Help me get good guitar tone!!

[Keessi]

Try micing it with the 57 at the center of the cone. If it sounds too sharp, back off the treble and add more middle or take a narrow Q valued eq and cut off 10khz or something that makes it fizzy or hissy. I nowadays try to make the guitar almost too bright or sharp in the studio with my monitors so It could sound good at somewhere else. I mean it sounds really good with the monitors but it would be a tad nicer to hear fewer high's on the monitors but anywhere else it lacks 'em.

A good way to test if the mics are in phase:

flip the second mics phase. Take a pair of headphones and put 'em LOUD.
take a distortion pedal or something to make the amp produce a stale noise(but keep your guitar's volume to 0).
turn up the preamp gain ALOT. I'm assuming you've used the 57 first and checked if the sound is good or shit...
add the second mic: make sure you have enough gain to have the preamps almost peaking so you hear noise only from your headphones. move it around the speaker cone and search for a spot where the noise/hum/anything disappears. the point where there is minimum hiss/noise, your mic is most in phase. Now flip your 2nd mic's phase back to normal. now you have 2 mics in phase in front of an amp!

the mics have to be at equal volume. Have fun! (still, I recommend using only one mic. A 57 for fuck's sake!)

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Perhaps it's not loud enough? It sounds to me like you're recording at low volume, enough to the point that you're getting a lot of room verb in there. Just a guess.

 

[stringy_]

the mics have to be at equal volume. Have fun! (still, I recommend using only one mic. A 57 for fuck's sake!)

Glad somebody agrees with me! Ha!

I really, really don't like 421s on high gain guitar.

 

[Thedeloshimself]

What do you guys think of the PreSonus Firebox? the 8 channel one. I think I might get that to replace the EuroRack. I'm gonna re-record using your suggestions on saturday and I'll repost a recording.

 

[AStacy2]

Are you talking about the Firepod? I think it's a great unit. I think it just went down to a lower price too. Defintely check it out!

 

[cobrahead1030]

i just got a firepod recently, and i'm very pleased with it

 

[Salvation 13]

The Firepod is definitely a nice unit. Presonus discontinued it though. (Thus the price drop). The Firestudio will replace it, it'll have about the same price as the Fp had.

 

[Thedeloshimself]

Forsure, the Firepod is what I'm gettin, there's a firebox but it's a 2 channel.

 

[cobrahead1030]

last i checked the firebox was $300 and the firepod $500...DEFINITELY spend the extra for the firepod, you can also use it to route audio signals to your monitors and/or headphone amp as well

 

[Thedeloshimself]

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=603662
I did a second recording...I'm still waitin on the firepod. Any suggestions on what to do? I have the amp cranked to 9, reversed the phase, I did jsut about everything suggested on the previous replies

 

[Nebulous]

You forgot to lose the 421 In all seriousness, you know you have phase problems when it sounds as though your speakers are suddenly behind you! If your DAW allows you to make fine adjustments to your recordings, try phase aligning the mics manualy, ie, zoom into the wave forms untill they start looknig like sine waves and nudge one to match the other.
When you get your Firepod, try to get a big sound with one mic and two takes, then go for two mics/ four takes. I'm looknig forward to hearing the improvements.

 

[Thedeloshimself]

I like the 421 because it picks up a lot of the lows and low mids thats why I keep using it, but each mic has its own track so by doing so im not losing anything, I've got 2 57's I could do instead. I don't know how to reverse the phase of the mics before recording thougn, I can change the phase on the wav file after it's recorded. Youre right though they sound out of phase now that I listen to it again.

 

[Nebulous]

If you like the 421, try using that to record, without the 57. I still think your tone is suffering with the multiple mic method coupled with your gear, which BTW from my experiance with it, loved to exadurate the lowmids. I know they can sound cool, but eventually you'll find that taking some of them out will aid in clarity.

 

[Thedeloshimself]

I got the best tube pre from ART, 2 channel, used it on the sm57, soley used that, did two tracks per guitarist and its sounding pretty good, the track isnt complete yet but ill post it when i get it done which should be later tonight

 

[Nebulous]

Good to hear man. Looking forward to your clip.

 

[Thedeloshimself]

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=603662

 

[Nebulous]

Well now it's sounding better. Like you've taken the cab out of a box. Now that you've got more clarity in your equipment, i'd start experimenting with the mic placement and maybee start making tiny adjustments to your amp settings. The main problem I hear with the tone is that the lows and even some mids can get a bit muddy. Maybee if you have a few less lows in the tone it will clear it up.
In terms of mic placement i'd slowly move a bit towards the outer edge of the cab (from where it was in that clip) one centimetre at a time. I'd also try backing the mic away from the cab about an inch or two.

Definately getting better man. It really grew on me as I listened.

 

[Thedeloshimself]

sure i would do that bro but the problem is i dont want to have to do that for 4 guitar tracks all the time that would take absolutely forever. i guess i could do it for like a 15 sec segment instead of 3 minutes, but never the less each take by it self sounds weak, the more takes the better it sounded, it seems EXTREMELY tedious thats all.
thanks a lot bro

 

[Nebulous]

Yeah I know what you mean. Home set ups are cheap, but they aren't always the most efficient.
Small clips definately help in getting soudns sorted. The main thing I would do from where you're at now, would be to back the mic off from the cab and inch or two, if nothing else.
How do you like your tone though? That is the most improtant thing after all.

 

[Thedeloshimself]

i like the tone alot, see the problem is on really good recordings the guitars sound awesome, but ive never heard solo tracks of really good guitar recordingws for the style im goin for so i dont know what exactly to aim for you know? I'm a rookie when it comes to recording, im 16 and my dad has a home studio that i started actually using by myself and he doesnt do metal recordings so like i cant really trust his advice as much as i can trust whats on here you know what i mean?