Guitar sound editing?

[Alex the Angel]

Hello! I'm a noob recorder dabbling in music (Mostly Metal, but I experiment with as much as I can.).
I mainly use my Rocksmith USB cable to plug my guitar directly into a USB port on my laptop, and record what I want with Audacity. However when I listen to the recording, it sounds a bit flat and distorted. Normally that isn't much of a problem when I'm recording guitar pieces that are supposed to have a more distorted sound (Normally I just amplify and distort it with SoloC Head and add some guitar impulses through Poulin LeCab, then take care of the rest through Equalization).
However if I want to record clean guitars, the flatness and distortion become a bit of a nuisance. I'll have an attachment with a sample below. It's supposed to be an opening chord progression for a Stoner Rock/Metal song I'm writing.
Basically, I want to get a cleaner sound. Possibly to the point where I can actually hear my pick/fingers striking the guitar strings. The most I've been able to do is reduce the flatness through the EQ and add a few effects, but that's pretty much the extent of my knowledge.

In case anyone's interested, here's a list of my equipment.

1 Maestro Gibson electric guitar
1 Rocksmith USB audio interface
1 Blue Yeti Studio Microphone (With desk arm and pop filter)
1 Acer laptop with four gigs of RAM (Windows 10, 64-bit)
1 messy living room with absolutely no soundproofing, and a noisy as $#%@ air conditioner.

That's all I have. My amp is basically LePou plugins/impulses, and I do not own any pedals, noise gates or other devices (Mainly because I have no idea how to use them for recording guitar directly into a computer, but I can always figure it out should I have to buy any.). Any help is greatly appreciated, but please remember that I'm a bit new to this, and my wallet isn't as heavy as it used to be.

Also, bonus points to whoever can help me get a good Stoner Rock/Metal tone. Something similar to Tool, Om or Egypt.

Thanks a lot!

[Trebor]

There's a free distortion plug-in for Audacity here ... http://forum.audacityteam.org/viewtopic ... 96#p237796
Once distortion is applied it adds high-frequency content : the sound is brighter ...

''Opening chord'', before-after-after (distortion).flac

(799.41 KiB) Downloaded 207 times

and I do not own ... noise gates...

You can get a free noise-gate plugin for Audacity here ... http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Nyqui ... Noise_Gate

[kozikowski]

help me get a good Stoner Rock/Metal tone

As you point out in your post. A lot of distortions and damages sound like rock band guitars. The trick is to get the system to do a perfect, clean recording and stop helping you. From there you can do whatever you want.

It's not true any more, but Bruno in Portugal used to be the longest message in the history of the forum. Pages and pages of messages going back and forth. He was trying to record his Flamenco guitar clean. Full stop. That was the whole job.

Did you go through your Windows settings and turn off the conferencing and chat settings? I know you don't have this exact problem, but this is where to look for the settings. Voice processing hates music.

http://manual.audacityteam.org/man/faq_ ... hancements

Rocksmith USB cable

That's a game cable and when I tried to look it up, there were pages and pages of people looking for a replacement. Are you using the Rocksmith software and drivers? They could be conflicting with the Windows settings.

Koz

[Alex the Angel]

Did you go through your Windows settings and turn off the conferencing and chat settings?

I haven't yet, but I'll definitely check it out.

That's a game cable and when I tried to look it up, there were pages and pages of people looking for a replacement. Are you using the Rocksmith software and drivers? They could be conflicting with the Windows settings.

Nope, I've only used the cable. I bought it from a pawn shop a while back.

Once distortion is applied it adds high-frequency content : the sound is brighter

Thanks a lot! I'll make sure to check them out.

[DVDdoug]

I'm not a guitar player...

You might try searching the Recording Magazine Website or find a guitar forum. You're going to get the best advice about plug-ins (effects & amp sims) from other guitar players. (They'll probably advise you to get a better/different guitar and all kinds of gear, so you'll have to 'filter-through' that.)

I understand that you're not going to do this, but pros usually record with a mic close to the speaker cabinet. The Shure SM57 is popular for pro electric guitar recording, but the Yeti is rated for 120dB, so it can handle a guitar amp. (And of course, the Shure is analog and pro stage/studio mics won't work with a consumer soundcard, so you'd need an interface.)

With the guitar player's favorite guitar, amp, and pedals, he's getting the sound/tone he wants and all you need is a good mic and a soundproof studio and you can record it.

I'm not sure what pedals/effects are common with metal, but I assume compression & distortion are almost always used. I don't see lots of pedals on stage with most "big acts", and I see the guitar player moving around the stage so they don't have their foot on the pedals all the time. But, there may be someone backstage switching in & out effects.

It's also common to record a 2nd direct track in parallel. I'd guess that most pro-metal recordings include a direct track. That allows the mixing engineer the flexibility to use different effects/sims on the direct track, and he can optionally mix it with the mic-track, or maybe throw-away the mic-track as long as he doesn't tell the guitar player... There may even be a 3rd direct track straight from the guitar before the pedals.

And, it's common to double-track, or triple-track-or more. That is, play the same thing multiple times and mix. It takes skill to play the exact same thing over-and-over, but from what I've read that's one trick to the "metal sound". There is an effect called Automatic Double Tracking (or "ADT") but it's not the same as true-double-tracking.

[kozikowski]

a good mic and a soundproof studio and you can record it.

Exactly correct. And a recorder that's not trying to help you. Nothing is more crazy-making than to get your sound and not be able to record it.

Koz

[kozikowski]

it's common to double-track, or triple-track-or more.

There's nothing wrong with Audacity overdubbing...

Perform to yourself multiple times.

Koz