What am I doing so horribly wrong that I prefer real amp+impulses over a miced cab?

[Emdprodukt]

Yeah it's true and I'm really getting nervous when it comes to reamping. I always find something really nasal about my recorded tones, they seem to lack attack and are often muddy. No matter which amp, which mic. I allready used sm57, i5, md421 in all combinations and I'm never satisfied. I have really good equiptment so it's not that. I was thinking if it's the small room but others recorded really nice high gain sounds in bedrooms.

Okay, it always comes down to the micing technique. I read so much about it and seem to know nothing. Of course it's a matter of experience and fucking around but it's starting to stress me.

I don't really have a question because I don't know what I'm doing wrong. What I want to achive is a tone that doesn't need much eq. Right now it's more like trying to make guitars not so shitty instead of mixing and I have to use drastic eq.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Do you prefer the ampsim over the real amp when you are soloing guitar or when you are mixing all the instruments? If you are using any of the easy to find real amp settings/placement in this forum, then the real amp should sound better in your mix than ampsims will. IMHO.

Still, if you solo the ampsim vs the real amp, the ampsim may sound better. But that doesn't mean shit.

 

[John_C]

urrmmm...........he did say impulses, not amp sims

 

[Emdprodukt]

I don't use ampsims, I use reals amps into impulses for monitoring and I record the DI's for reamping. I try to avoid soloing guitars for too long. Makes me hear strange things

 

[[UEAK]Clowd]

I prefer impulses too. always cleaner, always easy to mold into what I want. whenever I mic a cab it just sounds really "Demo" to me, no matter what I do.

 

[Emdprodukt]

^^ know what you mean, dude. same here!

 

[Fragle]

how loud are you recording?
while you can definitely get usable tones at lower volumes, i feel that you really need some volume to get *that* sound. unfortunately

other than that....simplify! good DI -> good amp -> good cab -> single 57 -> good pre should sound pretty good as long as you somewhat know what you're doing in terms of tone dialing and mic placement.

and, one thing i've learned recently....don't try and bend the sound into something it is not. or in other words, don't use a 5150 and try to get into rectifier-style territory. these days i play back the DIs through amp A, dial in a sound that compliments the character of that very player going through that very amp, position the mic in a way that captures what i'm hearing in the room, record. if it works -> fine. if not, try another amp...or maybe another cab.

edit: fwiw, impulses can sound pretty good....but 9 out of 10 times the real cab will sound better. imho at least.

 

[arvoitus]

Do you have an example of what you think sounds wrong?

 

[Emdprodukt]

I can turn up my amps REALLY loud and I do that.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2932654/Power/power%20-%201%20-%20Raise%20Your%20Fist%20Bicyclist%20Final%20FInal%20FInal.wav

This is a Orange Rockreverb slaved into a dual recto, i5 and md421 (very low in the mix though) into api3124+. Bad example because this one is one of my better reamps. I think it has something nasal and muddy (I don't think it's a EQ problem.. it's something in the source I can't get out!) that's keeping it from beeing awesome.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

Apologies for my ignorance. In my bigotted world, amp sims and impulses are the same thing.

 

[FIXXXER]

Apologies for my ignorance. In my bigotted world, amp sims and impulses are the same thing.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Maybe you just have shitty tastes and should not worry about that? (just kiddin'... except for the "should not worry about that" part)

 

[dcb]

maybe you are an idiot, just like me ;-) !

 

[guitarguru777]

@EMD ... Nothing wrong with that tone other then it doesn't fit the song and the playing isn't very tight.

Its also under gained imho.

 

[Emdprodukt]

I'm indeed an idiot but I worry because I want to improve and maybe in 10 years I'm not such an idiot anymore and the gurlz are all over me because I makez big $$$$$

 

[Harley Barley]

Stupid question but... do you actually like the tone your getting from your amp when your just listening to it before you mic it and listen to it back through monitors ?

 

[Emdprodukt]

Do you mean how the amp sounds in the room? Awesome !

 

[guitarguru777]

If you like the sound in the room all you need to do is place the mic so that it sounds the same through your monitors. TADA!

 

[digitaldeath]

At least you're using real amps!
Amp + impulse > ampsim + impulse.

I prefer using real amps with impulses, just my personal preference I suppose...

 

[guitarguru777]

At least you're using real amps!
Amp + impulse > ampsim + impulse.

I prefer using real amps with impulses, just my personal preference I suppose...

+10000000 !!