What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

[Dave Locher]

I have always liked the sound I get with whatever equipment I have used over the years, but never 100% satisfied. Some time in the past couple years it started to sound less good to me. Too thin, too harsh, just not quite what I wanted. This led to building two guitars, changing pickups several times, four different speakers in a 2x12 cab, and flipping a dozen or two pedals.
Then tonight I listened to a live recording of myself from last year and...my tone was exactly what I have been chasing! I HAVE the sound I want. So why, then, when I am standing in front of my amp practicing does it sound a bit "off" to me? Am I crazy, going deaf, or incapable of being totally satisfied with anything?

 

[Demanic]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

What you described is exactly the reason I like to make recordings of myself or my band. I have learned that what I may be hearing standing or sitting by an amp (and even that makes a difference) is not necessarily what is being heard out in front where the audience is. It's especially true when you go from low to high volume.

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[Clint 55]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

It's standard tuning, man. To get the tone at sub-show volume, you gotta tune down.

I tried short scale guitars with thick strings and that didn't work well. I needed something "legit". So I tuned down a whole step. Made all the difference. Also I like hot pickups for a full sound.

 

[Nightburst]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

Yeah, your live Sound is going to be different from your recorded sound. If you can isolate the sound frequencies that are more prominent on your recordings then you can tweak your live sound to match when you are not recording. What recording gear do you use?

Or you are not standing in front of your amps sweet spot when playing. Never stand right next to it.

 

[BloodRose]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

I am a total novice player, so I may not be much help. BUT, I am responding because I suffer a similar thing. First... When I was swapping pups left and right and flipping guitars, I made recordings of diff guitars and pickups. Most sounded quite similar. So, recording position has much to do with it. My recordings were all done with the recorder in the same vicinity.
Next, it may be your ears.. When I play, and record myself, to me it sounds awful to me. But, someone else can play my rig and I KNOW it isnt the rig... Im my own worst critic... Good luck finding that tone you seek!!

 

[VinceT]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

Others have said it - comparing practice sound to live sound is a fool's game. Drums, bass and keys flesh out so much of the frequency spectrum that guitars often end up mid/treble rich - a tone that can sound horrible when isolated.


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[Gtrjunior]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

You're a musician and completely normal...we ALL do that.

 

[dystrust]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

Or you are not standing in front of your amps sweet spot when playing. Never stand right next to it.

That would be my guess...

You're probably not in the same place as the mic relative to the amp when you're practicing. There's also the possibility of a colored mic or proximity effect changing the sound of the recording from what it was in the room.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

You are too close to the sound physically and mentally.

Get a zoom stero recorder and record every gig and show.

Tweak over time.

Prince did this after every show.

And better if u do a video because we all do distracting weird stuff. I used to look at pedals far more than audience.



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[Diego]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

I have the nightmarish situation of living in a loft apartment, which makes all the bass go straight to the 2nd floor.

I have my gear setup in a way that, when playing, I'm as far from the cabinet as I can manage, while still in front of it. That gives me the best rendition of what my amp and guitars truly sounds like.
Sometimes I'll think things are a bit off, only to realize the cabinet is right on my knees or something. There's a sweetspot for listening purposes.

 

[Dave Locher]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

You're a musician and completely normal...we ALL do that.

Well at least I know it's not just me..
It was kind of a pleasant surprise, I have to say. It would be a lot worse if I thought it sounded great but it sounded worse to the audience! I'm going to try to worry less about my equipment. It seems to be working for me.

 

[Demanic]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

It isn't just you. It all has to do with how the ear and brain perceive sound.
It is better to be able to play even when you think that it's off, than to have it sound horrible to the audience.

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[zionstrat]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

Also if you're not gigging or recording, don't worry too much. Find what works for u.... Keith Richards classic 'electric' sound was an accoustic guitar overloading a cassette recorder[emoji16]

When recording and gigging, learn from the engineer.

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[eclecticsynergy]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

Familiarity breeds contempt. We get tired of hearing things a certain way after a while, and go looking for something better. Or just something different.
Human nature.

 

[Demanic]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

The human ear, by it's nature compresses loud sounds in close proximity to it. The brain tries to compensate. That's why everything sounds better 10'-15' in front of the amps and drums. Unless you are playing arena levels of amplification. Which is why monitors started to be used.

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[Dave Locher]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

Small clubs. And only about once a year nowadays. I think it is mainly my brain LOOKING (well, listening) for things I might be able to improve in my sound, but every time I hear a recording of a live performance it always sounds great to me.
I will say, though, that I do a lot more tweaking now that I have discovered forums like this one.

 

[Gearjoneser]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

You either need to sink into your sound, meaning you nail it, play it, and don't change it.

Or, you aren't playing at the top of your ability, and what you hear is pissing you off for a reason you blame on gear, but that isn't the problem. So few come to that conclusion, and it's usually it, unless the gear REALLY sucks.

 

[AlexR]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

One of the things about guitar tone is that the elements that make it work in a mix are most often the parts that make it suck just by itself.
If you are in a band, there is little point in making your guitar work just by itself. Your goal should be to make sure you don't step on your bandmates toes and also that you serve the song well.

Perhaps the answer here is to have a 'home' rig.....something simple maybe that is eq'd for you practicing alone.

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

A couple of important points to consider here:

1. Microphones cannot "hear" the same way the human ear does. I'm sure the bestest and most-expensivist mics come really close, but unless they've matched the material density and shape of a human aural canal, it's not happening. And then you have the way the human brain and nerve center interprets sound waves vs how machinery does.

2. You're comparing apples (your live amp in front of you) to oranges (the recording made of your amp by a microphone playing back through speakers). The sound you want coming out of your amp is coming out of a secondary set of speakers, after having been initially processed and altered by the microphone(s), mixer/recording unit, and whatever other item the signal passed through in-between.

It's the same principle as trying to get one guitar and one amp to replicate a 7-layer guitar track made with 7 different guitars (including one acoustic) with 7 different pickups and pickup types (Humbucker, Strat, P90, Filtertron, Bridge, Neck, Middle, and combinations, split, series, parallel, and phased), septuple-tracked and re-amped and individually pre-and-post-processed.

If you put that same mic in front of the same amp and ran it through the same gear to the same recorder and fed that signal to the FOH or even personal monitors, then your "live" sound would match the recorded sound you're hearing now.

However, it would probably not mesh with the rest of the band as well, since they, too, are being pre-and-post-processed in the same manner.

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: What is going on with my ears/brain that makes my setup seem worse than it is!

I will swear that changes in barometric pressure and relative humidity affects how we hear, but also how our guitars play.

Bill