Speakers or Mic position?!

I'm in a frustrating studio battle trying to get my Mark III to sound a little less thin and shreddy and a little more full bodied and yet still retain its vocal like character.

Right now, i'm using a huge crate 2x12 loaded with knock off Jensens. (You'll hear my Mark III on the left channel, and Dave's Peavey/celestions on the Right).

To me, we nail the Black Dahlia Murder/Metal Blade sound, but it's just thin...I dunno...Suggestions?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhnP8PE3-90

Run the Volume 1 to the max, then turn the Lead Drive to 3. Sneak up on the Lead Drive until you get a powerful, but cutting rhythm bite. Too much Lead Drive will yield a very liquid, vocal solo voice, with the tradeoff being a thin and compressed sounding rhythm tone. This is where the RC Booster comes into play with my Mark II's. Good luck and Roll Tide!

My settings were:

vol - 7.5 (pulled)
treb - 7.5 (pulled)
bas - 2 (pulled)
mid - 6
mas - 2 (pulled) (might have been 2+)
gain - 7.5
lead - 3 (pulled)

and:



PS: ROLL TIDE!

The harder that yuu slam the tone stack (Volume 1 and pickup output), the thicker the sound will be. Lead Drive is after the tone controls and will only add gain and compression to the original sound. I have reduced my Mark II Lead Drive to the 4-6 reigion and added a RC Booster pedal (in front) to get that juicy lead tone, when the need arises. 8)

Yeah, it sounds awesome live, but it's not transferring well to recording. I'll try doing it that way and see how it sounds - thanks for the tip.

Anything but a shure sm 57
they have a honk that never goes away ,
classic ? 421 has a smoother bump , or the 409
hopefully the engineer has some experience recording
distorted gtrs . The cardiod mics [ ribbon figue 8 too ]will have
a low end rise as the mic gets very close to the source
which may or may not work for you , don't put the ribbon too close .

try a ribbon mic , even a cheap one
being "soft " in the high end you can put them on the cone
which i'd never do other wise , if it lacks bite or top end
mix a second mic in [ whatever the engineers fav is ]
they have a smooth mid charactor with nice texture

you don't play with your ear right next to the speaker but
that's what the mic hears [ mics no where near complex as the ear ,
of course ] without hurting yourself check that out too .
If it's an overdub , or large iso room try a farther back [ away ]
mic as well in addition to the ribbon .

This all presuming that you're basically happy with your sound
otherwise [ before it's recorded ]

Another factor too , is what's competing with it in the mix ?
other gtrs or heavy bass , does it sound good solo'd but not in the mix
or vice versa ?

Out of curiosity, what guitar/pickups are you using? And where is your presence at?

Also, try bumping your mids up if you feel you're sounding "thin." It may not have the brootlz but it'll get that sob to fatten up one way or two!

okgb said:

try a ribbon mic , even a cheap one

Click to expand...

I've wanted to use a ribbon on this the whole time. Hopefully I can still convince him though.

EleventhHour2139 said:

Out of curiosity, what guitar/pickups are you using? And where is your presence at?

Click to expand...

Presence was set a little higher (like 6) because of the sh***y Ruby 6L6 tubes, and also I was using my PRS Paul Allender with stock PRS Allender Pickups. Yes, I know it sounds "beefier" with the presence set lower, but the mic is only going to pic up the harmonic sound anyway, unless like okgb said; I switch to a ribbon. Then it sounds muckier. I loathe Ruby tubes. I need to just grab up some EH's (my personal favorite).

If the guys scared , start about a foot& 1/2 back and use a pop filter
and if he's still scared don't have it on axis , come at a 45 degree angle
from above the speaker and not directly in front of the speaker
adjust to taste after that [ working it back in ]
the thing to worry about for the ribbon is loud thumping low end
Are you super loud ? then exercise some caution
It'll probably work better with a clean type mic preamp
consider finding another engineer

Post removed.

Thanks for all the input guys! We went back and did some more mix tweaking. It's still not entirely perfect, but better (more Mark-like).

They are on our myspace at http://www.myspace.com/ytwwvofficial Please check em out and give me some more input if you don't mind.

We have a show in a month to show off for the Metal Blade guys and need to have all the final tweaks done for these tracks and the rest. (lol, not to mention have all our internet/myspace bs updated and looking nice, urgh)

edit: I should also note that this album is being mixed for maximum clarity and punch versus ultra compression like most other modern metal albums. As we approach our 9th mix now, you can put it on any stereo or mp3 player and it sounds awesome and lossless, and the louder you crank it, the more ballin it sounds (but also sounds great low). This is why it sounds a little quieter.

email sent. Mesa's Amplitudes blog/former newsletter has articles by Michael James in the last two editions on recording techniques. He is a top LA mix engineer, Mesa artist and a buddy of mine. I can hook you up with him, or go to www.indiepromix.com to contact him.
Brent Babow

or just post a response so the rest of us can read it ,
anyone know are the mesa newsletters online ? y'd think

tia , regards Greg

Dial in more mids. Place the mic on the edge of the speaker cone on the outside edge of the cab as close as possible.

WAR EAGLE!!! :twisted: