my first ever recorded clip - road king head + 4x12

[Aramism]

http://www.myspace.com/lovehammerband



this is not even the name of band, i dont have one i just thought its a funny name and i had to get the mp3 to you guys somehow. just click on the song.


im so excited. ive been at my studio for like 8 months now and finally a couple months ago got a computer in there and i just completed setting everything up. i got sonar 6 a presonus firepod i always had the mics



i used to use shitty lexigon omega and cubase le in my bedroom with my rectoverb combo but io never got anything but a fart cuz now i realized you gotta crank amps to get a heavy rhythym sound.

please guys critisize the tone and recording quaslity as much as tyou can. this isnt realyl a song just me playing something random on the spot. its 3 tracks.


this is how it works


mesa boogie road king series 1. no loops all bypassed. so master volume and solo are inactive each channel has independent volume. i dont remember the exact settings since im home but it was def channel 4 modern mode. gain was like at 1:00. treble a little under 1:00 bass around 2:00 mid around 9:00 presence was fairly low just enough to give it some bite. master volume was pretty loud at like 9:00. it wasnt hurting my ears but it was loud enough where i could use earplugs. i had 2 pairs of mesa standard 6L6's active with the silicone diodes. so i had 100 watts mono.


track 1 is...

me playing an ibanez rg 1527 (7 string tuned standard) with in neck position with dimarzio blaze and ernie ball 7 string slinkys. - > sennhesier e609 draped over the top right up against the grille left speaker of a 4x12 mesa cab v30 celestion. slighty off the middle between the cone center and the rim. -> presonus firepod -> sonar 6 producer no eq no compression nothing. panned 98% right.

track 2 is...

same thing same exact guitar settings recorded on the first take hence the sloppiness me playing an improvised meshuggah-ish rhythym but panned 100% left.

track 3 is...

i figured id add some ominous notes so without moving to change the channel on amp i just lowered volume on gutiar and chose the split coil (air norton + blaze) to give a somewhat clean tone while still on the channel 4 which is the distortion channel. i added flange and delay in sonar.



there was no mixdown nothing. the volume levels were basically as high as possible without clipping or hitting the red on the meter. i also made sure that i had the mic input on the firepod as high as possible without the overload red light going on.



considering i had no eqing, no pracice and the whole thing took me like 6 minutes to record and burnon a cd its not the best but its my first time "publishing something" after experimenting. please note this isnt really a song just something that popped in my head that i started playing. the L and R channels are 2 different perofrmances of the same thing and its something i made up on spot so the rhythym is not 100% accurate.


please as much constructive critisism as you can throw at me. i want to get a very life like tone out of recording a very bold in your face sound.

my favorite production is like andy sneap (nevermore, arch enemy, killswitch engage) and machine (lamb of god)


i also like meshuggah recorded tone on "none" not necessarily the guitar tone but the way it is recorded and in your face.

 

[postmanpat]

sounds good mate, nice crushing metal tone, just watch the double tracking it sounds almost out of sink, also with doubling riffs like that get them a bit closer togther or harmonized otherwise they tend to sound like they fighting each other,

otherwise good work!

keep up the clips, let's hear some phat leads (that's right ph-fat)

 

[Aramism]

well like i said i improvised a riff on the spot and did my best to have the double tracked riffs be in sync but its hard after 2 tries and an improvised rhythym...

thanks for the input

 

[ibanez4life SZ!]

The beauty of digital recording....you could have taken your original clip, copied it into another track, then panned one hard left and the other hard right.....

Why play it twice when you can use the same clip twice

 

[Aramism]

you know i used to do that, but a friend of mine who is a house music producer and teacher a course in engineering a local community college (i dont know why i listened to him, not much qualification) told me that its the same thing as recording 1 stereo track and it makes it sound bigger by recording twice.


or even dry recording to mixing board and recording twice like that to have exact same performance.


suggestions maybe im wrong in what im do?

 

[Anonymous]

Post removed.

 

[Aramism]

first of all how do i do that delay trick with one side. i use sonar. just got it so still learning it.


second of all isnt the beauty of 2 eprofrmances the slight differences it makes a bigger sound due to your ear having to pick it up. especially with headphone???


i may be wrong, but aside from the van halen example i think a lot of heavy bands that get tight rhythym sounds like lamb of god, nevermore, meshuggah, etc. etc. especially the bands with 2 guitarists do what i did with the 2 performances...


so am i right in saying that duplicating one track and panning it the other side is the same thing as listening to the track centered???

 

[blinkie]

I like the tone, but it could use some treatment.

Never do the same recording hard panned. Always record twice, its where the stereo comes in. I tried both ways and believe me it does sound better recording 2 different times the same riff.


To do the trick on sonar click on the right button look for it there, it's the option clip properties on sonar 6, then you change the start field a bit and there you go.


Bye.

 

[Aramism]

ah so essentially it starts like x.xx ms later than the other...



and what did you mean by treatment? what do you recomend?


id like it to be a bit less muddy maybe a little more razor like...


the way it soundswith me ear by the cab and in the room i love it. its a tad less razor sharp on the recording

 

[blinkie]

I usually play with some plugins like:

- antares microhone moduler
- equalization ( usually cranking up the treble or mids if necessary)
- sometimes I try compressors but only once in a while.
there is a sound warmer in cakewalk that is fx2 tape sim but I really dont know why it doesnt work on sonar 6.

hope it helps.

 

[Aramism]

i never could fully use a compressor the right way...

what is antaras


and there is tape sim in sonar i just never used it. ill try it out.

sonar 6 has this thing called vintage channel. its great to apply to an overall mix it makes it sound much warmer. sometimes i send the 2 guitar tracks to a stereo bus and onlyapply the vintage channel to that bus to give it warmer tone. even with heavy recordings the warmth makes it seem like i have a 10000 mic pre amp wheras i dont. i use a firepod btw. best thing next to a mackie onyx IMO with multiple inputs.

 

[Aramism]

i never could fully use a compressor the right way...

what is antaras


and there is tape sim in sonar i just never used it. ill try it out.

sonar 6 has this thing called vintage channel. its great to apply to an overall mix it makes it sound much warmer. sometimes i send the 2 guitar tracks to a stereo bus and onlyapply the vintage channel to that bus to give it warmer tone. even with heavy recordings the warmth makes it seem like i have a 10000 mic pre amp wheras i dont. i use a firepod btw. best thing next to a mackie onyx IMO with multiple inputs.

 

[broknstuff]

link doesn't work?

 

[blinkie]

antares is the name of the software company, like cakewalk in sonar, or like sony in sound forge. Microphone moduler is the name of the plugin.


It emulates michophones like if ya record with a sm58, you can pass trough it and simulate the sound like ya had recorded with a sm57 for example. And it also has a warmer, very helpful.

<try it out.
bye.

 

[Aramism]

hmm thanks