Recording Distorted Guitar

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:34 pm

Hey it's me again. Anyways I was recording the distorted guitar parts for my friend's band and I couldn't seem to get it to sound right. It sounds too distorted and like there is too much high frequency. The mic is placed about an inch away from the amp, I'm using an Audix dynamic mic to record. We are using a metal zone but the distortion is turned down almost all the way. Your help is much appreciated! Very Happy

Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 7:38 pm

Check out this post:
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Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 3:04 pm

Awesome! Now I need to know how to mix it. What EQ and effects??

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 7:52 pm

phatsam wrote:

Hey it's me again. Anyways I was recording the distorted guitar parts for my friend's band and I couldn't seem to get it to sound right. It sounds too distorted and like there is too much high frequency. The mic is placed about an inch away from the amp, I'm using an Audix dynamic mic to record. We are using a metal zone but the distortion is turned down almost all the way. Your help is much appreciated! Very Happy

a lot of your problem has to do with mic placement in reguard to the speaker cone. aim the mic towards the center for a more sharp sound, aim towards the edge of the speaker for a more bassy sound. personally i like it right in the middle but slightly more towards the center.

in my experience i really disliked working with a metal zone pedal; i found the sound either too muddy or too fuzzy. honestly i like the mic right in the middle and i really dont use any effects with the guitar sound. im using a used crate combo amp thats probably from the 80s and i love the distortion it comes with.
hopefully some of this helps, but its really all about preference

Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2008 11:40 pm

I find that less is more when it comes to micing an amp with distortion. Less fuzz makes it sound a little beefier, but there's a fine line there.

Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:25 pm

Here is the best over all way to record HEAVY distorted guitars. IMHO

1. Take all the gain out of the HEAD/AMP ( try to find an old FENDER ) and get your tones as perfect as you can to the over all sound of your band. Add just a little gain back into the amp until the speakers break up. Do all this while having your AMP cranked way WAY up. Let the speakers break up creating the distorted sound. Adding in a lot of distortion does just that, Distorts your sound into a pissy sound.

Your second track should be less volume and more gain. Keeping the same tone in place. If you do this for the RIGHT and LEFT you will end up with 4 perfectly recorded HEAVY sounding guitar tracks.

Also if you are running 2 cabs in a room. Split them off with a room devider while having the cabs face the same direction at an angle. Kinda like an arrow if you will. Mic each cab and then in front of them about 6-8 feet put a couple room mics one on top of each other. This will allow you to pre mix a heavy full sound.

If your using a POD or V-Amp then just tinker with the sounds till you get the same effect. I will record my first track almost clean..Maybe 3 out of 10 on Gain. Then add a doubled track with the heavier gain. Mix them together and you get a clean full crunchy sound without the pissy sound. These tracks will stand out and you wont lose the picking in the Dostortion of the amp.

Less is more with distorted guitars. Its all about the speakers breaking up =)

Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 1:36 pm

DRDLKS said; " Less is more with distorted guitars. Its all about the speakers breaking up =)" This is very true, I would seriously try losing the pedal, or finding perhaps a Rat pedal or tube screamer to replace it with, but try it without any pedals first.

Good Luck

Posted: Thu May 01, 2008 1:46 pm

ugh I hate the metal zone pedal, or any solid state based distortion, after havingthe pleasure to mic countless amplifiers, i'm all for tube distortion, tho I found that Line 6 does make some great lead tones.......anyway seems you've found your bearing i thought id put my two cents in tho....also using a parametric eq to notch out bad frequencies usually around 2.5k-4k helps tremedesly, what i've noticed is most amateur recordings suffer from this range being too loud.

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