Cheap Recording

[opiumgardens]

Hey guys, I am only 16 and I record all my own music in my bedroom, all I use is a $35 mic and a not so good computer, well its ok, but compared to what things you need for studio recording...its behind a bit
but anyway my question is, I want loud pumping guitar, the quality of the sound I record is alright for me, but the louder I have the recording volume or amp, I get this constant buzzing, I'm not experienced in this area, only doing it as a fun hobby, but what is it, and better off, how can I get rid of it? thanx guys

[brandondrury]

The buzzing is always there. When you make your amp 20x louder, you also make the buzz 20x louder. It's just a lot more obvious now.

There are reasons why the amp could get noisier that louder you crank it, but it sounds like you are just experiencing the usual buzz.

The solution: Don't care! As long as you can't hear the noise in the tracks when the guitar is playing, it doesn't matter. You'll cut out all the spots where the guitar isn't playing anyway.

Brandon

[Gitarted]

I usually double all of my tracks (actually play them twice, as close to the same as possible)

and, believe it or not...use a less saturated tone to begin with.

too much overdrive has the opposite effect. The guitars start to sound thin and buzzy like a bunch of pissed off hornets instead of the wall of guitar you're looking for.

D

[opiumgardens]

haha yer pissed off hornets I like that, and yer I usually go in with an eraser tool and chop in between all the guitar parts. But Im just starting to use all these compressor tools, was wondering if there was one that eliminated constant small noises.
And recording two guitars over the top gives a nice texture, specialy with one having different or less tone,
thanx guy

[siski]

Use a Noise Gate, It'll allow you to cut out the nasty hornets.

[opiumgardens]

Dam those hornets, Ill have a go

[TAlderson]

Gitarded has a good point, though. Too much overdrive can really kill the guitar and make everything just one big fuzzy mess. If you try to turn the overdrive down a little, you might be able to get a thicker guitar sound, with less "hornets" and less random noise.

-Tyler

[brandondrury]

Im just starting to use all these compressor tools, was wondering if there was one that eliminated constant small noises.

I have used gates for this. Of course, a gate is not going to beat you simply taking a few minutes to cut out the quiet parts. A gate is always going to have attack and release and that means i fyou set it aggressively, you'll hear it working. This is seldom desirable on electric guitars.

If you try to turn the overdrive down a little, you might be able to get a thicker guitar sound,

Definitely a possibility. Then again, the opposite is true.

When I first started recording, I read too much into this. I'd take the gain down to the point where metal guitar players would complain. It backfired on me. I'd have the gain down so low that metal guys couldn't hit their pinch harmonics the way they should.

I've found that, now that I've got a decent clue as to what I'm doing, I can get away with quite a bit of gain. It just depends on how you do it. Fizzy junk like you hear in multi-effects boxes or pedals like the Boss Metal Zone are completely useless and have nothing in common with the tone on you favorite rock / metal albums. However, if you get the tone right, you can get away with some fun amount of gain. Of course, there is a too much. It's very tough to guess where you are in the spectrum.

Just don't let the tone get too fizzy and you'll be alright.

Brandon

[Gitarted]

I'm a total overdrive junkie.

and it's been a rude awakining for me tracking with the tone I love ( I have a Soldano SLO100, Marshall MkII super lead) I get a killer heavy guitar sound...only to later bite me in the ass farther downstream when mixing because of all the saturation I tracked with.

If you solo up any of these tracks, they sound great. but when you combine them you end up with the guitars sounding like ass, and at that point I can't really do much to make them pop out of the mix. and I really wish I would have ran a DI so I can put a point on the parts that need to pop out of that "ocean of distortion" I had earlier thought sounded killer.

I usually double track all of my parts, even the solo's...when ever possible.
and if everything is sounding big when soloed, it turns to crap when you combine them, unless I make sure to get a different tone ( use a different guitar, amp, pickup...whatever) as to define some kind of contrast in sound.

This has been the part of mixing that irks me to no end.
and as much as I thought using the tone that I live for when tracking has to be the best approach, I was most definately wrong.

..."I hate being wrong"

If my music was simple (one main guitar part throughout a tune) it would be different, but since I'm into layering and interweaving my parts, the saturated tone ended up NOT being my friend.

I'n not talking about using a twangy, or bleaky sound, just not quite as saturated as I usually like to hear...because once it's there, you can't take it away. ( you can always re-amp a track later if it doesn't have enough sizzle.

I would end up having to use drastic EQ when mixing just to define all the details I made a point of when tracking.

This is just my 2 cents.

D

[brandondrury]

If you solo up any of these tracks, they sound great. but when you combine them you end up with the guitars sounding like ass,

Interesting. I've never had this happen to me. If a track sounds great on it's own, it usually sounds great in the mix. I guess this depends on how we define "sounds great", however.

The only exception is when tracks start fighting other tracks.

There are times when overly excessive gain is desired. You can hear this on a lot of industrial music. It's totally possible to have a great mix with extreme gain, but it depends on what you are really going for. Extreme gain is little more than fizz / white noise. However, that has it's creative possibilities, but it will not sound like your standard guitar sound.

It's always standard to cut out the low end of the guitars to give some room to the kick drum, bass guitar, or whatever else needs to be down there. It's also possible that an excessive fizzy tone would fight with cymbals, but even when you solo a recorded track of this type of tone, it will still sound horrendous.

I'd say that the average guitar track on a recording is a bit thinner than most people think. I've had mixes where I've put a high pass at 500Hz on the electric guitars. ( http://www.danielsexton.com/ Click on "Songs" and then click on "Deeper". It's not exactly metal by any stretch of the imagination, but it shows that there isn't as much low end in guitars as people realize. Note: this is the only time I've ever pushed the high pass filter up that high on electric guitars)

Of course, I'm a believe in midrange in guitars. Slayer has tons of mids in their guitar sound. Old Metallica records have more midrange than people think....even And Justice For All.

If my music was simple (one main guitar part throughout a tune) it would be different, but since I'm into layering and interweaving my parts, the saturated tone ended up NOT being my friend.

Ah ha! This is the issue.

If your doubled tracks for a simple pop song, would the tone work?

It sounds like the issue here isn't exactly "tone", but something a little bigger. It sounds like you haven't made room in your mix for the "important" stuff. One of the biggest parts of producing is making sure that that the important stuff is heard and the not so important stuff is where it needs to be.

Personally, I think the billions of different layers technique is a bit over rated. Of course, it depends on the music. However, from a purely producing standpoint, it's very tough to get all these unique layers to standout.

Notice I said "producing standpoint" and not from a "mixing standpoint". Expecting the mixer to make parts cut through is about like having the baby delivery doctor also take part in the baby creation process. Of course, this isn't as disturbing if you are the producer and the mixer, but I think it illustrates my point....make sure you unique parts stand out immediately after tracking (if you need them to stand out).

With that said, it's sometimes cool to layer 15 tracks of the exact same riff. Of course, I look at these as one big stereo track.

Brandon