Noob needs help!

[mattisfrommars]

Ok, so i'm recording and mixing my band's stuff at the minute and i'm trying to teach myself (using this forum) reamping, impulses etc etc

I have found a load of really great plug ins and they all seem like there's endless tweaking to do to get that "perfect" sound, but there's just so much i don't really have a decent starting point to start tweaking from!

Could one of you nice folks help? I'm reamping dry (ish) guitar. They've been recorded with effects like tubescreamer and wah (i figured as they go in front of the amp that that was the right way of doing it- but as i say i'm a noob! :S)

Next, i guess i need a preamp- i have a podXT with all the model packs and a real amp (Hughes and Kettner Matrix head)

Then i've been using the Voxengo Curve EQ with a whole load of captured spectrums i found on this forum (Very, very impressive. I'm sure if i learned how to use this properly this is where crushing tone can be coaxed out)

And then Boogex for cab impulses- which i got from the sneap FTP.

I then have the "Q" eq filter for minor tweaks after the cab.


Could someone give me a starting place for all of these effects so i can tweak and A/B different things from there? I want to be able to get my own tone but it's hard to know what preamp sounds best when you don't know what cab to use, and what EQ spectrum sounds best when the preamp or the cab might not be the best one etc etc

(Oh, and sorry for the mother of all "help me" posts )

 

[mattisfrommars]

Oh, and if the guitars keep dropping out (even in mixdowns) does this mean that my PC can't handle all of the plug ins running at once- the CPU usage on the side of the transport bar in cubase makes is seem like the PC isn't working too hard :S

 

[Dom Ostarig]

Man... i think you will be sound better if you start to not try to use all of your gear at the same time.... you sould try something like:

Guitar > POD XT (without cab sim) > Pc (then the curveEQ and Boogex) or
Guitar > Hughes and Kettner (trying his drive) > pc > (then the curveEQ and Boogex)

Be carefull with all the level... to in and inside pc.
Read the manual of your DAW, probably there's something about how to lower cpu cost, like freeze or something like that.

 

[mattisfrommars]

Oops, it was the demo version of the plugin that resulted in the drop outs. I need to learn to google my problems more often

 

[KillFrenzy]

Google's soooo nice. lol
But Dom's tips are really useful. Sometimes less is more. If using less you can't get a decent sound, then try alternative ways.
I've heard some very impressive results using POD XT through real amps though. But if you don't want to mic your cab ('cause of the noise, lack of pacience, etc), then try virtual cab simulators os the POD alone.