Room Tone on Rhythm Guitars: Gojira Tone Demonstration

[JakeAC5253]

If you've ever wondered what room mics can sound like on rhythm guitars in metal then here it is: a demo displaying the close miked sound, the room miked sound, and the combined sound all in the mix as a reference.

Here is the Close mic, offering the pick attack clarity and immediacy:


Here is the Room mic, offering the "sauce" "vibe" or "squeesh":


Here is the combined tones balanced to compliment each other:

 

[sprack]

Just curious, but how far out is the room mic and what did you use to phase correct it?

 

[ArthurD]

Sounds like old Testament albums

 

[JakeAC5253]

Just curious, but how far out is the room mic and what did you use to phase correct it?

The room mic is about 5-6 feet back and since it's in a variant of a split M/S configuration I didn't have to do anything to phase correct it. Just place it in a position that sounds good and you are good to go.

 

[Sloan]

I definitely like the blended clip much better in this example.

 

[captainboom]

The room mic is about 5-6 feet back and since it's in a variant of a split M/S configuration I didn't have to do anything to phase correct it. Just place it in a position that sounds good and you are good to go.

Meaning you placed the room mic in the center and the close mic are panned ?
Seems logical to me as the room mic seems to have a lot more bass frequencies but regarding your samples, I don't really get it

 

[JeffTD]

I like the blended clip a lot better but both are pretty bad sounding to begin with IMO.

 

[cfh11]

what mics were used for each?

 

[JakeAC5253]

what mics were used for each?

SM57 as a close mic, Cascade Fathead II as the room mic. Both were filtered pretty heavily on the lows to get closer to the Gojira tone I am emulating.

 

[Contra Studio]

I like the blended clip a lot better but both are pretty bad sounding to begin with IMO.

lawl

 

[AEL89]

Sounds better with a room mic for sure. I always try and use a room mic if the room caters for it pretty well.

Did this with tons and tons of room mics. On guitars, bass, vocals and just about everything:

 

[Contra Studio]

I do agree with Jeff. The combo is the best but the close mic is what he making it sound bad.... I'm thinking of going with a Kemper and not ever having to worry about that again......

 

[bryan_kilco]

lawl

I'll have to agree with Jeff on that. I didn't like any of the tones.

Just personal preference. But I hate sludgy/muddy tones.

 

[JakeAC5253]

I shouldn't have posted the individual mics in this case as they are two halves that make up the whole tone so they don't make much sense by themselves. I was trying to be helpful to someone, guess I was wrong.

 

[drew_drummer]

If I can be perfectly honest, if you need to do this to get a fatter tone, then your close-mic is in the wrong place completely. A room microphone should accentuate the characteristics of the close mic imo, and it should be a sort of filler. It shouldn't be there to add warmth and low-end and roundedness. To me that is the wrong approach for metal and hard-rock.

Just my opinion like, and I like sludgy tones... this doesn't sound sludgy to me. It sounds like the close microphone has no low end, and the room mic has low end, but it's too distance to be useful.

 

[JakeAC5253]

If I can be perfectly honest, if you need to do this to get a fatter tone, then your close-mic is in the wrong place completely. A room microphone should accentuate the characteristics of the close mic imo, and it should be a sort of filler. It shouldn't be there to add warmth and low-end and roundedness. To me that is the wrong approach for metal and hard-rock.

I absolutely agree, but that's not the issue. For this particular track, I was trying to go for the Gojira FMTS guitar tone, so my approach was different seeing as how it's not a "traditional" tone. I crafted the end tone finding a balance between what I heard on the track and what I had to work with, this is what I do. FMTS tone includes a room mic, so I used it as a starting point for the tone and both the mics and the amp were dialed in a way that emulates the track tone.



@2:25

Anyway thanks for criticizing in a constructive way Drew.

 

[Terminus]

I thought it was a good demonstration. Would be interesting to see how different rooms and mics would change the sound.

 

[Matt-Steele]

IMHO... This is a horrible demonstration. An amazing original guitar tone can sound amazing with little to no room sound. IMO... the double or quad tracking of heavy rhythm guitars is all that is necessary. This demo is a bad demonstration because the base guitar tone should be really good to begin with and it's not. I'd start over and work the original guitar tone first and get it sounding great and then think about adding a room and see if its even necessary after double tracking.

 

[JakeAC5253]

Guys I don't need anyone telling me how to mic an amp. I've made a career from close-only heavy guitar tones, this one is different and it was intended to be different. I have news for you, the Andy Sneap 5150 Recto cab V30 SM57 tone is great and I use it a lot, but it's not the only guitar tone out there, try to be a little more open minded when someone experiments with something different. I always experiment with tones because I get bored always using the same tone on stuff and no one can or should look to change that, it's a good trait in a music engineer. Was this tone perfect? No. I could have done it differently and if I were to go back I probably would do it differently, but show a little common respect for people jesus christ.

Here are some of my more recent close mic only tones and I've got more on the way. I honestly don't care if you like them or not I do this for my own enjoyment and for my clientele, not to impress music forum members.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/794136/OppressiveForce/Song5-3-4.mp3

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8838613/Reamp Demos/Jan 2013 Mixtest.mp3

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8838613/Reamp Demos/Feb 2013 Modern Rock Demo.mp3

 

[Heabow]

Guys I don't need anyone telling me how to mic an amp. I've made a career from close-only heavy guitar tones, this one is different and it was intended to be different. I have news for you, the Andy Sneap 5150 Recto cab V30 SM57 tone is great and I use it a lot, but it's not the only guitar tone out there, try to be a little more open minded when someone experiments with something different. I always experiment with tones because I get bored always using the same tone on stuff and no one can or should look to change that, it's a good trait in a music engineer. Was this tone perfect? No. I could have done it differently and if I were to go back I probably would do it differently, but show a little common respect for people jesus christ.

I agree. I think the point here is not to show a perfect technique or an outstanding guitar tone but just a different way to shape it. It just can give some idea for some of us to experiment. And that's cool to share it. Plus the idea was to approach the FMTS tone.