I've been doing a little experimenting lately and I found some surprising results. I guess I'll rant a bit and leave it here in case anyone needs a tip or two 
I'm in a decently-sized mixing area but I also use it for tracking. I've got bass trapping at the L/R B/F (and above) reflection points, with some diffusion in the back of the room for the icing on the cake. You can definitely hear the difference when clapping your hands in the front and back. I leave my cab in the very back along with the diffusors and started testing out some mic positioning stuff lately, and I realized that there's something that's always bothered me about the sound that I'm hearing.
Basically, it sounds like I'm tracking Morbid Angel, Altars of Madness era
. I won't say that the room sounds too live... a better word to describe what my ears are hearing is distant. Now it's funny, because I used to be in a 10X10 foot room with the walls completely covered with nothing but bass trapping, and I remember in those days my ears telling me that my guitar sounds too up front, and at the same time, dry. Now it seems like it's just the opposite.
Since I realized all of that, I wanted to try something just for kicks. I tracked a short riff with all of my treatment in its normal studio area. Then I got four of my huge bass traps and completely surrounded the back of my studio with them, around the guitar cab, acting as gobos, and the only way sound could get out was to travel upward, then I tracked the riff again. I was surprised when listening to the A/B comparison. Track A (normally treated) gave me this distant, dull kind of sound. Track B however (bass trapping around cab) sounded more up front as expected, however with another surprising element: the dullness was cleared up and it actually sounded brighter!
Phase cancellation and comb filtering are no joke, even if you think your diffusors are clearing all of that up. It apparently wasn't, at least in my case.
I'm going to admit something here: tracking guitar is what I'm weakest at, and sometimes I think my guitar recordings just downright suck. That's funny, and ironic, once you consider that I'm a guitarist first and foremost. I've had the mentality of 'oh it's only guitar, I'm the best at that so I'll just learn how to do that/fix all of that later'. When I throw up some faders with decent sounding tracks, as soon as I throw up the guitar master fader along with it, it turns the track into a mess, so my lack of practicing with mic/cab placement and working out the little things that add up to a guitar recording has seriously come back to bite me in the behind. I'll have to stop fooling with synths so much and get on guitar stuff unless I want everyone laughing at me
Anyhow, I thought all of that was interesting, and some of it, ironic. I'll have to start practicing my hiney off with tracking guitar a lot more soon, and learn how to overcome the limits of my room as best as possible. And to add a little confusion for you, I find it funny how some people track in areas worse than mine with very little treatment, yet still get a bit of a better sound. And to further add to that, I've noticed in photos of miked up cabs in pro studios - sometimes there's no treatment at all, in a big room with hardwood floors, yet it sounds amazing. Not too live or distant, not too dull or muddy. That's what experience can get you I guess.
Thanks for listening. I'm off to practice
I'm in a decently-sized mixing area but I also use it for tracking. I've got bass trapping at the L/R B/F (and above) reflection points, with some diffusion in the back of the room for the icing on the cake. You can definitely hear the difference when clapping your hands in the front and back. I leave my cab in the very back along with the diffusors and started testing out some mic positioning stuff lately, and I realized that there's something that's always bothered me about the sound that I'm hearing.
Basically, it sounds like I'm tracking Morbid Angel, Altars of Madness era
. I won't say that the room sounds too live... a better word to describe what my ears are hearing is distant. Now it's funny, because I used to be in a 10X10 foot room with the walls completely covered with nothing but bass trapping, and I remember in those days my ears telling me that my guitar sounds too up front, and at the same time, dry. Now it seems like it's just the opposite.Since I realized all of that, I wanted to try something just for kicks. I tracked a short riff with all of my treatment in its normal studio area. Then I got four of my huge bass traps and completely surrounded the back of my studio with them, around the guitar cab, acting as gobos, and the only way sound could get out was to travel upward, then I tracked the riff again. I was surprised when listening to the A/B comparison. Track A (normally treated) gave me this distant, dull kind of sound. Track B however (bass trapping around cab) sounded more up front as expected, however with another surprising element: the dullness was cleared up and it actually sounded brighter!
Phase cancellation and comb filtering are no joke, even if you think your diffusors are clearing all of that up. It apparently wasn't, at least in my case.
I'm going to admit something here: tracking guitar is what I'm weakest at, and sometimes I think my guitar recordings just downright suck. That's funny, and ironic, once you consider that I'm a guitarist first and foremost. I've had the mentality of 'oh it's only guitar, I'm the best at that so I'll just learn how to do that/fix all of that later'. When I throw up some faders with decent sounding tracks, as soon as I throw up the guitar master fader along with it, it turns the track into a mess, so my lack of practicing with mic/cab placement and working out the little things that add up to a guitar recording has seriously come back to bite me in the behind. I'll have to stop fooling with synths so much and get on guitar stuff unless I want everyone laughing at me
Anyhow, I thought all of that was interesting, and some of it, ironic. I'll have to start practicing my hiney off with tracking guitar a lot more soon, and learn how to overcome the limits of my room as best as possible. And to add a little confusion for you, I find it funny how some people track in areas worse than mine with very little treatment, yet still get a bit of a better sound. And to further add to that, I've noticed in photos of miked up cabs in pro studios - sometimes there's no treatment at all, in a big room with hardwood floors, yet it sounds amazing. Not too live or distant, not too dull or muddy. That's what experience can get you I guess.
Thanks for listening. I'm off to practice
