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Author Topic: First mic recording - Nailbomb and Tool inside *UPDATED - FULL SONG*  (Read 3389 times)

lyonk55

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I decided to use some birthday money to finally get myself an actual mic and stop with VST plugins and such. So here is my first ever attempt and recording anything properly: the chorus from Tool's "Lateralus". No so much trying to copy their sound, just a simple riff to try and get a decent sound. Any advice is welcome. Excuse the tom sound, I didn't bother messing with the drums much.

Guitar is a Tanglewood Les Paul with a Nailbomb bridge and Cold Sweat neck (now in the right places) into the soft lead channel of my Engl Screamer, boosted with an MXR Wylde OD.

Bass in an Indie Swamp 4 into a cheap 60 watt Hiwatt amp, also using the MXR to give it a bit more punchiness.

Mic is an AKG 770 into a Line 6 GX interface, POD Farm's noise gate and Reaper.

*Finnished recording a full version. Gear is pretty much the same, except the bass is now my Ibanez BTB775, without the MXR and with a Boss Chorus pedal. Cleans are the Nailbomb and Cold Sweat together.
« Last Edit: July 21, 2011, 03:02:59 PM by lyonk55 »

JacksonRR

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Re: First mic recording - Nailbomb and Tool inside
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2011, 04:45:45 AM »
I enjoyed that and it sounded like you did too. Your guitars do have a very good core tone. I've had some pointers thrown my way a few years back and I'd be glad to share. Other than the standard "play with your mic positions" and whatever else you prob already know, that is. Take it in moderation, though. We all do it a bit differently.

Quad track the guitars and pan one pair 90% left and right and the other pair 75% left and right. Not exactly those percentages, but it's a good place to start. The outermost pair use more distortion than the innermost pair so you get a perception of great overdrive, while the innermost will have extra definition in the stereo spectrum where they compete with the other instruments due to less amp gain. Eq wise you can get a little more selfish with your outermost pair, but try to keep the inside working with the rest. You can play with this setup for hours, but the quickest way I've found is to EQ all of them as close as possible to one another and then start "taking" from the inside and "adding" what you took to the outside. This will give you a huge sound without crowding the inside where the snare, bass drum, bass and vocals sit. Don't be afraid to use a touch of delay on the outer tracks, synced to the track BPM. It won't cloud up the areas you want to keep punchy.
Also, I always had the impression Chancellor used a DI to track his bass parts. Just has that super clean high headroom DI sound to me. If you take that new mic of yours and mic the bass around the neck pup(yeah like an acoustic) you can add some really nice "metalness" to the bass DI track. I don't mean heavy metal, but rather the sound of the strings. Don't mix that too high. Around 2-5 percent. You want to not know it's there, but can tell when it's gone. If that makes sense. It's worked well when I've wanted to do a Toolish bass sound.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2011, 05:01:28 AM by JacksonRR »

lyonk55

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Re: First mic recording - Nailbomb and Tool inside
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2011, 12:25:25 PM »
Thanks mate.

I decided to give the whole song a try now, so I'll give that stuff a shot. I think I get what you mean by "metalness". I've always found it tough to get that really clear sound he has even with a pick, so that might help.

Don't know about in the studio, but I saw a run through of Justin's live rig: 3 GK heads, a 4x12 and a 8x10 Mesa cabs mic'd, a DI to the PA and about 3 packed pedal boards plus his Wals. Whish I could afford all that :(.

JacksonRR

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Re: First mic recording - Nailbomb and Tool inside
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2011, 05:30:55 PM »
Dude, both Chancellor and Jones have insane setups. When I saw them live, Jones was running a Marshall and a Diezel. Can't really say too much about Chancellor's setup except he did have a pedal board that equaled Jones' in size. That was one of the best experiences I've ever had. I've been impressed and had the hair stand up on my neck at shows before but not like that. The climax of Schism was so insane. I couldn't even tell you my facial expression. It was an absolute perfect moment. Tool isn't even really a favorite of mine, but goddamn are they amazing live. Maynard had a mohawk and a black skin suit and was in the background doin weird dances and shite. All you could see was his silhouette.  :lol:

Good luck on the recording! Looking forward to hearing revision 2. I did listen to a few Tool songs after my post and you might want to bring the pairs a little closer together width wise and pan them wider. Say, 95% and 85%. Somewhere in there. He gets mixed pretty wide to give lots of room for that bass.

lyonk55

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Re: First mic recording - Nailbomb and Tool inside
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2011, 10:45:57 PM »
Yeah, still waiting for Tool to get back to touring.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

mbchepburn

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Re: First mic recording - Nailbomb and Tool inside
« Reply #5 on: July 12, 2011, 12:48:40 AM »
Is it Ceramic or Alnico the Nailbomb?

lyonk55

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Re: First mic recording - Nailbomb and Tool inside
« Reply #6 on: July 12, 2011, 01:07:04 PM »
It's the alinco one.