the help!!


also if anyone knows how to get the "radio volume" when coming out of pro tools i try and use a waves L2 to get it up there so should i just peak it till i get the volume i want for metal?

ps dont listen to the other recordings, they were done a loooong time ago haha.

GEAR:
imac intel mac 3gb of ram 1tb of storage (internal 500 ex 500)
digi002
digimax pre
shure mics
etc....
:zombie:

 

[colonel kurtz]

also if anyone knows how to get the "radio volume" when coming out of pro tools i try and use a waves L2 to get it up there so should i just peak it till i get the volume i want for metal?

no, no, no, and no

99.9% of stuff that people record at home will NEVER reach the level of today's commercially produced shit, so don't even try

you're better off to get the mix sounding as good as you can, regardless of volume...then normalize the track so the peaks are around -.3dbfs. if you still want more volume, then bust out the L2 or whatever and shave a few db's off of the peaks.

 

[the_man361]

it does sound very fizzy, try moving your mics around and playing with your amp to get it sounding nicest possible... i mean.. does the amp sound like that anyway?

 

[smy1]

Hey Dustin,

sounds like you need to back off the highs (put an LPF at 12k or lower) and your main problem with those guitars is that your mix levels are all whacky.

For example: your cymbals/hats are barely audible and THOSE are what a lot of the high frequency (8k and up) sounds in a song come from. To say it more simple: you dial too many highs into your guitar sound because overall you don't hear enough highs from the hat/cymbals - that's why you feel the need to compensate for it by keeping/adding highs on guitars, when they really are not needed. For a very good example on how this works check this thread: http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap/320688-three-days-grace-guitars.html and listen to their guitars. Super low gain and very little bite, but it sits in the WHOLE MIX perfectly.

Overall this recording doesn't sound too good and that is where your problem lies to begin with. Ditch the Drumagog and try to get decent tones out of your drums first.

If you read, re-read and read again Oz's thread on drumtones and all the stuff on the Noize101 wiki and then still can't get *useable* (not talking about great here!) drumtones from your mics, then you just have to practice more because your ears haven't developed enough yet.

Same goes for guitars. Just get a 57 in front of a standard Marshall cab and start recording "the usual" positions. I am not even talking about going individual here, but get acustomed to what they sound like. Then go find the "sweet spot" on your cab. If your gear (guitar/amp/cab) is shit, you will still find spots for the mic that sound less shit than others and that will be a good learning experience for you.

A big factor in a good guitar sound is tightness of playing. This is not played tightly at all (drummer's timing is all over the place, too), so it will affect the overally sound a bit. Judging from the vibrato/bending of the player - he or she (was it you?) hasn't been playing that long or only has mediocre chops, so spend time on that, too.

Hope you take all this criticism constructively!

Oh, I loved the outtro, with the weird little fx behind the clean guitars. The clean sounds are MUCH better than the distorted ones, btw ...