Recording Electric Guitar using Guitar Rig 5 (help)sounds "small"

GrahamG

I have no experience with recording Guitar(electric),I've got a recording set up working using Guitar Rig 5 & Studio One(Artist 4) software interface is a PreSonus  Audiobox 48 into my windows 10 Laptop.

I've got all that working & i'm Recording Tracks,but the Guitar sound is not "big" enough it sounds a bit "whimpy".
Can anyone give me any advice for making it more "convincing" maybe using effects i have no knowledge of "effects",but i have a feeling that's what's missing,although that's based on complete ignorance .  
Thanks,Graham.

Woodenhead

Double tracking - record one track pan it hard left, make a new track, record the same thing and pan hard right.

Works well for metal-type tracks, usually rhythm but guitarists like Randy Rhoads have been known to double and even triple track solos (Crazy Train, for example).

A small amount of delay and reverb helps to thicken the sound too, depends how much you're already using, if any.

thecolourbox

What is your normal playing set up?

GrahamG

Woodenhead said:

Double tracking - record one track pan it hard left, make a new track, record the same thing and pan hard right.

Works well for metal-type tracks, usually rhythm but guitarists like Randy Rhoads have been known to double and even triple track solos (Crazy Train, for example).

A small amount of delay and reverb helps to thicken the sound too, depends how much you're already using, if any.

thecolourbox said:

What is your normal playing set up?

Thanks,Woodenhead.I don't use effects when i'm gigging & I normally don't amplify my Guitar at home,so this is a total new experience for me.

Thanks,thecolourbox.pretty much as I've posted above I normally just use Guitar straight into Amp no effects,when i'm gigging

dogload

Where I would start (and sometimes do) is find an amp model on Guitar Rig that is as close to your own as possible and try to get as close a sound to the real one from that.

PolarityMan

Are you comparing the sound in your monitors to a real guitar amp? Because usually its going to be either the effect of the hguitar amp being louder or possibly simply moving more air than small studio monitors.

If your comparing your guitar tone to another played back through the same source then look at your gain staging to make sure the plugin is getting enough signal...most have an input meter you want it to not be hitting the red when you dig in hard but to be high up in the green maybe pushing the orange when you play normally. 

Its worth trying some IRs for different cabs too as the cab has a huge effect on the "size" of the tone.

If that still doesn't help then as well as the double tracking suggestion you could try putting a hi-pass filter on to cut out some Junk you dont want in your guitar anyway (say 80-120hz depending on your tuning) then boost play with boosting the upper mids.

that should make your guitar sound more aggresive and also give you a little more headroom so you can push the volume more without getting flubby.

GrahamG

Thanks for the replies,i've taken advice from the replies & i'm getting it a bit better,but at the minute I've resorted to using my Marshall ORI20H di into the Presonus,that's giving me my best recording up to now.

Freebird

In my opinion GR ain't the best amp software nowadays, although it does have its uses. If you need realistic sounds I would look elsewhere. I tend to favour Nembrini and Helix Native when not using the Kemper, but there are other contenders out there.

https://honestampsimreviews.com/

GrahamG

Freebird said:

In my opinion GR ain't the best amp software nowadays, although it does have its uses. If you need realistic sounds I would look elsewhere. I tend to favour Nembrini and Helix Native when not using the Kemper, but there are other contenders out there.

https://honestampsimreviews.com/

Thanks for replying,as you can tell from my post recording is all new to me & I have looked at the software options with the link on your post,thanks for that I had no idea most of these products existed.  
So I decided to download one of the "free/trial" products & predictably I can't get it to open in Studio One .
I've followed the instructions in the pdf & did a copy & paste into the "plugins" folder in S1,but it doesn't show up in the software,again i'm not used to doing stuff like this,the download was in 3 parts a "folder" a "file extension" & the PDF,should I unzip the "folder" before it goes into the "plugin" folder in S1 or sould I just copy & paste both the "folder" & the "extension" as they are downloaded.
Hope you don't mind me asking,but I would really like to try one of these products from your link,at the moment my "recorded" Guitar sound is fairly poor.
Cheers.

Snap

Its my go to plug in for guitar recording. Have a good look through some of the presets, see what you think sounds near to what you are after, then have a mess about with the various settings on the preset, to get an understanding of what is doing what etc.

