My Tone |
GMC Forum > Discussion Boards > VINTAGE GMC > Community Activities and Tutorials > Ask an Instructor > Marcus Siepen|
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Nov 6 2009, 12:25 PM
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Many of you guys were asking me about how I get my tone, so here is a little guide:
Lets start with my guitars, as most of you know I am only using Gibson Les Pauls. They deliver exactly the kind of sound that I want, a very warm, fat and singing tone, with lots of low end and sustain without end. If you like this kind of sound then you should definitely go for a guitar with humbuckers, single coils would be the wrong type of pickups for that kind of sounds, also a mahogany body is recommended, cause this wood delivers this warm fat tone. As I mentioned before I am using humbuckers in all my guitars, the combination of a Les Paul with an EMG 81 is very powerful, but also the regular Gibson stock pickups sound absolutely great and deliver an even more singing tone. Actually I am using different guitars depending on what sounds I want, the ones armed with EMG's are awesome for fast highgain songs, while the Gibson pickups are great for more midtempo stuff like our song "Bright Eyes" for example. About amplifiers, there are many great amps out there, and in the end it is all a matter of taste I guess, but I found "my" tone with Mesa Boogies Tripple Rectifier, the most powerful amp I know. It is amazing how fast and precise this amp is, how much air you can move with it  A Rectifier and a Les Paul can be a very devastating couple that can tear down walls, and this is exactly what I like  A Rectifier offers gain without end, but actually I am not really using that much gain. If you use too much distortion your sound will only get muddy, less precise and you will lose all you attack, this is the opposite of what I want and actually it is a mistake that I saw with many of your recordings, many of you just use too much gain. What I do is I turn down the gain a bit, but by dubbling my guitars in a recording the sounds gets huge, without losing the attack. This is something that you can try yourself easily, record something with not too much gain and listen to that single track. You might think that the gain is not enough, but then just double it by recording it again, listen to both tracks at the same time, and you'll be surprised... By the way, doubling is something essential if you want to have a big fat sound, everything we reocrd with BG is doubled AT LEAST, there are parts that are doubled 4 times, if not more often, like that the sound gets real big. For my lessons here I normally record either 3 or 4 tracks of rhythm guitars. If I go for 3, like in the Tom Morello lesson, I pan 2 tracks completely to left and right, while the 3rd track stays in the middle. If I do 4 tracks, then there will be 2 tracks left and 2 track right. A nice trick when it comes to doubling is to use different sounds or even different amps, like this you can really shape your tone. You can take the low end form one amp, the mids from another and the high frequencies from a third one if you want, but I guess for home recording this is a bit too much For the Tom Morello lesson I used a Rectifier for tracks one and 2, and another Rectifier, that was set a bit different, for the third track.When it comes to effects, I am not really using a lot, my normal rhythm tone has no effects at all, while my clean sound has a bit of chorus, reverb and delay, this is about it. Only sometimes I am using more, like for the Solo in the Morello lesson, here I am also using a Wah, actually the auto Wah of my Axe-FX Ultra. In my opinion too many effects only kill your sound, so I am very selective about them. And well, last but not least, there is this saying "the tone comes from your fingers"... and guess what, it is absolutely true! Of course all my equipment helps me big time to get my sound and tone, but even if I am using your gear, it will still sound like me, cause after all we form our tone with our fingers, our vibrato, our bends, the way we pick strings... so equipment is not everything. -------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
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Nov 6 2009, 12:28 PM
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Very nice read
Thank you! |
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Nov 6 2009, 02:07 PM
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Absolutely helpful post! Thanks a lot, Marcus! I`ve learn things that I´ve never thought about.
Great!
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Nov 6 2009, 04:03 PM
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Cool Post Marcus thanks a lot ....
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Nov 6 2009, 04:50 PM
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Thank you Marcus for sharing this. It is really helpful.
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Nov 7 2009, 02:53 PM
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You're welcome
-------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
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Nov 7 2009, 03:16 PM
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Very informative!! Thanks Marcus!!
