Fractal Axe-Fx II sounds like trash when recording harmony parts - why?

[harmonicmean]

Hi, I'm new to recording direct with the Axe-Fx II Ultra and I'm getting terrible sounds for harmony-doubled guitars. They sound like a muddled harmonizer pedal. Here is a sample of two guitars panned 90/10 playing harmony parts:

https://soundcloud.com/harmonicmean/test-clip/s-vxbzb

I'm running my guitar straight into the Axe-FX II Ultra, which goes directly to a macbook pro via USB. My DAW is Reaper (I've also tried Cubase, but same problem). I've played around with my levels on the Axe-FX - no help.

I realize my tone and playing are not going to win any awards, but I've recorded parts like this in a studio (and at home) using a cab and mic and they didn't sound anything like this at all. What am I missing here?

Thanks.

 

[nikolazjalic]

honestly sounds fine to me man, maybe hard panning will help with whatever problem you're having?

 

[Spacestationfive]

Okay, so here's an old trick that I used to do when producing my metalcore band which often had riffs with harmonies.

Double track everything, and whenever your guitars are playing two different notes or parts, quad track those parts specifically, keep them panned the same as your original doubled tracks and then slowly fade those additional quad tracks in to the mix until it starts to feel right.

This may work better some times than others, depending on your tone.

Another thing that may work is to send the guitars to a track with convolution reverb on it simulating a medium sized room (with a relatively short decay). Bringing a little mastering style reverb for your guitars may make them sound and feel more organic (ala practice room).

Disclaimer: I hope that my suggestions don't mislead you or waste your time! I do actually believe in this stuff

 

[Fretless]

Okay, so here's an old trick that I used to do when producing my metalcore band which often had riffs with harmonies.

Double track everything, and whenever your guitars are playing two different notes or parts, quad track those parts specifically, keep them panned the same as your original doubled tracks and then slowly fade those additional quad tracks in to the mix until it starts to feel right.

This may work better some times than others, depending on your tone.

Another thing that may work is to send the guitars to a track with convolution reverb on it simulating a medium sized room (with a relatively short decay). Bringing a little mastering style reverb for your guitars may make them sound and feel more organic (ala practice room).

Disclaimer: I hope that my suggestions don't mislead you or waste your time! I do actually believe in this stuff

I do similar stuff myself. I always advise when doing harmonies to try doing extreme EQ cuts too. If you have a lot going on, don't feel afraid to cut out everything you're not using in your guitar track that doesn't fit well. Chances are you can create a seat for it easily enough.

 

[Narrillnezzurh]

I don't hear anything out of the ordinary. That crunchy harmonizer effect is just your tone.

 

[TauSigmaNova]

I'll be the first to admit I don't have the best ears for this but it sounds fine to me.

 

[pedalcollector371]

Sounds fine man. I haven't sampled it in recordings, but 2 different tones (like 2 different distortions/amps) sounds really good to me and my guitarist

 

[KingAenarion]

The problem you're hearing is just a muddy guitar tone.

Back off on the gain, pick a bit harder if you can. I mean I'm not sure what amp, cab and pedal chain you're inside the Axe so more information on that would help.

Clean them up with EQ. Work out what the fundamental frequency of the lowest note on your guitar is (there are tools to do this online) and cut approximately everything below that. Cut everything above 15kHz and then sweep down to find a good place to cut from (I've gone down as far as 8Khz at times, but usually 10-12kHz works well).

You've got a bit of low mid muddiness as well, so use EQ to take out some of that and you might start to clean it up.