Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

barbarianbrute

barbarianbrute

New member
although i've experimented with eq, mic placement, input level, etc... i seem to get this really deep kind of vibrating sound from low strings. it sounds like crap in playback and ruins my attempts and using to record.

how can i get rid of this low-end buzz without having to scoop out all my bass or record at really low volumes? my boss micro br is supposed to have a good condenser mic and it seems to work fine, but will the sm57 really make that much difference or am i just going about recording the wrong way period?
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

There must be a problem with the recording volume i think!The condenser mic is really sensitive to room ,distance etc.
How are the conditions in the room you record your guitars?
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

barbarianbrute said:
although i've experimented with eq, mic placement, input level, etc... i seem to get this really deep kind of vibrating sound from low strings. it sounds like crap in playback and ruins my attempts and using to record.
Click to expand...

Low vibrating strings..?

That's a problem with playing technique.

No amount of studio "trickery" will ever be able to reduce or solve that.

Microphones are extremly sensitive instruments & can pick up problems & things that escape live performance.

Take some guitar lessons & clean up a bit...

Sorry.
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

Gee Moose. Umm, I assume you mean on guitar? It's pretty common practice to put a high pass or low cut filter on guitar tracks at 120 hz or so. Have you tried that? Also, compress your guitars and see if that helps. Other than that I would check the instrument itself, but because i can't hear what you hear I can't really help just make some suggestions.
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

innerdreamrecords.co said:
Gee Moose. Umm, I assume you mean on guitar? It's pretty common practice to put a high pass or low cut filter on guitar tracks at 120 hz or so. Have you tried that? Also, compress your guitars and see if that helps. Other than that I would check the instrument itself, but because i can't hear what you hear I can't really help just make some suggestions.
Click to expand...


120hz is way higher than I'd ever go on a rhythm guitar track.
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

I think you're expecting too much of what is essentially a built in condenser mic in a very basic 4 track recorder. If the sound you're describing is not in the amp, then it is most likely the mic being overloaded, because it was never intended to do the job of a proper dynamic mic or large diaphragm condenser. It is more like the condenser in a dictaphone or digicam, and it would not be designed to cope with large SPL's such as those being produced by a medium to loud guitar amp. To use an SM57 with that little box, you would still need a mic preamp. In recording equipment, you get what you pay for. What you have there is designed to plug in a direct box like a Pod or use onboard effects, not for recording a guitar amp.



Cheers..............................wahwah
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

Virtual Kevorkian said:
120hz is way higher than I'd ever go on a rhythm guitar track.
Click to expand...

Its not uncommon to go as high as 250-300. You have to remember there is generally a bass instrument that has to fit in the mix somewhere
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

Virtual Kevorkian said:
120hz is way higher than I'd ever go on a rhythm guitar track.
Click to expand...

It's all about the fundamental and harmonic frequency range. There is no information below 120 hz that is important to the tone of a electric guitar. The best eq practice is to cut or roll off frequencies below the fundamental when you're trying to get rid of unwanted things like rumble, buzz etc.
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

J Moose said:
Low vibrating strings..?

That's a problem with playing technique.

No amount of studio "trickery" will ever be able to reduce or solve that.

Microphones are extremly sensitive instruments & can pick up problems & things that escape live performance.

Take some guitar lessons & clean up a bit...

Sorry.
Click to expand...

i doubt it. i'm a pretty good player and have good technique. it sounds more like the mic is sensetive to deep bass sounds.

Virtual Kevorkian said:
Strings slightly out of tune might do that.
Click to expand...

no problem with that. i tune at 440 with a korg tuner.


one thing i noticed was that i get the same thing with my cheap pc mic. when i turn the volume down low and put the mic near the amp it's a lot better.

i was placing the mic on a stand somewhere near the side of hte amp, so i don't know if that had anything to do with it either. it seems to record better at higher volumes when the mic is actually right in front of the amp.

furthermore, i get this a lot on the clean channel as opposed to the gain channels. i'm thinking that my mesa just has a super amount of bass in the clean channel. hell i don't know for sure though. i'm going to buy an sm57 off ebay and see what happens. maybe that will solve the problem.
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

what mic are you currently using, out of curiousity?
and +1 to using a high pass filter. if you have one that allows you to sweep the cutoff frequency, use that and see where it sounds best.
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

TheArchitect said:
Its not uncommon to go as high as 250-300. You have to remember there is generally a bass instrument that has to fit in the mix somewhere
Click to expand...

I'd definitely say that's uncommon for heavy rock/metal tones, but we've not specified a style here or anything.

innerdreamrecords.co said:
It's all about the fundamental and harmonic frequency range. There is no information below 120 hz that is important to the tone of a electric guitar. The best eq practice is to cut or roll off frequencies below the fundamental when you're trying to get rid of unwanted things like rumble, buzz etc.
Click to expand...


There's quite a bit of useful 'weight' to the sound from the cabinet at frequencies below 120hz. I filter off at the lowest range of the note being tuned to. (IE Low B @ 60hz, low D at 70hz, low E at 80hz).
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

Virtual Kevorkian said:
There's quite a bit of useful 'weight' to the sound from the cabinet at frequencies below 120hz. I filter off at the lowest range of the note being tuned to. (IE Low B @ 60hz, low D at 70hz, low E at 80hz).
Click to expand...

Yep, yep, that's right.

I filter at around 80-65hz for rhythm guitars on most recordings, and I hi-pass too, but I'd have to take a look at one of my parametric settings to remember exactly where... someplace between 2 and 4k...

In response to the original question from Brute .....I think it would be a lot easier to diagnose what's going on if we had a sound clip that demonstrated the issue.
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

There's quite a bit of useful 'weight' to the sound from the cabinet at frequencies below 120hz. I filter off at the lowest range of the note being tuned to. (IE Low B @ 60hz, low D at 70hz, low E at 80hz).
Click to expand...

Oh yah, forgot you might tune down. In that case it's more of a bass guitar and 80hz should do it. No matter what 60hz is starting to push the lower range so if your recordings sound muddy and masked that's where you need to start looking.
 
Re: Recording Problems, Help Appreciated

Virtual Kevorkian said:
120hz is way higher than I'd ever go on a rhythm guitar track.
Click to expand...

+1

wahwah said:
I think you're expecting too much of what is essentially a built in condenser mic in a very basic 4 track recorder. If the sound you're describing is not in the amp, then it is most likely the mic being overloaded, because it was never intended to do the job of a proper dynamic mic or large diaphragm condenser.
Click to expand...

+1, though as an aside I'm starting to wean myself off dynamic mics these days. Modern condensers can do anything a dynamic can do, including handle the SPL's, and in most cases they do it better. Obviously this statement does not apply to a built-in mic in a 4-track.
 
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