Guitar tracks post equalization

[ytse_jam]

well... whenever I try to record some guitar tracks I always find myself spending a lot of time with post-equalization and it seems to me I almost always exaggerate with it, and the original thick and warm tone loses part of its nature, but I can't do anything beacuse I absolutely have to take away some boomy bass frequencies and some piercing high frequencies. Since I'm almost a noob at recording, I wanted to know... do you set your amp so that the recoded track is already almost definitive even if the tone you hear in the room isn't the best for you (in example lowering bass) or do you set your amp after a tone you like and then apply some systematic post-eq?

For example, if you want to listen, I recorded and panned two rhythm guitar tracks and added NO post-eq:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=642176&songID=6332427

How would you cut the boomy bass (specially when it comes to palm muted notes) while retaining a full guitar tone? Is it preferable for me to lower the bass on the amp? Am I assuming guitar tone should be too thick when, instead, in a complete mix the bass guitar would help a lot? thanks!

 

[Strategy500]

Of course this is always going to be subjective (I hate that word) but, assuming you're talking about recording distorted guitar sounds. You could adjust the eq of your preamp to compensate, but I don't really like doing that, because then now you're dealing with a tone/sound that you're probably not liking as much. Mic choice and mic position is probably going to give you the biggest result variation. It's a trial and error thing. But what a rule of thumb that I always keep in mind, if you know you have good mics, pre's, and an overall good signal chain, and you still can't get a good recorded guitar tone, listen to your room acoustics, lack of sound dampening will exaggerate the boomyness in the recorded track.
One thing to keep in mind too, when you start mixing multiple tracks, generally you will want to roll off the lows and even some of the extreme hi's in order for the guitar to sit happy in the mix. Every song is going to require a different eq depending on the surounding instruments, so really, there is no one eq setting that works for everything. Realistically speaking, if you listen to a single guitar track that does fit nicely in a mix, it will usually sound thin all by itself.

Here is some good info on EQ
http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

 

[ytse_jam]

thanks for the explanation and the great link, Strategy! For "systematic post-eq" I meant also methods to take the noise away, like cutting everything below 60 Hz and above 15 KHz, something like that... is this a standard process or does working with high end mics & preamps sometimes let you keep the untouched original recording without ANY equalization?

 

[Strategy500]

Better quality preamps will definitely make a difference. The problem with lesser quality pre's. they introduce noise when the gain is cranked up. When using dynamic mic's, they naturally require more gain to get nice results, but more gain usually means more hiss, because the noise floor level is much higher. It won't be real noticable on a single track, but when you start stacking tracks, the accumilation of hiss and background noise starts to add up and become very noticable.

 

[Anonymous]

know what you mean, maybe a simple comparison can help.

use your mic like you use your ear and you should not need any pre-eq.

i only start gaining the mic when i am sure about the guitar sound coming out of the speaker. therefore i have my ears quite close to the speaker.

otherwise at high spl for instance i am standing in front of the cab and the sound is blowing below my belt height and it sounds nice. then i place the mic far off the speaker to catch that sound.

of course it depends highly on the mic you are using. a lot of people will tell you a lot. best is to try them. i go for condenser now, others go for sm57

good luck

 

[sistine35]

MIDS BABY!!!!! CUT ALMOST EVERYTHING BELOW 100 LEAVE ROOM FOR THE BASS TO BREATH. YOULL FIND THAT 600 800 AND 1K AREA TO BE THE COLOUR OF YOUR TONE. FIZZY NASTYNESS THAT IS WORTH NOTHING WILL BE AROUND 9K AND ABOVE. DEPENDING ON WHAT KINDA AMP/BOX/MODELER YOU ARE USING.

 

[Dead Moon Rising]

Of course this is always going to be subjective (I hate that word) but, assuming you're talking about recording distorted guitar sounds. You could adjust the eq of your preamp to compensate, but I don't really like doing that, because then now you're dealing with a tone/sound that you're probably not liking as much. Mic choice and mic position is probably going to give you the biggest result variation. It's a trial and error thing. But what a rule of thumb that I always keep in mind, if you know you have good mics, pre's, and an overall good signal chain, and you still can't get a good recorded guitar tone, listen to your room acoustics, lack of sound dampening will exaggerate the boomyness in the recorded track.
One thing to keep in mind too, when you start mixing multiple tracks, generally you will want to roll off the lows and even some of the extreme hi's in order for the guitar to sit happy in the mix. Every song is going to require a different eq depending on the surounding instruments, so really, there is no one eq setting that works for everything. Realistically speaking, if you listen to a single guitar track that does fit nicely in a mix, it will usually sound thin all by itself.

Here is some good info on EQ
http://www.recordingwebsite.com/articles/eqprimer.php

+1

i listened to your clip, not bad, but i'd follow Strategy500's advice. a good place to start with is an sm57 centered on the edge of the speaker cone's dustcap. from there just experiment with moving it futher in or out.

 

[Chris McKinley]

I gotta go with sistine35. The overall track was stereotypical Recto. Too much 200Hz lows, anemic mids, and has that downtuned sound even when it isn't downtuned. Unmodified Rectos have very little character when recorded dry and unaffected.

You didn't do anything particularly wrong, per se. You just didn't do the little tweaks that have become de rigeur with recording Rectos. Namely, you didn't put a clean boost in front of the preamp, and you didn't EQ it to take out the 200Hz mud, put back a little of the mids, and get rid of the glassy overabundance of presence on Channel 3.

Do those things, combined with possibly the mic placement advice, and you should be fine.

 

[mr_fender]

Like stated above, a bit too much around 200 Hz. I had the same problem with my Rectoverb. Recto's can be really boomy sounding when recording. Needs more Mids for character too.

That said, don't EQ the track too much on its own. EQ it for the mix. A tone you might really like on solo guitar may get lost in a band mix or stand out too much and walk all over the vocals, other guitars, bass, etc.. A lot of it depends on how the other guys are sounding and how you want everthing to fit together. It's a ballancing act for sure.