Panning hard left and hard right is OK, but it can overwhelm your space. Alternatively, try panning 50% each side, and mess about with various levels of panning. Another trick with panning is to nudge one of the guitar tracks a millisec or two in front or behind the other. This introduces a subtle modulation which thickens it all up. 

Freebird

GrahamG said:

Thanks for replying,as you can tell from my post recording is all new to me & I have looked at the software options with the link on your post,thanks for that I had no idea most of these products existed.  
So I decided to download one of the "free/trial" products & predictably I can't get it to open in Studio One .
I've followed the instructions in the pdf & did a copy & paste into the "plugins" folder in S1,but it doesn't show up in the software,again i'm not used to doing stuff like this,the download was in 3 parts a "folder" a "file extension" & the PDF,should I unzip the "folder" before it goes into the "plugin" folder in S1 or sould I just copy & paste both the "folder" & the "extension" as they are downloaded.
Hope you don't mind me asking,but I would really like to try one of these products from your link,at the moment my "recorded" Guitar sound is fairly poor.
Cheers.

What plugin did you download, have you got a link?

GrahamG

I downloaded the "free" JCM800 from Mercurial,with the intention to pay for the full software,if I can tell the difference(old age & a bit of deafness may intervene.  
Once again thanks for replying.

GrahamG

Snap said:

Its my go to plug in for guitar recording. Have a good look through some of the presets, see what you think sounds near to what you are after, then have a mess about with the various settings on the preset, to get an understanding of what is doing what etc.

Panning hard left and hard right is OK, but it can overwhelm your space. Alternatively, try panning 50% each side, and mess about with various levels of panning. Another trick with panning is to nudge one of the guitar tracks a millisec or two in front or behind the other. This introduces a subtle modulation which thickens it all up. 

Thanks Snap,i'll give it a go 

Freebird

.GrahamG said:

I downloaded the "free" JCM800 from Mercurial,with the intention to pay for the full software,if I can tell the difference(old age & a bit of deafness may intervene.  
Once again thanks for replying.

Spark Demo 1.1.2 Install.exe is the file you downloaded?

If so, click install and you need to point it to your S1 VST folder path. Maybe after that you will need to do a refresh scan inside S1?

You can also add an additional VST directory ...  Studio One menu -> Options -> Locations -> VST Plug-ins

Some extra info:

GrahamG

Freebird said:

.GrahamG said:

I downloaded the "free" JCM800 from Mercurial,with the intention to pay for the full software,if I can tell the difference(old age & a bit of deafness may intervene.  
Once again thanks for replying.

Spark Demo 1.1.2 Install.exe is the file you downloaded?

If so, click install and you need to point it to your S1 VST folder path. Maybe after that you will need to do a refresh scan inside S1?

You can also add an additional VST directory ...  Studio One menu -> Options -> Locations -> VST Plug-ins

Thanks again, the file I downloaded was actually an older discontinued free file the JCM800,i didn't really want to download a pay for file,if I can't get to grips with it.
I watched the demo vid you posted, sounds really great, but I have a funny feeling that the guy doing the demo could make anything sound great  ,he's just a tad out of my league.
I'm going to have a think about whether to download a pay for file in the hope I can make it work.
I'm not a tight arse(well I am a bit),but i'm only playing with this while i'm stuck indoors.
Thanks once again,i appreciate you helping me out.

Freebird

GrahamG said:

Thanks again, the file I downloaded was actually an older discontinued free file the JCM800,i didn't really want to download a pay for file,if I can't get to grips with it.
I watched the demo vid you posted, sounds really great, but I have a funny feeling that the guy doing the demo could make anything sound great  ,he's just a tad out of my league.
I'm going to have a think about whether to download a pay for file in the hope I can make it work.
I'm not a tight arse(well I am a bit),but i'm only playing with this while i'm stuck indoors.
Thanks once again,i appreciate you helping me out.

Ah, so you downloaded the JCM800 preamp. You just need the x32 bit or x64 bit file depending on what version of Windows you have, and then copy it into your VST folder or point S1 to wherever it is located. As mentioned previously, you may also need to do a refresh of your VST folders in S1.

You could give the Spark demo version a go too, as it will probably be a lot better.