Hi There,
A couple of things that work for me in dialing direct recording tones...
Turn off all of your delays, reverbs, stereo enhancers, etc and start with a dry MONO tone.
Once you get in the ballpark of where you want to go with a patch, put on a well produced/recorded CD of a band with a similar guitar tone that you are trying to dial and re-tweak. Dialing your sound with a reference point makes all the difference in the world. When you start to sound like you are "in the mix" you are getting close.
At this point, your tone may sound a bit flat and two dimensional, depending on what you are looking for. Now add in a touch of reverb with the thought in mind that you want this to not sound like an effect per say, but to merely give you the impression that your sound is coming from a mic'd source in a room. Try to dial in a reverb that mimics what your idea of a good sounding recording studio would sound like where you would mic your cabs. Take time with this reverb, as it will serve you for many of your patches. Now, dial in just a tiny bit of this until your tone begins to sound three dimensional and have some air around it. If you can hear the reverb trail you've probably gone too far. It is something that you shouldn't notice until you bypass it and then find that you miss it. There is some good starting parameters for this in the Wiki that you might want to try, although I would dial the wet mix back quite a bit... maybe 9-10%.
If you are planning on double or quad tracking, you may want to leave your patches as mono and adjusting panning in your DAW. If you prefer to use stereo patches, then start to tweak your panning at this point. I approach this the way I would with a real set of mics and cabs... For instance, an SM57 and a MD421 or R121 are a good combination for rock tones. Let the 57 be the main part of your tone and dial up the Senny or the Royer until your sound gains some girth and some dimension and loses some of that harsh midrange from just the 57. Do this in mono at first. This can be on a duplicate cab (real world would often be same cab and often same speaker) or you can do this on a complimentary cab. If you plan on going stereo, don't just pan everything hard left and right, but instead listen as you pan and see what sounds best. Also, keep in mind that if you are panning two sources of unequal level (the 57 is probably set louder than the other mic for example) that you'll want to pan unevenly to keep the tone sounding "centered" without changing the ratio between mics.
If your sound is starting to happen, but is sounding a bit too muddy, don't be afraid to tame the bass, and do some surgery with the parametric EQ. Try using a high pass and cut out the portion that is going to fight with the bass player (below 70-120Hz). Try some surgical cuts at the frequencies that seem to cause you the most mud, such as 250Hz. Maybe add a little boost at 2K for some clarity and maybe boost a high shelf at around 10-12k for some added air.
If you are getting some harsh or artificial sounding highs, try doing some EQing in similar fashion... Sweep the parametric with a large boost and try to accentuate the offending freqs, and then turn that boost into a cut. Adjust the Q to as narrow as possible to cut out the ugly without interfering with the good. Rule of thumb is wide Q for more natural boosting and narrow Q for less obtrusive cutting. Also, try dialing in a touch of the warmth parameter here. I also personally feel a touch of cab drive helps here, but some might debate that.
Remember, do all of this back and forth with a good reference mix. Makes a world of difference.
Now, you might be feeling like your tone is a bit dry sounding and needs some reverb. Before reaching for the reverb, try using a delay instead. Roll off some of the highs in the repeats and limit the repeats to 1-3. You can add a sense of space without muddying up your tone or your mix. Reverb can be just the ticket for certain tones, but it can take a lot of sonic real estate and also make your sound more distant.
Once you think that you're really getting there, try recording some tracks the way you would with a real world amp, cab, and mic set-up... i.e. double/quad tracking, post processing, etc. This is part of the elusive secret sauce of pro sounding recordings.
Go back and listen to your test tracks with fresh ears and record variations of your tones in the same mix to reference later and on separate systems. If you prefer, then just dial in separate patches with subtle variations so you can spin the patch wheel and hear the differences in real-time. You'll start to narrow in on what you like. I think I had like 13 or 14 different Recto crunch presets before I finally got to where I am now. Same with lead patches, cleans, etc (who said OCD???!!!
)
Remember, when in doubt, err on the side of:
Bright rather than dark
Dry rather than wet
Less gain rather than more
Less wide rather than more wide (panning)
More mids rather than less
Hope this helps!
-Matt
