Need Recording Help (again)... Ola?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DvE
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DvE

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Hi guys,

I am having a really hard time to capture the sound I want to have for our cd.
Here are some details:

Gear:
I play an Ibanez J Custom with Bareknuckle Aftermaths into my Diezel Herbert.
The signal is boosted via a maxon od808, Cab is a 4x12 Diezel FL with V30 and G12K100.
For recording I use a Shure SM57 (i.e. I will record only one speaker).

Sound:
The sound I am after is a typical metalcore-sound, like for example,
As I Lay Dying -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOeJgwuhq9I
All that Remains -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlQ0m6jt ... re=related etc.,
that means I need chunk, saturation, aggression and good definition on fast downstroke-riffs.

Problem:
I dialed in a bunch of sounds that all sounded great in the room, but like shit on recording.
It seems to be really hard (at least for me) to capture this bone-crushing sound with a mic.

All help will be appreciated. Some questions came to my mind:
- How far is the distance between speaker and mic when you record?
- How do you set the volume levels? I can record pretty loud, but it seems that louder does not make the sound better on recording...
- any particular tipps for that kind of metal sounds? (Ola, can you remember where you put your gain, master and other eq's when you did your recordings with einstein or vh4? I know they are different animals than the herbert, but all your recordings sound really great :thumbsup: )

Please dont give me advice like "Put everything at noon and tweak from there." I have done this for hours now and simply do not get any satisfying results...

Thanks for reading through all of this ;)
 
Alrighty, the key (unfortunately, it seems) is you don't try to record the sound you have when playing in a room. You mic the sweetspot of your speaker and eq the amp to taste using the recording as your basis for tone, not what's coming out of the speakers.

Great tutorial video here


Lots of great tips and tricks here too
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap-151/

Good luck!

p.s - why are you boosting btw?
 
Thank you =)

philbag":1ez6s12g said:
p.s - why are you boosting btw?
Click to expand...

Because otherwise I have to set the gain higher to get a sound I like.
It brings more punch and aggression and cuts some bass what is not a problem with herbert (imo).
 
Yeah, my suggestion would be a long speaker cable, and get the cab off to another room. I've made such runs in the studio, I always have the head on the control room and cab on the live room. I like using 2 mics - 2 SM57-s will be fine. Jam one right to the center of the dustcap and another one somewhere midway from the dustcap from the edge. Usually the one on the edge is a bit further off - the between mics phase seems to be better that way. Blend between the mics to cut off the fizz the center mic seems to be getting.

Anyhow. Now that you have your head in the control room (or something that acts as a control room) with you, you can start dialling. When you have dialled something that you like off the monitors, start fiddling with the master volume. This can have drastic effects on the tone, when you get to the sweetspots, every millimeter will change the overall characteristic of the guitar sound. It will be a bit of a trial and error but you will get there. Once you have hit the sweetspot the tone controls will also start to behave slightly differently so some adjustments might be in order. Happy tweakings!
 
Hey holm,

really appreciate your help! Thanks for these bunch of tipps, I will try them out :thumbsup:
 
try wearing a pair of in-ear headphones with builder's ear muffs over the top. you can sweep and tweak away in front of the cab while someone plays and only hear your mix!

edit* I've never achieved the best results by having a mic pointed directly at the centre of a speaker. never place microphones with your eyes - always use your ears.
 
DvE":dnmhwt8u said:
After placing the mic at a better position...
Click to expand...

This method is very helpfull to find the sweetspot.

IMO it really helps to find the sweet spot for one mic. I tried this method with two mics to avoid phase issues. I was blown away on hearing the phasing differences on moving the mics.

Regards don_huberto
 
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