What else do I need to make great guitar tone?

[Derykus]

I thought buying a bunch of gear would help me in my quest to recording great guitars, but I guess I was wrong... or maybe I need more gear? I've got a GAP Pre-73, SM57, Mesa Mark IV, 6505+, Mesa Recto 4x12 with v30s, various mid to high end guitars with EMG's, SD's, or Dimarzio's, Maxon OD808, and RME Babyface for converters. I've spent a larger fraction of my life than I wanted to trying to learn to capture good tone, tweaking, tweaking more, comparing to reference material, over, and over, and over again. I'm getting tired of recording shitty tones, moving the mic, then recording more shit tones. And by that time my ears are fatigued and I don't know up from down anymore.

My room acoustics must really suck, or maybe I just don't know what I'm doing anymore and it's not as bad as I think. Take a listen, what am I missing?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3331450/KSE 6505+ Recto412 sm57 2.mp3

This is one of the better tones I've recorded, but still missing something. Everything I record is either too bright or too distant, too muddy or too thin, but always pretty mediocre sounding at best. I can't ever seem to get a really "clean" sounding distorted tone... it all sounds really dirty to me. I'm looking for modern, smooth, clean, round rock/metal guitar tone. Do I need a new amp? Obviously experience is the key, but I don't feel like I've been improving at all for quite some time now.

 

[SteveFireland]

I think that sounds pretty damn good, actually.

Steve.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

For starters you have way too much mids. Mids if left unchecked can make guitars sound dull and dirty. Next thing would be what type of OD settings are you running because it seems like you need to get the tone knob up a bit more.

Have you done any post processing, the tone you posted is a little dark, don't change the mic position, make the amp brighter. In the end it is easier to have an amp slightly too bright that you can just pull down with a low pass filter than vice versa. I think though that if you pull the mids a bit then the details in the highs would come out a lot, but still add a bit of presence to the high end.

Sounds good though, its a solid tone you have, it just needs to be molded slightly.

 

[Harley Barley]

Sounds like it needs more mids and highs if anything, but i like a lot of mids in my guitar tone. This guitar tone is dark, very muddy, has too much low mid and has no high end which makes me think either 1. your ears were shot when you recorded this (from listening and recording all day) or your monitors just suck. What are monitoring on? Make sure the guitar amp sounds the best it can in the room before you put a microphone anywhere near it. Whats the chain for the clip you posted?

 

[crillemannen]

Experience is the key.

You got all the equipment you need to record a killler guitar tone. It is all up to you. Practice practice practice and you'll eventually get it.

 

[scorpio01169]

Sounds good to me also, check your mids and see if boosting or cutting will help your situation. don't think too hard about this or you"ll never be happy.

 

[Derykus]

don't think too hard about this or you"ll never be happy.

Thanks. You are right... I tend to get lost thinking too much about everything mix related.

What are monitoring on? Make sure the guitar amp sounds the best it can in the room before you put a microphone anywhere near it. Whats the chain for the clip you posted?

Yamaha MSP10 and headphones, my ears probably were shot, and my room sucks.

OD808>6505+>Mesa4x12>sm57>Pre73>Babyface

Presence was at 7. Res 7. Mids on 2. Highs 4.5. Low 6. Gain 4.5. I tried turning up the presence more but then it just sounded shrill. OD808 was drive at 9, balance full, and tone at 12.

I actually put a low pass on this clip at around 7-8k because I thought the high end content made it way too fizzy. I'm also a bit worried that I'm going deaf in the high end, but clearly this isn't the case haha! Also a high pass at 100hz.

I'll try out everyone's suggestions, I'd guess a bit less resonance, back off on the LP, maybe a bit more presence or tone adjustment on the OD.

 

[Terminus]

Try using the maxon with no drive and only adjust the tone knob and turn the gain up on the amp.

 

[jipchen]

Moving the cab in the room, or even pointing it in different directions can also make a huge difference.. so does lifting the cab so it's not directly on the ground.
But I know how you're feeling, I'm always struggling with high-gain guitar tones.

 

[aviel]

well i am actually not able to listen to your clip, but if you try to get rid of that fizz, i suggest giving the mic an angle, try at 45 degrees, it takes out all the fizz. i find that getting them down with an EQ just kills the sound and makes it middy and muddy.

 

[Derykus]

Well I'd moved the mic position since I last reamped this track, but I tried again. This time there is just a little bit of Mark IV mixed in with the 6505+, and I took some of the suggestions posted here. It's not as fat, but it's got a little more grind to it. What do you all think?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3331450/KSE 6505+MarkIV.mp3

 

[xeroxed88]

That sounds amazing, mate.

 

[bryan_kilco]

I was going to say, neither of those tones sound bad to me at all.

I mic'd my Mark IV quickly once, with an SM58 (cap on) like halfway between the cone and dusctap, run into my crappy little Fast Track Pro, and got pretty decent results.