DMusic.com | for indie musicians and fans | Free MP3 music downloads

Electric guitars, Classical guitars, Guitar amps and more.

zZounds.com offers recording equipment for starting and experienced musicians. Find the best prices on electric guitars, acoustic guitars, classical guitars and more.

Forums > Music: Guitar

Recording Distortion

Strutherburg	Date: March 2, 2004 @ 10:09 AM Im recording on a tascam 424 and mastering on my computer. Everything sounds fine and the distortin doesnt sound bad when its low in the background.. but as soon as i want it in the for front, it sonds like shit.. I have tried recording direct and micing my amp.. but no luck. Im using a Zoom 707... any ideas?
victorsskull	Date: March 2, 2004 @ 1:06 PM hmmm zoom 707 is a good peddle maybe your volume is to high on your peddle. try turning down the volume. that might help
withering	Date: March 2, 2004 @ 2:09 PM Wuss out and get an amp modeller / simulator. I've got a cheapie V-AMP2, and it rocks bananas. (Though get a POD XT Pro if you got the ) If not you need to work some skills with a good mic & amp setup. DI'ing an ordinary distbox will suck.
kredd	Date: March 2, 2004 @ 4:00 PM it may be getting jacked up when passing thru your sound card or depending on how you are bringing it up in the 'forefront' of the mix, you may want to try turning the volume up on the pedal(if it has it). if you have it set low on the pedal and turn it up 'down stream'(on your tascam or computer) you're just boosting a weak or low level signal. you want to get a strong signal from the source...that's just my guess
kredd	Date: March 2, 2004 @ 4:08 PM just occurred to me that if you're mixing down you're not using your pedal anymore...duh! so try the opposite. just shots in the dark as to how you are recording here, but record all your parts loud at a strong level and then bring them down in the mix - better to lower a strong signal in the mix than to boost a weak signal in the mix...make sense?
pog	Date: March 2, 2004 @ 5:25 PM It seems to me, you've discovered the joys of digital distorion... the only way around this is to turn the master volume down. Ultimately, the mic up of the guitar amp will sound more natual, but if you've got a spare track, record the direct sound as well... then you can mix between the 2. All you need to know is the level going into the soundcard should be running at about 50-70% power so if you hit a loud part, the peaks don't create digital distortion... you never at any point in the song want the soundcard recording at 100% as it will always sound awful (unless of course your aphex twin) and it may damage something. if the levels are down, you can always bring them up a bit in the mix, but you can't repair it if you go in the excess. On the other hand, if you record it at about 25% power, then there is a chance that a lot of background sounds will be lost, so it's a fine line. One thing that a lot of people don't think of is to monitor the input levels on a mix, and also that there's a recording level control which is different to you playback control. It's a bit fiddley to get to this, but you can double click on the volume icon in the task bar, and then click options/properties.... on this window you'll see Playback and Recording.... if you click on the Recording button then okay, the next window to open will be your Recording settings... if you then turn advanced on, you should then be able to turn on and off the 20DB boost on your mic input (supposing your using the mic input)... this'll prolly stop it blastin' the soundcard so much. Hope this helps
Distilled1	Date: March 2, 2004 @ 7:58 PM "Ultimately, the mic up of the guitar amp will sound more natual, but if you've got a spare track, record the direct sound as well... then you can mix between the 2." The best way to record digitly
MEMROX	Date: March 11, 2004 @ 3:01 PM just get a Line 6 Vetta.. www.line6.com that rocks the flowww
Arthen	Date: March 12, 2004 @ 3:50 AM Digital guitar recording will never ever sound as good as natural micing. When you play around with the EQs and such you have problems like digital "glare". I've also found out that mic-ed guitars have a much stronger sonic quality that can be heard very nicely even in the most complex mixes. I very much prefer distortion or clean to sound natural and have its own space, rather than totally quiet digital feedback. For micing distortion there's however alot of knowledge and experience required like acoustic space, sense of distance and knowing how you want your mix to sound. That takes practise. Get good mics. A cheap Shure SM57 will do a very good job if you know how to. Get 2 and try stereo micing for a really neat sound within your mixes. I think the overall tone of a guitar does matter, but other than that not so much, because when you're mixing in your guitar with drums, keyboards and others, you'll be EQ-ing and tweaking it to make it sound good and audible in the entire mix itself. Once you've accomplished that; mute all your other channels and listen to the guitar channel alone. Compare the current sound that works in the mix and the sound that comes directly from your guitar setup before tweaking. How fucking different is that!!!
shinkaide	Date: March 12, 2004 @ 3:25 PM Good Soundcard works fine for me. As long as you EQ/mix it right on the fx & guitar pickups/tone, it will sound good. And don't let the recording volume get into the red so you eliminate excess static. I've been working on this recording method for the past year and it's good. If at first it doesn't sound good, just keep working and adjusting. I got really good tone from it.
woodhead	Date: March 13, 2004 @ 11:45 AM micing my amp On this aspect the best advice I can give is a simple test. turn your amp on and mic the amp, rrecord a few seconds, then move the mic to another location on the cab record that and then move it etc etc. Do this and you will find the sweet spot on your cab, they all have this, so just need to find it. IMHO I belive that dist guitar should always be miced, make the speaker work and you get a nice tight sounding dist. guitar.
Arthen	Date: March 14, 2004 @ 3:56 AM Digital distortion like the Line6 Vetta is extremely good, but then again I strongly recommend running that sound through a god ampe with good tubes and valves, THEN mic it for recordings. Michael Romeo from Symphony X uses Line6 Vetta, but he definitely does not connect that directly to any soundcard or mixing console. And his tone is just....fucking delicious and aromatic.
pog	Date: March 14, 2004 @ 4:31 AM Good call, woodhead
woodhead	Date: March 20, 2004 @ 6:58 PM Thanx Pog