Doesnt sound or feel right

There are more things influencing your picking attack, your pick itself and your way of picking for example

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It's not my picking technique. I assure you. It's in the amp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI2eyQv8y5A&list=PL2jAOqft9Ugi6RUm_-sz25_Y3h9SebO6i&index=5

I just found this. He's tweaking all kinds of shit that I can't concentrate on right now cause I'm about to sleep. But I took a quick look and not too long after he starts tweaking I can hear it. Problem is this was done back in FW 14 and after taking a short attempt at it I got lost. Knobs are in different places and probably other things too.
 
I found that video around the time it came out and it helped me quite a bit in terms of becoming more confident in using the advanced parameters in the unit to shape my rhythm sounds in particular - you can change the characteristics of the distortion really radically. However, someone also mentioned something else further up the thread but it seemed to get ignored, so I want to reiterate and expand this point:

Finished records have a massive amount of dynamics processing on them. That dynamics processing will vary the tonal balance dependent on what level of input it's receiving. There will be ducking between the bass and kick drum, or automation, or both. There may be subharmonic exciters generating bass fundamentals. There may be two or more compressors, working on stems or capturing different response times. All of this will affect the perceived guitar tone and attack.

You can get your guitar sound nailed down perfectly... only to find it's not right when double or quad tracked. Get the pick attack bang on... only to find it disappears when there's a proper bass tone or double kicks. I would say the two biggest gains I made in terms of my rhythm guitar sound were a) realising how much of the sound I wanted was actually bass and b) shaping my mix from the start with an approximate chain on the master bus.

Edit: just seen that you're using the Slate FG-X. Unless you're using UNBELIEVABLY moderate settings (around 1 on most dials), that thing is the kiss of brickwall-limited death. I produce mixes to about -18dB RMS. The FG-X produced black rectangles on everything I fed it until it was hardly working at all. That will DEFINITELY mess with your attack and the tonal balance of the mix. I'm currently using the Waves Kramer Tape for saturation, into some mid/side stuff with Melda Dynamics and then a linear phase EQ to clean any excess low end and polish some top. It's pretty basic and not what I would use for "proper" mastering, but it's OK as a rough guide output bus chain and not too CPU-hungry.
 
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Dave Pensado praises the FG-X though. and I felt like it was doing some good on my master track. A combined compressor and limiter seemed like the way to go. Im surprised people are hating on it. But I guess I'll need to expand on other mastering methods.

I know there's a bunch of post processing stuff to do after the fact. I get that. It's the attack! That guy in the vid gets it BEFORE he throws plug-ins at it. Soon as I get the chance I'm gonna take another view of it. It looks like he makes it happen after he applies the drive block and the xformer parameters.
 
The FG-X is an amazing tool and I use it on all my mixes. Most transparent limiter I ever use. Hell, I even use one on the main buss and one on the drums buss. Works well on drums!

Those that don't like it are using it as a conventional limiter probably. You gotta learn to use it like a new plug and not a simple limiter.
 
Well, Dave Pensado knows his stuff and I'm not about to suggest I know any more than him. However, I'd venture it depends on the context of the praise - if he's saying he uses it as a rough guide on the main bus when mastering is going to be taken care of later by someone else and is likely to be brickwall-loud, that makes total sense. If he's saying he uses it all over everything all the time... well, his chops are better than mine!

Any limiter, by definition, is not transparent - otherwise it wouldn't be doing anything. Personally I like my mixes pretty dynamic and I am NOT a fan of incredibly loud masters - I listen on a system with a conveniently placed volume knob. Hence FG-X isn't to my taste, as I find it too extreme in the effect it has. I have other options (Waves, Sonalksis, Melda, more) that I prefer. Not saying the FG-X is bad, just not my thing - I don't think it's supposed to take the place of SADiE, either.
 
Well of course you don't just slap it on your mixbuss and that's it.
My usual mastering chain:

Mono bass plug
EQ
Multiband Compressor
Slow attack/release Compressor
FG-X limiter only
 
I know this is not the kind of sound you're looking for, I'm gonna try that later.

I wanna know if it's this that you mean for soft and no pointy attack.


 
Not quite but the roar is right. That sounds like low gain. I'm looking for a more "squishy" (I guess) attack that has higher gain.

I posted the youtube vid that shows what I mean if you wanna take a look.
 
alcyppa said:
I know this is not the kind of sound you're looking for, I'm gonna try that later.

I wanna know if it's this that you mean for soft and no pointy attack.


Click to expand...


Really nice job with this.

You'd be surprised how low-gain (I mean, not low gain by any stretch of the imagination but you get my point) a lot of Petrucci's tones are if you listen to the stems. Usually less gain that you think listening to the mix
 
Man I dont know whats happening... I followed that guys video to the T. And I can get something like it but there would be way too much mid. I go to cut some of it out but I feel like even the slightest cut of something causes it to loose so much life. I've tried so many IR's and tone matching (which never works) and it's like I can only have the attack or no life. One or the other. This is driving me nuts...
 


Actually I made something really close to what I'm looking for. I might change the high end IR to make it more shiney than edgy. But it's good and useable. I might even stick with it. Does anyone hear anything that I can do to enhance it at all?
 
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