General Music Chat

Serious dilemma....
I am by no means a lead guitarist ... Nevertheless I had to grab me nut-sacks and come up with a lead track for one of my songs...

I think I got one now, that waxes 'viable" at the very least. My problem lies in the aural quality of the track... All levels, tones, settings are where they should be...But the end result is a 'tinny' sound on the track...

To fix this, I will probably have to dub in a 2nd track... Damn... ! I was winging it on the first one... But... I'll run with it ...

My question is this: I use a 30 watt amp (Mustang II) which sounds awesome, live... in the studio, We simply mic it (as in ...the microphone is kissing the silver carpet of the speaker) and I crank the vol/gains up.

Q: Given roughly the same settings...would it have made a difference to use a higher wattage amp?

Thanks

That is a pretty nice sounding modeling amp Grant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOui83Gh9zs

More wattage won't fix the tone though. Welcome to the bane of every lead guitarist... the endless search for the Holy Grail guitar tone. It truly is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. I hope you find it.

Personally I am never completely satisfied with my recorded guitar tone so I may not be the best source for answers. My method to record solos is to first set up the amp so it sounds good to my ears live, and then use careful mic placement to attempt to capture that tone. I use a more smooth, lyrical playing style that benefits from a Les Paul favored mic technique: Try an SM57 and place it 1/2 way between the center of the speaker and the speaker edge, angle the mic upwards at 45 degrees with the capsule a few inches away from the speaker cloth. This usually returns a smoother response than the bright, in-your-face tone that comes from a mic placed dead center, pointing directly at the speaker dome. Try it and see what you get. Sometimes just backing the mic out into the room warms up the sound. Good luck and happy hunting!

Thanks CajunDaddy! I had said earlier that it was a 30 watt. I was mistaken Its a 40 watt... That amp sure has a lot of bang for the money... I love its portability and I can fit it in the trunk of my tiny car...It does well on any small local stage...

Regarding my dilemma... I just discusssed it with my partner and were guessing now that he might have had a compressor on or something through the session...

I'll find out after Easter...

Keep playing with the position and angle of the mic - if you can find an assistant to play while you listen with headphones from the next room, it'll make it easier, otherwise just start recording, and move the mic around, talking into the mic to describe the position before playing each time, so when you go back and listen you can tell where the best sound came from.

Try recording two tracks at once with two mic placements.
One at normal position and the other behind a couple feet and to one side
with a hard surface behind it. 2x2 formica.
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Try using a large diaphram mic. such as a Sennheiser 609 and place it off axis (half way between center and edge of cone). Another thing I learned from JW split it in stereo pan left and right add a 10 to 20 millisecond delay between sides that will fatten it up! If an amp is over 50 watts I will NOT use it. With modern recording and live sound (pa) technology it is unnecessary to use a high wattage amp. The only need for high wattage amps these days is if you are playing arena's.

Serious dilemma....
I am by no means a lead guitarist ... Nevertheless I had to grab me nut-sacks and come up with a lead track for one of my songs...

I think I got one now, that waxes 'viable" at the very least. My problem lies in the aural quality of the track... All levels, tones, settings are where they should be...But the end result is a 'tinny' sound on the track...

To fix this, I will probably have to dub in a 2nd track... Damn... ! I was winging it on the first one... But... I'll run with it ...

My question is this: I use a 30 watt amp (Mustang II) which sounds awesome, live... in the studio, We simply mic it (as in ...the microphone is kissing the silver carpet of the speaker) and I crank the vol/gains up.

Q: Given roughly the same settings...would it have made a difference to use a higher wattage amp?

Thanks

No - if you have a mic on it, it should make no difference.
40 watts is penty.
Like the others have said, experiment with mic placement, and double check that something weird wasn't going on post signal.

If it sounds right in the room you're using tell the engineer to fix it. It's his F'ing job. It's what you are paying him to do!

Awsome responseS Thanks to all you guys

Yes The Microphone placements and the split seem to make sense...

The engineer, George (AKA My Bassist and drummer LOL) works his heiny off for this project... He's a great Musician and engineer...and a friend... I will bring him some donuts on Saturday and politely ask him to 'investigate' this sound issue Ha ha!

Dog

I have a Fender G-Dec practice amp which is similar - a guy I jam with from time to time has a Mustang II. The feature sets seem similar.

If that is the case you may have available to you, presets. Modeling amps often have 1 to n 'presets' which are sound entities - made to 'model' a popular guitar gound - be it metal, country or all points in between. The presets themselves can be edited to taste.

See if you have that feature. Modelilng amps tend to. It takes getting used to the fact that the amp has no 'bottom line' sound. (like Marshal or classic Fender amps)

It sounds like whatever preset is slelected.

My primary guitar amp is a Mustang V head which does in fact, have those features. (and more)

You're playing lead guitar man. That's a big thing. Now you are a full spectrum guitar player.

Talbot

Dog

I have a Fender G-Dec practice amp which is similar - a guy I jam with from time to time has a Mustang II. The feature sets seem similar.

If that is the case you may have available to you, presets. Modeling amps often have 1 to n 'presets' which are sound entities - made to 'model' a popular guitar gound - be it metal, country or all points in between. The presets themselves can be edited to taste.

See if you have that feature. Modelilng amps tend to. It takes getting used to the fact that the amp has no 'bottom line' sound. (like Marshal or classic Fender amps)

It sounds like whatever preset is slelected.

My primary guitar amp is a Mustang V head which does in fact, have those features. (and more)

You're playing lead guitar man. That's a big thing. Now you are a full spectrum guitar player.

Talbot

LOL Thanks Mike... I'm more of a 'full Spectrum' blunderer... Ha ha! I do know that Leads are to me like a 2nd story teller in the song... so I will at least try to stick with acceptable scales...pertinent to the song and push my stubby little fingers to express the phrases as full as possible .. Beyond that, its like rolling dice...

Re The amp: I have been playing a lot with the pre-sets. I have now acquired a habit of writing down those presets (which I have edited and worked with). I discovered recently that its very important to do that... When I record a track, and then later when someone asks me to play that track on stage ...It really helps to sustain the original settings from a studio, for live situations..

I've read up a bit on this very topic and J-Haley has what I think is a good strategy. Once caveat, you'll need your engineer to play with the mic positions to prevent the signal from being out of phase. But the larger diaphragm will capture more of the low-frequencies and between the two mics, you can mix.

But alas, this is based on reading other's experiences, not from personal experience! Modeling amps these days are quite impressive based on what I've heard. Perhaps you have an HD500 laying around somewhere?

Best O' luck to ya!

A second mic on another channel placed farther out to pick up the bass response.

Here is a quick A-B comparison between the e609 and the SM57. Very subtile differences as both are excellent instrument mics.

http://www.gearwire.com/sennheiser-e609.html

Here is a quick A-B comparison between the e609 and the SM57. Very subtile differences as both are excellent instrument mics.

http://www.gearwire.com/sennheiser-e609.html

Thanks CajunDaddy... Yep It was neck & Neck between these two mics, Though I thought the 609 was a smidgen beefier and discerning... (Cool design BTw).


I Dont actually know what mic we were using. But the weird thing is that I have 2 diff recordings of that track, and one track sounded like it was right where it should be..The 2nd track was all whack... I spoke to George about it ...he's looking into see what changed.