Clean Arpeggiated Chords + Crunch Guitars + Solos

APE

APE

Inspired
Everything sounds too dark or distant, not clear and present.

Clean picked chords have chorus and compressor. Harmonized solos over that. In another part of the tune, all that, PLUS crunchy rhythm guitar ala "Still of the Night" or "No More Tears".

Problem is… The clean guitars are not clear enough. It's like it's too much or the wrong EQ or too wet or I don't know. How do I upload an .m4a file here? I also added compressor in Logic.

For the lead guitar, in logic, I added ChromaVerb and Channel EQ.

Here is the signal flow, along with the EQ. Amp is VibroVerb, input gain = 0.76.
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What are you asking?

Also, why post this in Amps and Cabs section? Doesn't seem to be related.

You can't upload audio files. You can use a hosting service like SoundCloud and then link to that.
 
Bro, I am mentioning that it sounds bad because I want it to not sound bad (duh) and instead, sound killer. This is distinctly not "Wow, this sounds like shit, awesome, I have no questions (EOM)". Sometimes you gotta point out the obvious, I guess, lol.

Here is a soundcloud file of an example that is unfinished earlier rough take of a few bits, just for example.


The acoustic guitar sounds like too backgroundy or something that makes it not so clear.

But if youre challenged to hear KILLER clean guitars in metal, "Pull Me Under", "Fade to Black", "In My Dreams", has your backe
 
Your first post is very unclear. You posted a bunch of statements... Your second post is not much different. You asked 1 question between the 2 posts, which I answered.

The beginning of that clip is a mess... Sounds like a lot of Reverb/Delay on everything. That will make things sound distant.

Additionally, you have the clean and one lead panned right and the other lead panned left.

The two on the right are battling for space.

I would move the clean part to the center.

Also, the EQ you have before the amp looks more like one you'd put after and amp for metal (not before).

And finally, though it sounds ok, the Vibroverb (or almost any Fender) is definitely not a typical metal amp.

Marshall or Mesa would probably serve you much better.
 
The clean guitar is stereo and right down the middle, not panned right.

Vibroverb was the best sounding amp I could find for clean guitars but if you have a better suggestion, what? You said Marshall or Mesa. From my experience, not the best sounding clean amps. Not sure what you suggest…
 
APE said:
The clean guitar is stereo and right down the middle, not panned right.

Vibroverb was the best sounding amp I could find for clean guitars but if you have a better suggestion, what? You said Marshall or Mesa. From my experience, not the best sounding clean amps. Not sure what you suggest…
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I've listened to that part 3 times now, and there definitely seems to be way more clean signal on the right...

As for the amp, you said you used the Vibroverb - you didn't say for which parts. My comment about Marshall or Mesa was in reference to the distorted tones (that's why I said that amp isn't typical for metal). The clean tone itself is the best part of the track, IMO.
 
The clean guitar is recorded straigt up the middle. I don't know why it sounds more right to you. I don't hear that, in fact, the clean guitars don't sound that clear to me.

I'm pretty happy with the distorted guitar tone used for the rhythm and lead — you're not.
I'm not happy with the clean sounds — you think they're the best part of the track.

Distorted guitars:
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Ah, ok. I want to do pre-production and develop a process for production. I've added to the song. The music is cooler now but the sound quality is maybe only slightly better.

How can I make my recording better? How can I screenshare my logic session with audio? When I can do this, then I can find a producer and we can make this tune have the sound it deserves.
 
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I agree with @unix-guy. The clean guitar is definitely more prominent in the right speaker than the left, not sure what happened in your recording process, you can also check your settings and make sure the cab block isn’t panned slightly. To me it sounds like there is a constant slap back effect on, and it’s muddying up your sound.
 
So took a second listen through headphones today when I got home, you definitely have an issue with the clean track, it is not 100% in the center or whatever stereo cab you are using is muffled on the left side. It’s also possibly the fact that you have the filter after the cab because I believe filter sums to mono, @chris or @unix-guy can probably confirm this. I would also get rid of that eq before the clean amp as it doesn’t seem to me it would help for that track. I would also raise the input gain and lower the amp level might give it a little more punch. You would be surprised how many “clean” tracks aren’t purely clean when isolated.
 
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marc0810 said:
So took a second listen through headphones today when I got home, you definitely have an issue with the clean track, it is not 100% in the center or whatever stereo cab you are using is muffled on the left side. It’s also possibly the fact that you have the filter after the cab because I believe filter sums to mono, @chris or @unix-guy can probably confirm this. I would also get rid of that eq before the clean amp as it doesn’t seem to me it would help for that track. I would also raise the input gain and lower the amp level might give it a little more punch. You would be surprised how many “clean” tracks aren’t purely clean when isolated.
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Off the top of my head I don't think the Filter sums to mono... But if it did, then I think the signal would be centered unless the Filter were panned.
 
True good point unless the input is set to left only. The preset just looks wonky to me, but I follow the kiss method so I don’t add a lot of extra blocks if I don’t need to but that’s me.
 
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