recordings sound muddy?

[Ibanezboy21]

hi everyone,

anyone know what i should do to make my recording sound 'clearer' and less muddy?

on the amp with high gain(guitar) it sounds awesome but when i play it on the computer it sounds like crap

i got a pretty decent guitar amp/sound card so im guessing it has something to do with the settings?


btw when i record stuff, is the bouncy thingy is suppose to be in the red zone? i have to turn down the volume on the amp to get it in the green area but that makes it sound more muddy/softer

heres my audio settings

[capthook]

So you are miking your amp with the mic plugged directly into the soundcard?
Or the mic into a pre-amp?
Whatever way, it should go into the line-in jack of the soundcard, not the mic jack (the mic jack gives muddiness/distortion)

And your 'bouncy thingy' should never be anywhere near the red.
This creates unwanted harmonic distortions.
To have it peak at -12 is usually considered ideal.

You should adjust your levels either through your pre-amp (not the *guitar* amp) or through your sound cards interface dialogue.
ie: set the soundcard for line-in and adjust the record level and/or line-in level.

[lobserve]

The meter should only peak at -12? I though recordings should be as close to max vol. without hitting the top to get good sound without noise. Is this wrong?

[dub3000]

Originally Posted by lobserve

The meter should only peak at -12? I though recordings should be as close to max vol. without hitting the top to get good sound without noise. Is this wrong?

depends on how much you trust your sound card. i usually aim for -6 on the peak meter but you definitely want a bit of clearance there.

my guess is if your recordings are muddy, check your front end (how you get signals into your computer) and your actual mixes (start cutting bass from stuff that shouldn't have it - you'd be surprised how much low end you can eq out of guitars and vocals if you have one or two solid bass elements).

make sure you're not distorting on the way in (maybe invest in a cheap standalone preamp if you haven't got one already, sound card preamps are awful). also, remember that part of the reason amps sound good is because they're very loud, and the human ear likes things that sound loud. getting a guitar sound that sounds good when quiet can take a LOT of work. try working with mic placement, turn down the gain a little, leave some mids in there and cut bass. make up the low end with a well recorded bass part and overdrive it a little, cut a little around 150Hz and don't leave anything in any track under 50Hz or so.