Help a beginner out - my sound is not clear enough

[RiksRiks]

So I have recently bought the Neural DSP Archetype Plini, I'm running it through a 3rd gen Scarlett 2i2. I'm pretty new to anything that has to do with recording and even amp sims, so I've been slowly buying the necessary gear to setup a proper bedroom studio. It's worth mentioning that I'm hearing everything through some Bose Quiet Comfort 25 with the cable adapter plugged into my interface.

So when I play the Plini as a standalone or plug in (into Garageband since I haven't downloaded another DAW yet) the sound I get is... not full? Is hard to put it into words but it sounds not so clearly defined, I cannot hear it through all of my headset, contrary to, say, the Melotron instrument simulator included in Garageband which sounds as a very HQ form of any song you hear on the internet or whatever. It sounds throughout all the headphones with all the bass, mids, and highs well defined. I guess it sounds more as if an amp was shrunk to a miniature size, and especially when playing to some drumming track in GB, the difference in the clarity of both instruments is very obvious.

I already tried tweaking the Plini and while for the cleans sometimes it sounds better (the acoustic preset sounds really good I would say) Generally anything involving distortion sounds very poorly. Not as in distortion is too much but as in clarity is not enough. I've mainly messed with the knobs in the amp sim, not the EQ bands but any recommendations are welcome. I haven't messed with the buffer size since I don't have a clear idea of what to do and what to expect.

I've tried with several of my guitars with several types of pickups and I always get kind of the same result. I think I may not be using the plug-in properly?

Am I expecting too much from my setup? I'm using a Roland guitar cable just for the sake of practicality because it's too small, it's almost brand new as I used it very few times in the past.

Excuse me for my raw inexperience, I really hope you can help me out. I've also been considering buying some studio monitors and see if this changes anything.

 

[nickgray]

Examples would be nice. If your interface has the option for changing input level, did you set it to instrument level? Also, how hot are you running? You should dial the gain so that it peaks (when you're smashing the strings real hard) at about -12dbfs.

 

[RiksRiks]

Examples would be nice. If your interface has the option for changing input level, did you set it to instrument level? Also, how hot are you running? You should dial the gain so that it peaks (when you're smashing the strings real hard) at about -12dbfs.

Thanks for the really quick reply, I did set my interface into instrument level. How can I know how hot I am running? In my interface I dialed the knob to the point right before clipping (if I smash the strings it blinks orange and then returns to green) and regarding the amp sim gain, I'm dialing at just 12 o'clock.

Let me try to record some examples today, I'll just record them on garageband and export them.

 

[rahnvu]

Try using an IR instead of the cabs. While you're in there check that the phase (Ø) isn't flipped/inverted/on on one of the mics.
There are loads of free IRs out there and I'd send one if I wasn't on my phone, but tracking down a few shouldn't take long.

 

[RiksRiks]

Try using an IR instead of the cabs. While you're in there check that the phase (Ø) isn't flipped/inverted/on on one of the mics.
There are loads of free IRs out there and I'd send one if I wasn't on my phone, but tracking down a few shouldn't take long.

Thanks! I'll also try that, so the mics both should be in the same phase? right now both have the switch turned to the left.

 

[RiksRiks]

Examples would be nice. If your interface has the option for changing input level, did you set it to instrument level? Also, how hot are you running? You should dial the gain so that it peaks (when you're smashing the strings real hard) at about -12dbfs.

Hey, I got a short demo
https://soundcloud.com/ricardo-ortega-663681700/plini-demo

As you can hear, the first part sound is very fuzzy, not rich as in not heard in the whole headphone, just like the center, the acoustic one is fuller and has more clarity, is it the settings on the amp sim?

Also, excuse my bad playing.

 

[nickgray]

As you can hear, the first part sound is very fuzzy, not rich as in not heard in the whole headphone, just like the center

Not really sure what you mean, it sounds normal to me, I hear one guitar track, and it will be in the center as a result. Do you know about double tracking? Electric guitar is fundamentally a monophonic instrument, to get around that you have to track the guitars twice and pan each track hard left and right. Alternatively, you can tinker with reverb, chorus, delay, or some other effect to create some artificial stereo image, but it only works in some situations, mostly on cleans.

Also, headphones don't have crosstalk like speakers do (meaning the left ear hears only the left channel when you're in headphones, same for the right channel). This really changes your perception of mono and stereo - mono sounds very two dimensional, while stereo doesn't quite have the same level of phantom center effect that you get with properly positioned speakers, and the stereo image in general feels rather narrow.

How can I know how hot I am running? In my interface I dialed the knob to the point right before clipping

Look at the input meter in your DAW. Dialing as hot as you can is wrong, it's the logic you'd use with analogue recording. With digital, the norm is to have the signal peaking at around -12dbfs (though in general I've seen recommendations ranging from -10dbfs to -18dbfs). I'm not an audio engineer, I don't have a good explanation, but just look it up, there are plenty of write ups on gain staging.

 

[rahnvu]

It sounds normal to me too, maybe just try different microphones and place them at 0 distance and 0 center (adjust center to taste).