No matter how sweet the sound coming from your amp, your guitar sound will often sound
bad if you put it into a mix unaltered
. A guitar, especially an overdriven or distorted guitar, is going to put out a vast range of frequencies, more than most other instruments which put out a narrower frequency range.
Why does my recorded guitar sound bad?
The most common reasons for a muddy guitar sound are
having your guitar’s tone knob is turned down too far
, using old guitar strings, or your amp’s EQ knobs are set wrong.
How can I make my guitar recording sound better?
- Use a “prepared guitar” …
- Use an acoustic as a phantom guitar. …
- Record your electric unplugged. …
- Use a low-frequency mic on your guitar cabinet. …
- Use a bass cabinet. …
- Double your tracks with different guitars. …
- Use an octave pedal.
Why does my acoustic guitar sound bad?
Acoustic guitars often sound
bad due to problems with intonation and action resulting in fret buzz
and a guitar that is not in tune with itself. Additional problems can occur if hardware, such as tuners are loose, causing mechanical vibrations or when the strings become old and start to lose their vibrancy.
Why does my distortion sound bad when recording?
Distortion occurs to any sound
when it becomes too loud for whatever device is outputting it to handle
. So the point at which natural distortion occurs is dependent on the power of the output device. If you play a loud sound through a small speaker it will likely become distorted.
Do cheap guitars sound bad?
A cheap guitar will never sound good
. Sorry. It’s just inferior all the way through. However, you might get some pretty good blues out of it, if it can hold tune.
Why does the G string sound bad?
The actual reason the G string falls out of tune most often and faster is
because it’s the string with the least amount of tension on it
. However, if you tune it and it still sounds out of tune immediately, then that’s a problem with your intonation.
How loud should my amp be when I record?
well, what you really want to do is have
it loud enough so that the microphone hears the tone you want to
record. There’s not much sense in choosing your tone based on how it sounds “in the room” if you’re miking your amp at a distance of only a few inches from the speaker.
Should you record guitar with effects?
The general rule is that
you should only record with effects that you’re willing to commit to
. Anything that comes before the amp, so your overdrive, wah, compressor pedal, etc, you pretty much have to record with.
Why does my guitar sound weird with a capo?
If your guitar isn’t intonated correctly, then notes will sound progressively more out of tune the higher up the fretboard you play. This means the guitar will always sound just a little bit out. It’s worsened by using a capo
because the capo will pull all of the strings ‘slightly out’
.
Is it bad to tune your guitar down?
If your guitar has an adjustable truss rod (almost all guitars will),
there is absolutely no harm in tuning down
. You can take your strings completely off and you’ll be able to fix the intonation well afterwards.
Why does D chord sound bad?
If you play the fifth string (the A string) when playing a D chord on guitar
it won’t sound too bad
. … But if you accidentally play the 6th string, the E string, when playing a D chord it will create a very muddy, nasty sounding chord. It’s vital that you don’t play the E string when strumming any type of D chord.
How do you get a good distortion sound?
- Step 1: Find A Good Clean Tone. …
- Step 2: Find Your Overdrive Tone – Light Distortion. …
- Step 3: Find Your Lead Tone – Heavy Distortion. …
- Step 4: Unity Gain. …
- Step 5: E.Q. or Equalization.
How do you make a clear distorted guitar sound?
- Don’t use much distortion, if any, and just use medium gain with overdrive.
- Use a metal pedal that doesn’t require too much gain: simple square wave distortion can be quite clean.
How do you record and distorted a guitar?
Try
filtering
out the subs to beef up the low-end without muddying up the mix. To add even more grit and growl to your guitar tone, try creating a parallel distortion chain. Use your favorite distortion plug-in to absolutely annihilate the signal and subtly blend in the return to add thickness and depth.
