Need help creating fat, thick, in-your-face rhythms and searing hot, vibrant lead guitars? Do you feel your tones are too muddy or “soft”, that you can’t make your guitar really come alive in the mix? I’m here to help.
This first installment of our guide to great guitar sounds focuses on my journey to creating the rhythm tracks on Random Battles‘ EP, Masters, which will be released August 14th. As this was my first project as a newly minted recording engineer, I had (and continue to have) a lot to learn to achieve the right sounds. The project called for, above all, huge sounding hard-rock-to-metal type rhythm sounds, the kind of chunkiness found in modern rock albums ranging from Foo Fighters to Lamb of God. The challenge was to make a record that was sharper, clearer and more rockin’ than any previous album I had made with drummer Andy Porter in Entertainment System, all while learning the ropes of audio engineering. With our goals in mind, I began to record.
There are two different approaches I used to track rhythms: traditional amp miking and direct input with Guitar Rig. At first I relied primarily on the latter as it allowed me to get an approximation of what I wanted without having to go through the trials of what mics to use, where to place them, how to treat the room, etc. The benefits of Guitar Rig are:
- A huge library of amp, cabinet, mic, and effects simulations to easily dial in what you want without buying expensive gear
- The ability to learn (approximately) how each of the ‘big name’ amps are supposed to sound
- The ability to change the sound completely even after you’ve recorded
- No mics, no space and no amp needed
Now, the purist in me wasn’t satisfied just using Guitar Rig, so I tried a number of different mic combinations with my Orange Dual Terror. Over the first several recording sessions, given various levels of success and failure, each song on the album ended up using a different setup.
One tried and true method is to use an SM57 parked dead in the center of one speaker, straight on. I tried this with an Oram and a Grace, and eventually the Grace won out due to less coloration and overall being less finicky with EQ settings. I sent this signal to two tracks, hard panned in the mix. This provided the darker, bassier ‘chunk’ to the sound. After a while I added a Shure 414, about a foot away from the other speaker, run through a Universal Audio LA-610. This gave me the top end the SM57 tends to lack. In the interim, I tried using a second 57 angled about 45′ from the center of the cone, which blended with the other 57 nicely, but I found didn’t add much to the overall tone. I also tried a U87 to do what the 414 does in my setup, which is add top end, but its setup was much more specific in terms of placement and compression settings, which led to me using the 414 in its place.
To pick up more room sound (something I seldom needed in an ‘everything up to 11′ kind of record), I mic the open back of the cab, usually a KM 184 or other small condenser parked right in between the speakers. Excellent for a little extra ambience.
Eventually, by the time I tracked Double Dragon and Castlevania, I discovered my current formula: use the 57 and the 414, pan one left and one right, then double the track using Guitar Rig. This way I get my amp’s tone and my performance with an additional track that I can make sound however I want, thus allowing me to color each song in a unique way. Double tracking is a must for that big rock sound, as well. If you feel your rhythms are stale or not present enough, change your settings and play again. Play through once with a dark, bassy tone and again with a bright, glassy tone, and mix to taste. Remember, you can always take away, but it can bee difficult to add to tones after the fact.