Guitar Tone SUCKS!!

[Puncher]

Total begginer here.

When I record a single guitar track it sounds fine, but when I record 2 or more guitar tracks and play them simultaneously they sound like a meat grinder. I tried reducing treble and gain but it didn't help. Any suggestions?

My gear:

Guitar: Jeff Loomis C-7
Multi-Effect: Boss GT 10
Sound Card: Lexicon Alpha

 

[MatrixClaw]

Post clips or no one's going to be able to help

 

[BenSolace]

are you panning? most simple doubletracked rhythm guitars are hard panned left and right.

 

[Larcher]

well, I personally never liked the sound of any boss gt-#. Try looking into line 6! They are pretty good and cheap (ux1/ux2/x3/hd pro500)

 

[Purelojik]

as long as you have a decent interface you can use free amp sims and free cab IRs to make a pretty damn pro sound.


heres something i did using free amp sims and cabs.

Using Nick Crow's 7607 or something or other.

Same thing using a lower output pickup,

 

[GuitaristOfHell]

I can't help you without hearing it mate. I'd be more than glad to help you out man. Your speakers could be an issue or headphones. I switched from Ipod headphones to studio ones. REALLY makes a difference in what you can hear in your mix.

But please post some sounds!

 

[8Fingers]

The fastest and easiest way to fix it is choose a song you like its mix, pick up a part that has only 1 heavy guitar panned left or right OR both guitars left and right alone, generally there are breakdowns or an intro.Record your guitars and compare to them, try to equalize them as close as possible to them.
If you choose a song recorded with tube amps you'll see how modellers are nowhere near to them, gt-10 is better than any pod but you need recording engineering knowledgement to get a good tone, just dialing won't give you it, they all sound like you said, a meat grinder, you'll need ears trainned about equalization and which frequencies to cut or boost.
Just do what I said, that's the fastest way to get something usable

 

[Puncher]

So 7s.org, why my sound sucks so bad? by Ilan Levinzon on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free

There's a short recording.
Thanks for the suggestions so far.

 

[Purelojik]

it sounds like the guitars are centered. take one track and do what the others are saying. pan it left 100%. then do another take and pan it 100% right. make sure they are separate takes do not copy paste. then do the same for any other layers.

tone wise it sounds like a muffled guitar. it aint bad but its not what you want. i say just bypass the unit and use it as an interface then load up LePou's plugins. Try Legion and the LeCab2 and download Gods Cabs 1.4 and Kathallen IR cabs as well as the catharsis cabs. then the hard part is finding a good match. i like kiathallen 19a + catharsis s-pres high/full . you should get some good results.

 

[8Fingers]

it sounds like the guitars are centered.

Yeah and it makes me wonder why somebody would do that
Some people don't have any recording skills but think these units will deliever what they want.Sorry no pain no gain, have to study, practice and carve what you need

 

[Puncher]

Thanks guys. I'll try to implement what you said.

 

[Purelojik]

Yeah and it makes me wonder why somebody would do that
Some people don't have any recording skills but think these units will deliever what they want.Sorry no pain no gain, have to study, practice and carve what you need

well thats how i started as well. the idea of panning never struck me at all. its not uncommon for people starting out to do this and expect to get good results. I had help from some friends who showed me that recording two takes and panning them like we do is also how the pros do it. from then on everything changed.

 

[jephjacques]

Hell, why stop at two takes? I do five tracks for rhythm parts- two takes left and right, with another take centered, using a darker, bassier tone. It sounds huuuge.

 

[m3l-mrq3z]

Hell, why stop at two takes? I do five tracks for rhythm parts- two takes left and right, with another take centered, using a darker, bassier tone. It sounds huuuge.

Do you have problems sounding "tight" with so many guitar tracks going on? I mean, when you play fast riffs?

 

[jephjacques]

Do you have problems sounding "tight" with so many guitar tracks going on? I mean, when you play fast riffs?

That's probably best judged by someone else's ears, but generally no. It just takes a bunch of tries to make sure everything is in step. I'm also not super-obsessive about this, I like a little looseness in my guitar playing.