Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
penguinpajamas
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Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by penguinpajamas » Mon Jul 29, 2013 10:37 pm

Hey guys. So I've been trying to run my electric guitar into Ableton to do some recording and I'm not really finding myself satisfied with the results. I'm feeding it in through my audio interface and using the Amp audio effect but I'm just not really getting a sounds I'm very happy with. I've tried using some of Ableton's effects to process the sound but I'm still just not very satisfied with the results. I was wondering if you guy had any advice as to how I can attain a better sound from my guitar. Should I try adding some gain from the mic pre-amp or is that a bad idea? What's the typical method of getting a quality sound by feeding a guitar directly into Ableton?

Thanks,
Charlie

Mister Natural
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by Mister Natural » Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:08 am

an amp-modeler is your friend. Whether it be an outboard box like a POD or Digitech or Adrenalinn, what-have-you. Make sure they are configured for direct in to your interface, not for inputing a guitar amp(there's usually a switch for this)

or a software modeler like Amplitube

I think LIVE's AMP sounds fantastic for bass guitar but weak(as you have found-out)for guitar

best of luck !
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jbodango
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by jbodango » Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:26 am

open the tutorial/lesson file called Amp, then load the file amp-guitar examples.

H20nly
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by H20nly » Tue Jul 30, 2013 12:28 am

don't forget to load an instance of cabinet as well... amp + cabinet = rig. it will sound better... or, at the very least, be more tweakable.

joeyfivecents
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by joeyfivecents » Tue Jul 30, 2013 1:15 am

If you're using Windows go find the free Simulanalog Guitarsuite. Really really good free plugins. If you're on a mac like me, you're gonna have to pay- Amplitube or Guitar Rig or Podfarm. Amp kind of sucks.
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Sage
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by Sage » Tue Jul 30, 2013 2:30 pm

penguinpajamas wrote:Hey guys. So I've been trying to run my electric guitar into Ableton to do some recording and I'm not really finding myself satisfied with the results. I'm feeding it in through my audio interface and using the Amp audio effect but I'm just not really getting a sounds I'm very happy with. I've tried using some of Ableton's effects to process the sound but I'm still just not very satisfied with the results. I was wondering if you guy had any advice as to how I can attain a better sound from my guitar. Should I try adding some gain from the mic pre-amp or is that a bad idea? What's the typical method of getting a quality sound by feeding a guitar directly into Ableton?

Thanks,
Charlie
If you're just using Ableton to add effects to guitar, then send the output to a real guitar amp.

Amp sims are there to emulate how a guitar amp sounds through a microphone being played back in the control room, not a replacement for actually being in a room with one.
If your issue is just with the quality of the amp sim then NI does a very basic, but free version of Guitar Rig and Softube have a half price sale on at the moment and Ableton's amp sims are based on those.

crumhorn
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by crumhorn » Tue Jul 30, 2013 2:58 pm

A good preamp can make all the difference. If you are going in through the mic inputs you wont get the best result.

If your soundcard doesn't have an instrument input you could always try recording from the preamp output from a proper guitar amp - or stick a mic in front of it.
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penguinpajamas
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by penguinpajamas » Tue Jul 30, 2013 6:02 pm

I've actually experimented quite a bit with using actual amps, I'm looking at a more digital approach though because I'm going to living in dorms soon and I don't think I'll have room for my amp, so I've been looking for an alternative. I actually have instrument inputs on my audio interface. Both inputs have mic pre-amps or can be toggled to work as an instrument input. My question was whether or not adding extra gain from the mic pre would be a good or bad idea.

Are there any amp simulators that really sounds quality enough to pass as the real thing? Or at least close enough to work?

H20nly
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by H20nly » Tue Jul 30, 2013 7:05 pm

i don't think that extra gain will hurt anything unless it adds a lot of hiss. your ears will tell you that though. just make sure that the .wav images aren't cutting off at the top as that would indicate clipping. no DAW or VST can fix clipping.

Tone Deft
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by Tone Deft » Tue Jul 30, 2013 7:45 pm

Live's Amp is really bad, IMO.

Simulators are just that, simulations of what they wish they could be.

my journey...
direct dry recording into a pre-amp
- sounded ok but a boring sound

Guitar Rig
- impressed at first but realized it sounded bad and HATED booting a computer to play guitar and latency vs computer power meant playing IT when I just wanted to strum some tunes FFS.

Line 6 Pod
- dug it after spending time making my own effects. record your voice while you play and orally describe what you're tweaking.

back to a real amp (Fender Hot Rod DeVille
- it really opened my ears to what a proper guitar tone is. I put the Pod between the pre-amp and power amp stages as a volume reducer, I should be using a soak. with that setup I can play at volumes lower than an acoustic with great tone. it can also get way too loud. I've lived in apartments and condos since college (20 years) I know what you mean.

some players I respect love Guitar Rig, some love the Pod. find your own journey.

edited for pointless swearing.
Last edited by Tone Deft on Tue Jul 30, 2013 10:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tarekith
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by Tarekith » Tue Jul 30, 2013 9:29 pm

The key to getting good guitar sounds Amp is to ALWAYS use Cabinet too. On it's own, I really don't like Amp all that much either, the tone is just a bit one dimensional for me. But when you add Cabinet, it all sounds like you'd expect, or at least close to it.

That said, I'm a big fan of the Line6 Pod series myself. I had an HD500 that i recently sold, but only because the desktop based Pod HD worked better for me ergonomically. Lots of nice sounds, some killer effects, and the new HD series is so dynamic, Good stuff.
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Bagatell
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by Bagatell » Tue Jul 30, 2013 9:53 pm

penguinpajamas wrote:Are there any amp simulators that really sounds quality enough to pass as the real thing? Or at least close enough to work?
Kemper profiling amp or Axe FX. How's your credit rating?

lapieuvre
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by lapieuvre » Tue Jul 30, 2013 10:08 pm

http://www.tonebone.com/tb-dragster.htm -This helps remove the "electric razor" sound.

http://www.voxamps.com/us/amplug/ -this also gives me good results.
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Mister Natural
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by Mister Natural » Wed Jul 31, 2013 12:28 am

I wanna try one of these, as well :
http://tech21nyc.com/products/sansamp/c ... eries.html

peace
an expert only on what it feels like to be me
& you are who you google
#smile

Sage
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Re: Getting a Good Electric Guitar Sound

Post by Sage » Wed Jul 31, 2013 1:12 am

penguinpajamas wrote:I've actually experimented quite a bit with using actual amps, I'm looking at a more digital approach though because I'm going to living in dorms soon and I don't think I'll have room for my amp, so I've been looking for an alternative. I actually have instrument inputs on my audio interface. Both inputs have mic pre-amps or can be toggled to work as an instrument input. My question was whether or not adding extra gain from the mic pre would be a good or bad idea.

Are there any amp simulators that really sounds quality enough to pass as the real thing? Or at least close enough to work?
No harm in trying extra gain, more likely to end up with more distortion than anything else.

To my knowledge, all amp sims are basically emulating how a guitar amp will sound through a microphone and listening back to it in the control room. So no, nothing passes for the "real thing" in that sense and can't be seen as an alternative. I think this is where a lot of guitarists struggle with amp sims.

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