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"If you're playing rock guitar, there's a real temptation to use way too much distortion to get what you think is the sound on records. Most great rock guitar t
by SwellJoe 9y ago
"If you're playing rock guitar, there's a real temptation to use way too much distortion to get what you think is the sound on records. Most great rock guitar tones are much cleaner than they sound. When in doubt, use less gain."
So true it hurts. I'm a guitarist of three decades and I worked as a recording engineer through college and occasionally as a hobby since then (I went to school for audio engineering). The number of times I've had to beg, plead, cajole, and threaten a guitarist to cut the distortion is huge.
The hallmark of an amateur guitarist is mosquito tone. There's a belief that it masks errors, and it does, but it's such a glaring error in and of itself that it's not worth the trade-off.
- eggpy 9y agomosquito tone?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- SwellJoe 9y agoThis is a pretty good video abut the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYtXBUS_kwY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYtXBUS_kwY "Mosquito" just means buzzy and lacking clarity. In the video, he's using good quality gear and is a pretty good player, so even when he does everything wrong it doesn't sound as bad as this problem can sound. Then again, his "good" example is still too distorted to record well even for the style of music he's playing (metal uses much more distortion than any other genre), and if I were recording him, I'd be begging him to take it down a couple more notches.
- mikestew 9y agoOver-distorted, i. e., buzzy, like a mosquito.