Setting guitar tone for tracking

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griff
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Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by griff »

Hey guys. Soon I'm gonna have a go at recording some stuff. Will be using an Atomic Amplifire DI'd into my PC. I have some nice Plexi-ish tones set up now but I'm wondering if there's certain frequencies that need to generally be accentuated/reduced in the dry track that makes mix down a lot easier?
At the moment it will just be instrumental stuff, occasionally double tracked if I'm good enough haha with bass and ezdrummer.
Or is it simply get the tone you want and EQ at mix down?
The Amplifire has quite a good onboard eq, with 1 pre eq, 3 parametric eq's that can go pre or post and a graphic eq.
I'm only planning on using reverb really for mixing too. Trying to keep it pretty simple if I can.
Appreciate your help.

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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by jeremyb »

I'd get a tone you like on the amplifire then use an EQ in your DAW to get it to fit in the mix better :)
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by sopachrga »

Not really. Only thing I would suggest it using slightly less distortion than normal.
Once you multi track, the distortion can start making it hard to keep clarity on the guitars.
Ummm....

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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by griff »

Yeah makes sense I guess. Any idea what Reverb plugins to start with guys?

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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by jeremyb »

And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right :)
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by griff »

jeremyb wrote:And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right :)
Yeah man. Gotta challenge yaself I say haha

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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by Delayman »

do you have the ability with your gear to get a clean/dry out recorded at the same time? That way if you're unhappy with your overall sound, you can either blend in some of the clean mix or use plug ins with it for a totally different sound.
They keep telling me tone is in the fingers, but I have yet to see a "look at my fingers" thread.
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by griff »

Delayman wrote:do you have the ability with your gear to get a clean/dry out recorded at the same time? That way if you're unhappy with your overall sound, you can either blend in some of the clean mix or use plug ins with it for a totally different sound.
I'll have to look into that.

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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by willow13 »

jeremyb wrote:And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right :)
If time and money is tight then artificial double tracking is fine..you just have to get the "nudging" right so it doesn't get into sounding like chorus on everything. I do it all the time with guitars. Record a left guitar and a right guitar and then ADT each, just saves so much time.

I use to do the Zakk Wylde thing and record 4 tracks of guitars and yes it does sound great but it does take a bit of time to get it perfect and at this point in life I can't be bothered anymore
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by griff »

willow13 wrote:
jeremyb wrote:And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right :)
If time and money is tight then artificial double tracking is fine..you just have to get the "nudging" right so it doesn't get into sounding like chorus on everything. I do it all the time with guitars. Record a left guitar and a right guitar and then ADT each, just saves so much time.

I use to do the Zakk Wylde thing and record 4 tracks of guitars and yes it does sound great but it does take a bit of time to get it perfect and at this point in life I can't be bothered anymore
That's actually a great idea. And will likely do this if the original way doesn't work. Thanks!

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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by willow13 »

griff7628 wrote:
That's actually a great idea. And will likely do this if the original way doesn't work. Thanks!
I can't give you numbers but the "nudging" (or moving of the track) is tiny so you need to zoom in the guitar track and move it left or right by micro seconds. Experiment by moving it like 0.5secs and you'll hear how wrong it sounds but doing it in tiny amounts actually sounds great IMO
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Re: Setting guitar tone for tracking

Post by Sustainz »

griff7628 wrote:
willow13 wrote:
jeremyb wrote:And by multitracking I assume you're recording multiple takes of the same thing? just using copy and paste doesn't sound right :)
If time and money is tight then artificial double tracking is fine..you just have to get the "nudging" right so it doesn't get into sounding like chorus on everything. I do it all the time with guitars. Record a left guitar and a right guitar and then ADT each, just saves so much time.

I use to do the Zakk Wylde thing and record 4 tracks of guitars and yes it does sound great but it does take a bit of time to get it perfect and at this point in life I can't be bothered anymore
That's actually a great idea. And will likely do this if the original way doesn't work. Thanks!
Keep in mind, too, that multi-tracking allows the ability to record the same track with different tones and then blending them into something unique. While duplicating the same track with off-center time shifting can give the effect of a bigger sound, it can't do that.

For a simple example, I recorded this solo twice, one with the neck pickup, the other with the bridge pickup. Then I blended and panned them in the mix-down with no EQ and only some delay added.


Now, I could have recorded with the switch in the middle using both pickups and then duplicated the track, but it probably would not have sounded the same and probably would have been more time intensive trying to get the blend right at the guitar rather than at the board.
Play what you love. Practice what you must ~ Larry Carlton

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