[1]

I'm going to take this weekend and try to get a little closer to my "final" rhythm tone w/the Carvin for the tracks I'm using it on, and after not nearly enough coffee this morning, I have a bit of a quandary. I am notorious for making my rhythm guitars too dark (Dave/Drew hear the majority of my mixes, and say the same thing), so I'm trying to get a little more upper end in there.

Here's Ye Ole Basic Reaper Project. Two tracks, dumped to stems, playing back. Nothing fancy.

Here's the Axe-Fx patch. Through my monitors and my 1221s, it sounds pretty damn close to my in-the-room 6505. I have a 40hz highpass filter on there to help the fact that I palm mute like a viking swinging a hammer, but that's it.

Playing the track back in Reaper and using ReaEQ to peek at the spread, I'm presented with this:

That abrupt rolloff after around 2800 seems... Well, wrong. :scratch: Even if I dime the presence and the treble on the Axe, that upper range doesn't seem to really move much more than a db or two. Is ReaEQ reading it incorrectly, or otherwise - what's the scoop here? I'm looking to add some bright pre-mix (read: when I track it) before I inevitably mix it and say "TOO BRIGHT" and squash it anyway. :lol:

 

[1]

GFXAnalyzer agrees, too. :scratch:

You guys that get solid, tight tones in a mix - what are your EQ curves like? I could be completely off the mark, but shouldn't this have more high end to it? It seems like no matter how brittle I make the patch coming out of the monitors/wedges (literally, ear-piercingly bright) the high end tapers off pretty dramatically.

What am I missing?

This is that patch.

http://soundcloud.com/factanonmusica/axe-fx-ii-toontrack-metal

 

[Thomas]

For what it's worth, the guitar tone sounds fine to my ears. If it's missing some sizzle, that should be addable with some post-EQ.

 

[Connor]

Use your ears not your eyes blah blah you know that stuff. For what its worth, that's almost exactly what a "good" frequency response looks like. It SHOULD drop off linearly (well, linearly on that logarithmic scale :lol as you approach higher frequencies, as those are very overwhelming and fatiguing for the ear. Even if you CRANKED the presence and treble settings on the 6506 sim, those responses would still have that large downward slope. If the response was a flat line, your ears would be in pain.

If it sounds good, it is good. If you want the sound a bit brighter, turn up either the treble or presence or both, depending on the sound you're looking for. I'd recommend against trying to add brightness in post, it's easier to have the sound be a little too bright, and carve some of it away with post-eq.

 

[96]

FWIW, here is a typical guitar speaker curve:

Big drop off after about 2500Hz

 

[JamesM]

While a big drop is typical on anything above 2100Hz ish, your patch has very little low-high-end content. Not necessarily a bad thing, just the nature of the patch. I'd definitely add some high end, where I can't really say unless I'm editing myself. I'd personally have a low Q bump at somewhere around 2.2kHz and let that roll down to a low pass...

 

[Mattayus]

Use your ears not your eyes

This is all that needs to be said here.

 

[Soopahmahn]

FYI.

I don't think your track sounds outrageously dark. You could add just a hair of presence perhaps. Like, a quarter point in the Axe-Fx or something. But I think it sounds just great as-is.

Don't be greedy - your drums need bandwidth, bro. 4-5kHz is about the end of "midrange" anyway, which is where your instrument shines.

 

[ahjteam]

For what it's worth I would say drop your low end with 1khz low shelf and then raise the overall volume the same amount (so say -6dB at 1khz low shelf and +6dB at*channel master), should give you more of the brightness.

 

[Soopahmahn]

 

[eleven59]

Sounds pretty solid to me :shrug: You could go a bit brighter, or you could leave it.

Most importantly, the riff passes the Mattayus'-Avatar-Test™

 

[Regor]

Scoop the mids Johnny :yesway:

 

[Drew]

While a big drop is typical on anything above 2100Hz ish, your patch has very little low-high-end content. Not necessarily a bad thing, just the nature of the patch. I'd definitely add some high end, where I can't really say unless I'm editing myself. I'd personally have a low Q bump at somewhere around 2.2kHz and let that roll down to a low pass...

This. If you eyeball your graph vs the speaker curve, yours tapers while the speaker peaks around 1-3k.

 

[105]

Don't look at the graphs.