-------------------- I'd rather have a full Bottle in front of me than a full Frontal Lobotomy!!
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Nov 10 2009, 11:12 AM
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A little addition here: when in my lessons I talk about recording my guitars with a rectifier, I am not using my "real" Mesa Boogie Rectifier here at home of course. I guess my neighbours, and also my family, wouldn't really like that
For recording here at home I always used more appropriate amps, in the beginning I used a couple of Pods (I had the riginal one, later then Pod 2.0 and in the end a Pod XT), after that I switched to Guitar Rig 3, and now I am using my Axe-FX Ultra. The big advantage of such tools is of course that you can get the sound of a full blown amp at any volume that you want, try that with a real Rectifier at home and you will be in trouble You also don't have to mess around with cabinets, power soaks or microphones, all this makes recording at home much more comfortable.If you have such an amp or ampsimulation yourself, but you are not happy with your sound yet, try to experiment a bit with it. Chose a preset that comes rather close to the tone that you would like to have and try to tweak it into "your" sound, most of todays modeling amps offer rather good sounds for home recording. -------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
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Nov 10 2009, 05:33 PM
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Thanks for the insights Marcus! That was a very interesting reading!
This post has been edited by Bogdan Radovic: Nov 10 2009, 05:33 PM -------------------- For GMC support please email support (at) guitarmasterclass.net
Check out my lessons and my instructor board. Check out my beginner guitar lessons course! ; Take a bass course now! |
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Nov 11 2009, 05:38 AM
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Great tips Marcus!
-------------------- Check out my lessons!
My Band: Thabu Myspace New Thabu Official Site!! My Websites: http://www.santiagodiazgarces.com.ar Myspace |
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Nov 11 2009, 06:27 AM
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QUOTE (Marcus Siepen @ Nov 6 2009, 06:25 AM)  What I do is I turn down the gain a bit, but by dubbling my guitars in a recording the sounds gets huge, without losing the attack. This is something that you can try yourself easily, record something with not too much gain and listen to that single track. You might think that the gain is not enough, but then just double it by recording it again, listen to both tracks at the same time, and you'll be surprised... By the way, doubling is something essential if you want to have a big fat sound, everything we reocrd with BG is doubled AT LEAST, there are parts that are doubled 4 times, if not more often, like that the sound gets real big. A nice trick when it comes to doubling is to use different sounds or even different amps, like this you can really shape your tone. You can take the low end form one amp, the mids from another and the high frequencies from a third one if you want Hey Marcus! Interesting tips! I had read about most of them before but as I have the opportunity to ask you about them, I sure will!We'll begin to record the guitar for our first album in a month or so, so I'm really trying to learn everything I can. By the way, we record ourselves (except drums) as we don't have an immense budget and we like to take our time.. So, we my main interrogation is about using different amps for tracks of the same guitarist. I have a Framus Cobra with VHT Fatbottom cab and my friend has a Bogner Uberschall and an old Marshall Jubilee 87' cab. I initally thought about recording a track with the framus and a track with the bogner for each guitar. I then thought about running the Framus and the Bogner in stereo to record both guitars (on different cabs). Maybe we can even switch the cabs for each head for a track? What would be the way to go according to you? Maybe we should even use all the guitar we have to get a wider spectrum? What about mics? What do you use? How many of them? Placed in witch way? For the demos we only used à SM57 but now we'd like to use a Sennheiser 609 as well. I also heard that another 57 placed far in the room would bring more ''presence'' or ''air'' to the sound. What are your views on this? When you talk about some the fact that on some parts of a song you record more than 2 tracks, I"m not very knowledgable (other guitarist is better than me) and it may sound like a dumb question but, how can you record let's say 8 guitars on a riff and 2 on another one right after? That won't sound "unbalanced''? So far we recorded with full gain like when we play live and I also think and have heard a lot that it would be better to cut on it a bit. Thanks a lot for you help and time! Sorry for the average english! Gab -------------------- LIVE FOR STEEL - DIE FOR STEEL!!!
