Ableton Forum

Hey guys... Well, I play black metal... so I want distortion... A lot of it. But not quite as much as I'm getting. Any tips for cleaning it up a bit/getting the tone I want?

are your tracks clipping? if you have tracks going into the red you might not be getting the kind of distortion you want - specifically if the Master track is going over 0 dbfs

Word, Maybe some more info about what you are doing would help us to answer your question, for all I know you are playing a tin can through a microwave.

Lmao nah running a tin can through a toaster... close though.

Jk... running guitar > amp > m-audio fast track ultra > ableton

Got gain right so it's just at Green, doesn't flash to red.

What mic are you using?
Could you post a clip of what you're hearing?

I'd say turn the distortion down a tad. Then, compress the shit out of it.

try to make it sound as s*** as you can so people accept you as "true"

edit: ups, dont know what the rules about swearing on this forum are...

I like the compress idea, how would I go about doing that?

Also... when I'm monitoring my playing through headphones.. there's a really distant high pitch buzz... It's not too big of deal, but why?

The buzz is probably just white noise from your audio loop. Unfortunately, when you use distortion this typically raises the noise floor, so any little buzz or squeal gets pretty noticeable until you start playing. I would turn the distortion knob down on your amp, and then see where you are at. If you need to add a little more grit, Live's "Saturator" plug-in is nice for moderate warmth, or maybe the "overdrive" plugin. You could also play the verse clean, and add distortion digitally in live, there are some amp plug-ins in there but I am not very familiar with them.

As for compression, google what it is first to learn how it works, then load lives compressor (in the fx browser) and play around with it to see what all the parameters do. I would imagine for live guitar, you would want a subtle to moderate compression just to squash those levels a bit, but other people on here will probably know more about mixing w/guitar.

sounds like your running a line out right out from your amp into your fast track. I've struggled with this. I learned the hard way that the distortion created by an amp needs to be shaped by a Cabinet or speaker, or you just get a full spectrum distortion, which sounds hissy, dirty and has no sort of dynamics.

i hate to tell you, but if you want to record anything close what you hear coming out of your amp, the only good solution is to get a large diaphragm condenser mic, or at the very least an sm57, and play around with different micing positions on the amp.

sure, there's alot of amp sims out there, but i've never found any that really give me they dynamic punch and tone that you get from a proper mic'd amp.