Hey...

The wife and I are a two piece band...we're recording right now and having a tough time getting the sound that we want.

The drums are less problematic than the guitars, and the vocals are posing no problem at all.

But getting a good guitar tone that fills the spectrum in lieu of not having a bassist is REALLY tough.

I've listened to Mr. Airplaine Man, The Black Keys, The White Stripes and have shamlessly brought their work into the studio to use as a sonic reference as I try to capture that FULL 2-piece sound....but I've failed.

The guitars are either too crunchy and have too much high-end pierce..or they sound muddled and unclear.

I'm really not a tech guy...but, I have an intution that it has more to do with the way in which they're being recorded than the playing or the amp...because in the live room the guitars sound GREAT...very full sound spectrum...

but as soon as we throw a SM57 or even a Sennheisser MD409 on them and record them to pro tools they lose their love...

I have a hard time believing that the answer is simply to record to tape...while I'm sure that would help me, there have got to be some other secrets...micing? room? volume level while recording? mic choices? eqing? imaging? panning? Perhaps the answer is recording 2 different guitars that compliment one another and panning them hard L and R- one bright, one thick? I don't know

I'm lost...can anyone help me find this all elusive tone...

thanks,


duenow
mail@duenowmusic.com

I'm suprised more people haven't replied yet.

Try multiple mics and a couple amps simultaneously. Put close-ish mics on the amps, each one equal distant to the speakers being used. try a room mic for overall tone as well, and blend the three together.

I recorded a two piece earlier this year. the guitarist had a 1-15 cab and a tweeter array. I put a big on each, then I put a mic back in the room, blended them and panned them in a pleasing manner, and it came out very nice.

Basically, keep trying.

Hey,

This has worked for me a few times whilst fourtracking and may apply. Doubling the guitar parts, but having the overdubbed one with all the strings slightly detuned (not even a half step) has really added some menace to the way things sound. Panning these just off each other makes it thicken up like soup. Hain't never used it for anything that I'd release, but it is fun to try out. Maybe a pitch shifted signal sent to another amp and recorded simultaneously would lock together much more easily as its tough to retrace your steps the second pass through.

Faiz

I have been in a two-piece band since 1997. We have had a lot of different recording experiences in that time with many good engineers in many studios and now we have built our own studio. Here are some things we have learned.

1 - Spend a lot of time getting your amp to sound as full in spectrum as you want it to, right up front. Listen to the amp several feet away, like you are going to sound from stage if someone was at your show. Get the overall amount of distortion and any particular characteristics just like you want them. Err on the side of less distorted, less muddy. Microphones enhance muddiness first. For this reason, be careful that you deal with any excessive noise in the amp. When you are satisfied with this sound, your job now is just to capture this as well as you can.

2 - I am not that big a fan of the SM-57 on guitar, even though it seems ubiquitous for guitar cabs. Try using it in addition to other microphones, or better yet, try the other microphones you have instead. Experiment with some different borrowed mics or try them in advance of purchasing and before committing it to your guitar cabinet. Then put them up, positioned differently from different distances. Try using multiple microphones at the same time, on different tracks if you can spare them. Watch for phasing issues.

3 - The "full sound" that you seem to be seeking has a lot to do with getting the amp to sound more like it does in person. You don't put your ear right up to your speaker in normal conditions, so some ambient microphones in addition to the close microphones will add realism, depth and fullness. Try a stereo pair between 10 and 15 feet from the amp, or maybe an omnidirectional microphone in an odd corner. Experiment with different positions and see what works.

4 - Run a direct signal as well. On it's own it doesn't necessarily offer a very desirable guitar sound, but it adds clarity to the blend if used sparingly.

5 - Don't track with compression, eq or effects if you can help it. You have a lot of tracks to mess with later, but you can't uncompress or un-eq a recorded track.

6 - Use your faders and mix the best sound you can get in advance of adding eq. Each track source or microphone will have its own character and will accentuate different frequencies. If you are going to use eq, try backing off on frequencies that are a problem as oppossed to adding noise artifacts.

Hope this helps.


Diplomaticbob.

....thanks to all of you that took the time to reply...

this sounds GREAT...I can't wait to get back in the studio and try this...

the essence of what I'm doing is just trying to capture that sound I hear in the live room...and I should have guessed that ambient mics would have helped with that being as that my ears are essentially ambient mics...

I can't thank you guys enough...

duenow

EQ the amp...crank the midrange!!