RIOTOR thrash/death metal hell http://www.riotor.ca http://www.myspace.com/riotor Gear: Ibanez S5470 sol Bc Rich Warlock Nj Framus Cobra v2 VHT Fatbottom p50e Rocktron Xpression Rocktron Midimate DOD SR231 EQ Boss NS-2 |
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Nov 12 2009, 02:07 PM
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Hi Gab, whenever you (or anybody else) has a question, feel free to ask me here, thats what this forum is there for ;-)
About using several amps: You have two good amps available (I know and have tried both), so you should definitely use them. Here you have different options: Option one is very simple: You use your setup, your partner in crime will use his stuff and thats it. Like this you will have two different tones for your guitars that should result in a good overall sound. Option two is a little different: For that option you would have to split the signal coming from your guitar and send it into both amps at the same time. So when for example you are recording a rhythm guitar take, you would actually be playing through both amps. Both are recorded obviously and mixed into one track for the recording. Then when the other guy is recording his takes, he does the same, so both amps deliver one final take. Actually this is what is done on every major production today, nobody only uses one amp anymore, we for example are using up to 4 amps to create one guitar take, and I am sure that there are bands that use way more amps than that This system of recording has the advantage that you can really create a great tone, using the best of your amps, but you have to do a proper sound check of course, it doesn't make sense to just put up both amps and record them, you have to match their sounds so the result is what you want to hear on your album later. This is something VERY important by the way, make a proper sound check for every instrument. One of the biggest lies in rock'n'roll is "we'll fix it in the mix"! If you record crap the result after the mix will still be crap, period! If you record guitars that have no low end, then there will be no low end either after the mix, cause you can't bring something up in the mix that is just not there, so definitely take your time for a soundcheck. About microphones, and SM57 is for sure a good choice, and if you have more than one than I would also recommend using at least two. I can't really give you a real advice here on how to put them up, you should experiment a bit with positioning them in your soundcheck, and you will see that small changes in the mics position can make big differences in the sound. Also test all speakers in your cabinets, sometimes there are also big sound differences among them. About the amount of takes, well, this is up to you. In the early days most bands only recorded 2 rhythm guitars, one panned left, the other one right, and that was it. Today, in heavy music, most bands record more guitars, which results in a much heavier and fatter sound, but this only makes sense if your playing is precise enough. If your playing is too sloppy than this would only result in a big sound chaos, in that case it would for sure be better to stick to 2 guitars only. (Don't get me wrong, I am not saying your playing is sloppy ) If you will record more than just 2 guitars then also experiment a bit with panning them, you could pan 2 to extreme left/right, and put the other 2 more in the middle for example (If you record 4 guitars). I would recommend to record 3 or 4 rhythm guitars, but if some parts need more attention you can of course record more guitar layers for such parts, there is no law saying that there always have to be the same amount of guitars.And finally, definitely make sure not to use too much distortion, this is a rather common mistake that many people make. The distortion will add up with every take that you will record, so if you record 4 fully distorted rhythm guitars the result will be completely over-distorted, and you will lose all of your attack, it will be really hard to tell what exactly you are playing. So definitely pay attention to your gain settings. In doubt, chose a gain setting and quickly record 2 takes, one take doubling the other, and then check the result, like this you can hear if the amount of gain is enough. I hope this could help you a bit, if there are more questions, just ask. -------------------- Guitars: various Gibson Les Pauls / Gibson J 45
Amps: Mesa Boogie Tripple Rectifier / Triaxis / 2:90 Poweramp / Rectocabs Effects: Rocktron Intellifex / Rocktron Xpression Homepage: www.marcussiepen.com www.blind-guardian.com Check out my video lessons! |
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Nov 13 2009, 11:43 PM
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Wow thanks for the long and detailed answer!!!
