How hard to hit the strings?

[Damphire]

Hi, I'm starting to lay down some guitar tracks for my band's demo and my attack is fairly different from the other guitar player. He hits the strings very hard and uses thick string gauges while I use regular 0.10 and have a Petrucci-ish kind of attack.

My question is, based to your experience, what "string hitting power" works best in a recording context.
Band's style is doom/goth/dark/symph, we're E tunned and will record 4 tracks of guitars, two tracks each.

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Have the other guy record all the rhythms, and you record the leads.

 

[Metaltastic]

Yeah, honestly, I think harder is always better, until it gets to the point of knocking the strings out of tune! (or if there are annoying noises or something, but that's more of a technique issue)

 

[Damphire]

Guess I'll have pump some iron then.

I had the feeling that that was the answer but the thing is, in all "studio recording sessions videos" I've seen I never seen a guy going berserk at the guitar, they all seem pretty much relaxed and with a normal attack.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_POH5FM8yJI&feature=related[/ame]

 

[006]

Yeah, you don't need to look like you are digging in all crazy.

 

[Damphire]

Yeah, you don't need to look like you are digging in all crazy.

thats true.

I'l be strengthening my attack then. Whatever it takes to improve.

 

[Sacha]

Definitely better tone if you have a heavier (yet precise) hand IMO

 

[Moonlight_Seeker]

stupid post deleted.

 

[Damphire]

¯\(°_o)/¯

 

[TheWinterSnow]

how hard you hit is all depending on the dynamics you want to play. YOu have to remember that with heavy distortion that the harder you dig into the strings the more the amp will distort. Also when you get into them harder and ustilize heavey articulation the sound will be more raw and percussive, have more punch, when a softer attack won't have as much saturation and you won't get as much punch. I notice with my 5150 and my 7 string when i get into the b hard it gets nasty (in a good way, think slipknot and trivium low b kind of shit) but when i am not into it, its smoother and the tone matches the other stings, same goes with all the other strings, you will notice each one will start to develope its own character and coloration. YOu just don't want to hit so hard that your guitar goes out of tune or too soft wherer you can't hear the pick attack.

But honestly it comes down to the articulation you are looking for in a particular section. Even though it looks like guys who are recording are hitting light, don't mistake the fact that they are barely moving their hands as not hitting hard, you can still have very little hand movement and still pack a hard punch.

 

[noiZefloor]

Get a rather soft pick (dunlop tortex 0.60 works fine for me) and hit as hard as you can. Make sure the pick is parrallel to the strings. The soft pick will ajust every stroke and make em sound equal.

 

[Thared33]

I find that hitting the strings harder and having a heavy picking attack is bad for recording a DI track. Makes everything too spiky and clips my preamp. That would mean turning your preamp down, but you won't have enough gain to go back to your amp when reamping and you'll get a weak signal.

Has anyone else experienced that?

 

[006]

Uh...lol

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

If you record 2 guitar tracks I say have 2 guitarists but if you are quad tracking you'll need everything tight anyway so just go with 1 guitarist.

Hey guise how do string attack guise hey huh? ¯\(°_o)/¯

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Get a rather soft pick (dunlop tortex 0.60 works fine for me) and hit as hard as you can. Make sure the pick is parrallel to the strings. The soft pick will ajust every stroke and make em sound equal.

Soft picks don't have enough conviction unless you are playing acoustic.

I find that hitting the strings harder and having a heavy picking attack is bad for recording a DI track. Makes everything too spiky and clips my preamp. That would mean turning your preamp down, but you won't have enough gain to go back to your amp when reamping and you'll get a weak signal.

Has anyone else experienced that?

bring the volume down so it doesnt clip, then normalize the track and do everything to get hte singla as hot as possible going into your amp.

 

[Thared33]

I didn't think that normalizing was a good idea. If it works, it works I guess though.

 

[462studio]

I use heavier picks, the Tortex blue ones, and I hit hard as hell; very accurate and tight, but very heavy handed overall. Harder than anyone else I've ever recorded.

Most of the guitar sounds I get for other bands I record also tend to suck just a bit compared to my tracks too.

 

[Aaron Smith]

Soft picks don't have enough conviction unless you are playing acoustic.

Mm, I don't think I agree with this. Yes, heavy picks are better, but I got into a weird habit of using thin picks (not extremely thin, but .50mm is still quite thin), and it has definitely influenced my picking to be quite hard. When I mess with thicker picks, I feel like I have to hold back a bit in order to get the tone to sound nice. Conviction, I believe, comes mostly from the player, although I'm sure that if you go too thin with picks, then there's just a certain level of attack that you will never be able to reach.