Starting to feel pretty hopeless (In need of an AE diagnosis)

[Cryo114]

In regards to bass, drums and vocals, I feel like I found my footing, nothing like some of you guys have here, but good enough for me not to cringe. Thats the case until it comes to heavier guitars. I really dont know what I'm doing wrong, I tried playing tighter, mixing amps to thicken, quad tracking, more mids, TSS in front, compressing the low end so it doesn't bloat etc..

All of which have helped, but they don't seem to get getting me past this thin and scratchy sound that I don't hear here in other posts. I've tried EQing it out, but its more a behaviour of the tone than an actual general spike, so when I EQ it out the tone loses presence. Which leads me to think It maybe the guitar/pickups, which are...

Yamaha Pacifica/Seymour Duncan 59

Not typical metal stuff I know, but is that the cause of this sound?

Revalver III, quad track with post EQ

Revalver III, quad track without post EQ

(The guitars are very loud in the (almost non-existant) mix so they can be heard clearly, thats all)

Now I'm pretty sure its not my Toneport UX2 since I've heard much better things here using that.

Nothing I do seems to be helping.

Any help would be great.

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Definitely the pickup. Swap in something with a bit more output and a better voicing for metal in general and I think you'll be a lot happier.

 

[ahjteam]

is there no bass in the clip or why amp I not hearing it on my sub? Otherwise I think there is nothing wrong with the sound, when you add the bass guitar, the tone just changes massively

 

[GarethSE]

I have to admit that everything I've ran through Revalver that was recorded with actives (namely EMG's) has sounded good with very little effort.

Also it sounds like you could get away with much less mids, shit sounds pretty honky.
What amp sim and impulses are you using btw?

If you've got DI's I could run them through my usual chain and see what I could come up with. If I can get something decent going, I'll give you some settings for reference.

 

[Cryo114]

is there no bass in the clip or why amp I not hearing it on my sub? Otherwise I think there is nothing wrong with the sound, when you add the bass guitar, the tone just changes massively

Theres no bass recorded, I didn't want too much in the way of variables in the samples.

I have to admit that everything I've ran through Revalver that was recorded with actives (namely EMG's) has sounded good with very little effort.

Also it sounds like you could get away with much less mids, shit sounds pretty honky.
What amp sim and impulses are you using btw?

Its actually quite a mix of thing in this (I wouldnt normally go this mad) but there flathills and 6505's, with the standard "Vintage 4x12" Impulse, I would normally throw in a guitarhack impulse, but again for whatever reason I didnt this time.

If you've got DI's I could run them through my usual chain and see what I could come up with. If I can get something decent going, I'll give you some settings for reference.

That would be great! Thanks, man. I'll get uploading. Just the one DI?

 

[GarethSE]

Nah all 4 takes dude.

And I'm a subscriber to the KISS method. Keep It Simple, Stupid.
I generally just use
Boost - Usually TSS but I'm gonna try SoloC as a boost soon as used by Erik (Dandelium.)
Amp Sim - Usually Revalver's 6505, but there are so many others out there now that anyone using amp sims is spoilt for choice.
Cab Sim - Awesometime. Nuff said.

Then generally high pass, low pass and a cut at 100hz to get rid of rumble and that'll pretty damn close. Maybe a couple of tiny cuts and boosts just to help it sit better, but that's IT.

And also, before you get started blending loads of different amp sims and impulses together, work on getting a really good sound with ONE sim.
Walk before you can run, yknow? You should be able to get a really good sound with just what I've described.

 

[ahjteam]

Theres no bass recorded, I didn't want too much in the way of variables in the samples.

Heres a quick example: http://www.ahjteam.com/upload/bass_example.mp3

 

[Cryo114]

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1029645/2.wav
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1029645/1.wav
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1029645/4.wav
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1029645/3.wav

I'm also Uploading the drums, in case you wanted to have them along side (Just a thought)

Very grateful for your help

ahjteam, is that just DI bass? Sounds great!

 

[Cryo114]

Nah all 4 takes dude.

And I'm a subscriber to the KISS method. Keep It Simple, Stupid.

More and more I'm finding myself going down that road as well.

Then generally high pass, low pass and a cut at 100hz to get rid of rumble and that'll pretty damn close. Maybe a couple of tiny cuts and boosts just to help it sit better, but that's IT.

I am pretty much the same (At least compared to how i used to do it!) Do you think my eq on the guitars was a bit drastic?

Edit: Drums http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/1029645/Drums.wav

 

[ahjteam]

ahjteam, is that just DI bass? Sounds great!

Is your guitarsound just DI guitar? The DI was fed into Studio Devil Virtual Bass Amp, then added some compression and EQ to fit it better in the mix

 

[GarethSE]

http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/631208/cryo guitars solo.mp3
http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/631208/cryo mix.mp3

If you dig, I shall provide pictures of settings

 

[GarethSE]

Also, tracks 1 and 2 were revalver, hard left and right.
Input voltage boosted up to 422
TSS before revalver also.
Voxengo boogex for cab sim
CatharsisStudio's fredman impulses "s-preshigh"

tracks 2 and 3 were the same except for 7170 replacing revalver.
Mixed in pretty low

 

[Fox Mulder]

Heres a quick example: http://www.ahjteam.com/upload/bass_example.mp3

That's one hell of a bass tone, no doubt. But an example with a different tone (slightly more low-end and non core-ish) would be great, if that isn't asking for too much.

 

[ahjteam]

non core-ish

Whats that like? edit: If I would add more low end to it, it would bury the kick too much

 

[Cryo114]

I dig

Input voltage boosted up to 422

Forgive my ignorance but, why's this (Emulating active pups?) and how did you do it? (Because I gather if I want to get this sound again myself, I'm going to need to do it too)

Really like the tone though man, it's got that something that was missing from the my take of it.

looking forward to the pics!

Thanks again!

Edit: One observation, the drums sound a tiny little duller, In a good way. Did you do that on purpose?

 

[GarethSE]

Yeah
Those cymbals were fucking killing me dude
Harsh harsh harsh harsh.
Ok right click the amp in Revalver, go to "tweak this amp" or whatever and click the tube on the far left. Then for the "VPP" setting just bump it up to around 420.
It just adds a bit of gain and saturation. I got the tip off Machinated.

I'll get pictures of the settings in a bit
on the phone to my girlfrienda at the min

 

[GarethSE]

guitar bus processing.

TSS
Revalver/7170
Boogex
Output to a Guitar Group with EQ on it.

7170 tracks are panned L and R 80 rather than hard left and right, plus the 6505 tracks are at 0.00 and the 7170 tracks are at -19 due to the ridiculous output volume of nick crow's plugs.

 

[AeternusEternus]

Someone page me?

 

[GarethSE]

Someone page me?

Huh?

 

[AeternusEternus]

I'm AE :l