Guitar Distortion

Yes to everything. Recorded dirt guitar sounds almost always use less distortion than the live sound. About half the gain they usually play with is a good starting point. The reasons are myriad and complex but the results are clear.

AC/DC records their guitars through a Marshall amp with all the knobs turned up about halfway-- that's it, no distortion pedal, nothing else. It's amazing how a little gain goes a long way.

Cheers.

As yep stated, less is more, it took me quite a while to get used to this, but it iis what it is.

ORIGINAL: spindlebox

One trick I use and learned in "professional studios" was to record 2 tracks simultaneously; one effected and one clean.
Good luck!
Scott

In fact it's really a great habit to get into doing this with everything you record if possible. And as spindlebox stated it can add alot to a distorted track.

I think the best thing of all is that AFTER they here it in a mix they see on their own that they need to change the way they sound when recording.... that means they're learning how to hear..which is good.. so sell them on re recording it again.

ORIGINAL: mixsit
...You might be safe to say less gain works live as well. No one in the audience hears the dynamics and tone of the amp from three feet away either...

Live sound is a whole different world, especially for heavy rock.

For one thing, the human ear hears very differently at rock-concert volume than it does at typical home listening volume. A guitar that sounds flat, weak, and fizzy at 83dB may sound massive and roaring at 110dB, in part due to the Fletcher-Munson curve and in part due to to the physicality of the powerful sound waves literally rocking your body.

For another, rock concerts typically have a *very* high ambient noise floor. If you have 90dB SPL ambient noise (shout to be heard levels) and you dial up a guitar sound that is swinging 18dB VU on chugging palm-mutes, then unless you are running with RMS levels into the pain threshold, all the detail and sustain from the guitar is going to get lost in the crowd noise.

I don't disagree that many heavy rock guitar players are overly gain-happy both live and in the studio. I think a lot of it comes from a tendency to play solo through headphones or nearfield speaker playback, where you get an exaggerated sense of detail and clarity. Push the listening speakers back a few feet, add in some bass, drums and splashy hi-hats, and turn the guitar level down enough for the vocal to squeeze through, and all of a sudden that massive guitar sounds like weak midrange fizz.

But even still, there is very often a significant difference between what works in the studio vs what works live. The players will have built a sound and an approach focused towards live performance (which is what they do, after all). It is the job of the engineer to find the most flattering way to capture and present the experience of the musicians' performance in a way that will translate well in real-world playback.

Cheers.

Hi there.

I do alot of Heavy- Deathmetal recording (some with guitars tuned down to 6 halftones). I usually plug the git into a distortion pedal and then into the amp.
Only turn up the volume knob on the pedal and almost no distortion. The same with the amp. The pedal only boosts the input volume and the amp does the rest.
I go out on a marshall 300W box and got upto 5 different mics set up. Watch the phase of the mics and mix together. U have to record at least 4 tracks rythm guitar and pan em left and right.
Hardly distorted but gets fatter the more traks u record.
Only minus is that the guitarplayer got to play the rythm stuff 4 times and has to play it quite exact. Then u will get a fat distorted guitar.

ORIGINAL: Mako
...We are talking rhythm guitar, same idea for leads?

Leads, as in dedicated guitar solos, are kind of a different animal, and you can get away with a lot more.

For one thing, the guitar solo typically does not have to "make room" for anything else. It takes over the role of the vocal, which typically means that all of the headroom and upper-midrange space that would otherwise be devoted to vocal clarity is now available for the guitar, so a lot of the masking effects that affect rythm guitars become a non-issue.

Leads tend to require a little less "thinking." A lead guitar that sounds good solo is likely to be effective in the mix.

Cheers.

I know of different types of distortion, sonar has a nice built in amp distortion plug in with several of them.  I use distortion practices on synth sounds more than on guitars with my instrumentals.  I'd say have your apprentices play with the knobs an exact the sound you all are talking about to achieve.  

Wow, 10 year old thread, back from the dead...