How to make tone suck less

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I've been trying to improve my guitar tone without buyin' new gear. I try not to use too much or too little gain, try not to have too much or too little of anything really.

So in like, 20 minutes I just whipped up this little recording of what the guitar sounds like right now. Some people tell me it's fine, other's tell me it's shit. I don't really know who to believe anymore.

So what are your suggestions?

http://tindeck.com/listen/fhdu

[Darangen]

It's not terrible by any means. It sounds a bit tinny maybe, but for that style it's perfectly normal.

Do you know what sound you're going for?

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Well I love this tone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEnewgP41Ec

But that's way higher end gear than what I have. But if I could get even kind of close that'd be sweet.

[Darangen]

You'll definitely need more low end to get closer to that tone.

There are many factors that contribute to your tone, so getting an exact match is pretty difficult. Different pickups will give you different tones, different amps, etc.

I'd start with adding bass though. With one hand, palm mute and continuously pick away at the low e string while adjusting the bass and gain nob so that you have a nice heavy tone, but aren't getting thwumping bass boom. Pick pretty hard so it doesn't randomly appear later on.

They're probably scooping out some of the mids in there as well, don't cut them completely but maybe a 2-3 of 10.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

You'll definitely need more low end to get closer to that tone.

There are many factors that contribute to your tone, so getting an exact match is pretty difficult. Different pickups will give you different tones, different amps, etc.

I'd start with adding bass though. With one hand, palm mute and continuously pick away at the low e string while adjusting the bass and gain nob so that you have a nice heavy tone, but aren't getting thwumping bass boom. Pick pretty hard so it doesn't randomly appear later on.

They're probably scooping out some of the mids in there as well, don't cut them completely but maybe a 2-3 of 10.

Alright, thanks! You always provide quality advice! I also got a different pick, which has reduced some of that damn scratchy pick noise.

[warfighter67]

I actually love the tone. It just sounds too in the background to me, maybe try widening it (double tracking).

Another thing I noticed is that it is way off tempo sometimes.

[SonicThHedgog]

This tone sounds great

[ambinate]

your tone is already sounding nice - i don't think it's bad at all, it's just of a different style than the symphony x tune. there's a lot going on to make a sound like that happen, and in my experience a few things that i've found helpful to keep in mind are:

- the guitars are downtuned, which doesn't make a huge difference overall, but it definitely colors the sound a bit. it's not impossible to get this tone on a standard-tuned guitar, but in this case, i think it's definitely adding some depth and warmth to his tone.

- the way the bass guitar and regular guitar are mixed goes a long way to getting these kinds of thick tones. a lot of the best recorded modern guitar tones actually benefit a shitload from good bass guitar mixing, and wouldn't sound as fat if you isolated them from the rest of the mix. i think you'd still need to dial in more low-end on your amp to get closer to this tone, but you wouldn't want to overdo it, since the actual bass will add more presence and depth than the low-end on a guitar can.

- double-tracking or even quadruple-tracking helps a lot with this type of sound, as well.

- as far as scooping mids goes - it never really worked for me, although i know a lot of people who've had good tones that do it. i've always had better luck dialing in a pretty decent amount of mids (at least halfway) to give the tone more body, but again, that's just me.

- i don't even know if i'm being coherent at this point as i'm probably just rambling, but the main thing that has been really helpful for me when trying to get a good recorded tone is being aware of the fact that (at least when trying to get a high-gain, modern guitar tone) recorded guitar tones and live guitar tones are often very different, and a lot of recorded guitar tones would sound terrible live and vice versa. getting that type of thick sound live is different, as you have more actual air to push around and you can crank the volume and all that sort of stuff. when recording a single guitar track, your tone might sound kinda wimpy and lame, but once you start adding in second (and third and fourth, or more) guitar tracks and adding in the bass, the sound can really start to come together. obviously it helps to start with a great guitar tone to begin with, but i wouldn't get too disheartened if the sound coming out of your amp on its own isn't the huge kick ass wall of sound thing that you're hearing on modern albums.

i didn't expect to make a post this long...sorry about that!

[Mak Eightman]

Mostly your tone in a record, depends of DRUMS!! Not just bass and big amount of guitars. Actually you can have a cheap tone but great drums and real bass guitar and your mix will be great, even with ONE rhythm guitar.

There are two types of tones(in my case):

1- Sounds SUCKS alone, Great in the mix(2-4 of 10 mids at amp and distortion pedal, max bas at distortion pedal, 3-5 of 10 amp's bass, 2-3 amp's gain, Max VR Gain)

2- Sounds great alone, bad in the mix(around max bass, scoop mids, up highs)

Also don't forget about presence.

Your tone is nice. All you need is better balance your mix and have fun with EQ]

And don't even try to copy tone. You'll be very close but still tooo far. And symphony x's tone sounds like Line 6 P.O.D.

P.S. Hope you can translate what I just said:tomatoface:

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Mostly your tone in a record, depends of DRUMS!! Not just bass and big amount of guitars. Actually you can have a cheap tone but great drums and real bass guitar and your mix will be great, even with ONE rhythm guitar.

There are two types of tones(in my case):

1- Sounds SUCKS alone, Great in the mix(2-4 of 10 mids at amp and distortion pedal, max bas at distortion pedal, 3-5 of 10 amp's bass, 2-3 amp's gain, Max VR Gain)

2- Sounds great alone, bad in the mix(around max bass, scoop mids, up highs)

Also don't forget about presence.

Your tone is nice. All you need is better balance your mix and have fun with EQ]

And don't even try to copy tone. You'll be very close but still tooo far. And symphony x's tone sounds like Line 6 P.O.D.

P.S. Hope you can translate what I just said:tomatoface:

Yeah the bass frequencies and everything else was boosted straight to hell in that sample.

Symphony X uses a mix of stuff. Mike has a Engl Fireball he uses. But live he usually has line 6 amps.

Good suggestions all around Mak. I'm not sure why you think I'd have trouble translating what you said. It's in English. Which is the only language I'm fluent in.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I actually love the tone. It just sounds too in the background to me, maybe try widening it (double tracking).

Another thing I noticed is that it is way off tempo sometimes.

It is double tracked actually.

Tempo is off yeah. I didn't properly adjust buffer rates and stuff but I just said "meh". I just threw it all together as quick as possible to show you guys.