Scratchy Guitars Problem

[deadraven]

Right, I'm recording my own band (metal) we've already recorded 2 songs which sound fine but this last one I'm already chewing my nails at.

There's alot of triplet rythmic picking action on this song and the scratchiness sounds pretty bad.
I'm only doing these recordings via Pod Farm, I'm also recording the dry version for every section too so I can change the tone if needbe.

The guitars are good models, the strings are newish but worn in, the other two songs sound great and have no problems, so I need someone who has experience with this to give me some pointers as to what I could do for when I get home to begin mixing this bugger.

The soundwave even on the dry tracks is spiking a bit, not as much, and I checked and all the gain levels were fine.

Would it be something to do more with changing the tone? or compression?
Or something els completely ?!

[String7th]

I know what you're talking about. I recorded a metal band that had that tripplet picking with piercing pick noise. After trying a bunch of stuff we found it to just be the guitar. It was just not hot enough. They had Jacksons with EMG's and BC Rich's, but it was my Dean Z series.

The output was so hot it naturally cliped at the amp's input stage and took out the piercing parts. You can't do this with DI recording, because being too hot adds digital clips (awful ass-sound), but you can emulate it by adding one of thier compressor emulators before the amp stage, hard knee with a big boost.

Give that a try, see if it takes away the klik-klik-klik sound.

[brandondrury]

This scratchy guitar thing CAN sometimes be mostly saved via EQ, but it's a result of recording too bright. Some people just set their amps this way, but are seldom pleased with the results afterwards.

A low shelf boost at 1k can go a long way in helping and if you can find the offending frequencies, you may be able to cut them. However, this is always a struggle and often retracking (or reamping) is the best solution.

Brandon