Option 2 seems definatly better to me! Maybe we can run the 2 amps on a single cab thought? We'd need an Y to do that thought. I have spoted this (Radial big shot ABY): http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewIt...e=STRK:MEWAX:IT Should do the trick I believe. Got any other suggestion? We will definatly record at least 2 tracks by guitarist, maybe more. 2 is what we did on the demos. I also like the idea to add more guitars to some parts! We will experiment, after all, we record ourselves to take our time! What are the 4 amps you guys use out of curiosity? Triple Recto for sure I guess as well as? You record with multiple cabs too? Maybe we can make 2 tracks on a cab and 2 others on the other (always running 2 heads). We will experiment with mics as you said for sure. Do you put some mics far from the cab(s) for the ''air'' and ''presence''? Thanks a lot for your help again Marcus! It is very appreciated! In pure steel, Gab QUOTE (Marcus Siepen @ Nov 12 2009, 08:07 AM) Hi Gab, whenever you (or anybody else) has a question, feel free to ask me here, thats what this forum is there for ;-) About using several amps: You have two good amps available (I know and have tried both), so you should definitely use them. Here you have different options: Option one is very simple: You use your setup, your partner in crime will use his stuff and thats it. Like this you will have two different tones for your guitars that should result in a good overall sound. Option two is a little different: For that option you would have to split the signal coming from your guitar and send it into both amps at the same time. So when for example you are recording a rhythm guitar take, you would actually be playing through both amps. Both are recorded obviously and mixed into one track for the recording. Then when the other guy is recording his takes, he does the same, so both amps deliver one final take. Actually this is what is done on every major production today, nobody only uses one amp anymore, we for example are using up to 4 amps to create one guitar take, and I am sure that there are bands that use way more amps than that This system of recording has the advantage that you can really create a great tone, using the best of your amps, but you have to do a proper sound check of course, it doesn't make sense to just put up both amps and record them, you have to match their sounds so the result is what you want to hear on your album later. This is something VERY important by the way, make a proper sound check for every instrument. One of the biggest lies in rock'n'roll is "we'll fix it in the mix"! If you record crap the result after the mix will still be crap, period! If you record guitars that have no low end, then there will be no low end either after the mix, cause you can't bring something up in the mix that is just not there, so definitely take your time for a soundcheck. About microphones, and SM57 is for sure a good choice, and if you have more than one than I would also recommend using at least two. I can't really give you a real advice here on how to put them up, you should experiment a bit with positioning them in your soundcheck, and you will see that small changes in the mics position can make big differences in the sound. Also test all speakers in your cabinets, sometimes there are also big sound differences among them. About the amount of takes, well, this is up to you. In the early days most bands only recorded 2 rhythm guitars, one panned left, the other one right, and that was it. Today, in heavy music, most bands record more guitars, which results in a much heavier and fatter sound, but this only makes sense if your playing is precise enough. If your playing is too sloppy than this would only result in a big sound chaos, in that case it would for sure be better to stick to 2 guitars only. (Don't get me wrong, I am not saying your playing is sloppy ) If you will record more than just 2 guitars then also experiment a bit with panning them, you could pan 2 to extreme left/right, and put the other 2 more in the middle for example (If you record 4 guitars). I would recommend to record 3 or 4 rhythm guitars, but if some parts need more attention you can of course record more guitar layers for such parts, there is no law saying that there always have to be the same amount of guitars.And finally, definitely make sure not to use too much distortion, this is a rather common mistake that many people make. The distortion will add up with every take that you will record, so if you record 4 fully distorted rhythm guitars the result will be completely over-distorted, and you will lose all of your attack, it will be really hard to tell what exactly you are playing. So definitely pay attention to your gain settings. In doubt, chose a gain setting and quickly record 2 takes, one take doubling the other, and then check the result, like this you can hear if the amount of gain is enough. I hope this could help you a bit, if there are more questions, just ask. -------------------- LIVE FOR STEEL - DIE FOR STEEL!!!
RIOTOR thrash/death metal hell http://www.riotor.ca http://www.myspace.com/riotor Gear: Ibanez S5470 sol Bc Rich Warlock Nj Framus Cobra v2 VHT Fatbottom p50e Rocktron Xpression Rocktron Midimate DOD SR231 EQ Boss NS-2 |
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...Same with AC/DC, only that I am the one who can reproduce their crunchy rhythm sound better... 
 
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