Setting guitar tone for tracking
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- griff
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Setting guitar tone for tracking
Hey guys. Soon I'm gonna have a go at recording some stuff. Will be using an Atomic Amplifire DI'd into my PC. I have some nice Plexi-ish tones set up now but I'm wondering if there's certain frequencies that need to generally be accentuated/reduced in the dry track that makes mix down a lot easier?
At the moment it will just be instrumental stuff, occasionally double tracked if I'm good enough haha with bass and ezdrummer.
Or is it simply get the tone you want and EQ at mix down?
The Amplifire has quite a good onboard eq, with 1 pre eq, 3 parametric eq's that can go pre or post and a graphic eq.
I'm only planning on using reverb really for mixing too. Trying to keep it pretty simple if I can.
Appreciate your help.
At the moment it will just be instrumental stuff, occasionally double tracked if I'm good enough haha with bass and ezdrummer.
Or is it simply get the tone you want and EQ at mix down?
The Amplifire has quite a good onboard eq, with 1 pre eq, 3 parametric eq's that can go pre or post and a graphic eq.
I'm only planning on using reverb really for mixing too. Trying to keep it pretty simple if I can.
Appreciate your help.
- jeremyb
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
I'd get a tone you like on the amplifire then use an EQ in your DAW to get it to fit in the mix better ![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
Not really. Only thing I would suggest it using slightly less distortion than normal.
Once you multi track, the distortion can start making it hard to keep clarity on the guitars.
Once you multi track, the distortion can start making it hard to keep clarity on the guitars.
Ummm....
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right ![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
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- griff
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
Yeah man. Gotta challenge yaself I say hahajeremyb wrote:And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
do you have the ability with your gear to get a clean/dry out recorded at the same time? That way if you're unhappy with your overall sound, you can either blend in some of the clean mix or use plug ins with it for a totally different sound.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
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- griff
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
I'll have to look into that.Delayman wrote:do you have the ability with your gear to get a clean/dry out recorded at the same time? That way if you're unhappy with your overall sound, you can either blend in some of the clean mix or use plug ins with it for a totally different sound.
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
If time and money is tight then artificial double tracking is fine..you just have to get the "nudging" right so it doesn't get into sounding like chorus on everything. I do it all the time with guitars. Record a left guitar and a right guitar and then ADT each, just saves so much time.jeremyb wrote:And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right
I use to do the Zakk Wylde thing and record 4 tracks of guitars and yes it does sound great but it does take a bit of time to get it perfect and at this point in life I can't be bothered anymore
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
That's actually a great idea. And will likely do this if the original way doesn't work. Thanks!willow13 wrote:If time and money is tight then artificial double tracking is fine..you just have to get the "nudging" right so it doesn't get into sounding like chorus on everything. I do it all the time with guitars. Record a left guitar and a right guitar and then ADT each, just saves so much time.jeremyb wrote:And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right
I use to do the Zakk Wylde thing and record 4 tracks of guitars and yes it does sound great but it does take a bit of time to get it perfect and at this point in life I can't be bothered anymore
- willow13
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
I can't give you numbers but the "nudging" (or moving of the track) is tiny so you need to zoom in the guitar track and move it left or right by micro seconds. Experiment by moving it like 0.5secs and you'll hear how wrong it sounds but doing it in tiny amounts actually sounds great IMOgriff7628 wrote:
That's actually a great idea. And will likely do this if the original way doesn't work. Thanks!
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking
Keep in mind, too, that multi-tracking allows the ability to record the same track with different tones and then blending them into something unique. While duplicating the same track with off-center time shifting can give the effect of a bigger sound, it can't do that.griff7628 wrote:That's actually a great idea. And will likely do this if the original way doesn't work. Thanks!willow13 wrote:If time and money is tight then artificial double tracking is fine..you just have to get the "nudging" right so it doesn't get into sounding like chorus on everything. I do it all the time with guitars. Record a left guitar and a right guitar and then ADT each, just saves so much time.jeremyb wrote:And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right
I use to do the Zakk Wylde thing and record 4 tracks of guitars and yes it does sound great but it does take a bit of time to get it perfect and at this point in life I can't be bothered anymore
For a simple example, I recorded this solo twice, one with the neck pickup, the other with the bridge pickup. Then I blended and panned them in the mix-down with no EQ and only some delay added.
Now, I could have recorded with the switch in the middle using both pickups and then duplicated the track, but it probably would not have sounded the same and probably would have been more time intensive trying to get the blend right at the guitar rather than at the board.
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