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fizzy guitars - amp sims


Bad Mac

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i have all the amp sims i think. Amplitube 5, guitar rig 5, TH2, and a couple others. But when i do to mix (and i am not an engineer, just a novice) , the guitars are fizzy. i have tried and tried to get them to not sound fizzy.  Any suggestions?

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Do they sound good when solo'd?

There is a real art to finding amp settings/FX pedal settings that sound good in a mix. They may not be the ones that sound good when solo'd.

However, depending on the style of music, you probably need to EQ. Try a mix with just Drums, Bass, and one Guitar. Can you make the guitar sound good in that context?

The most common thing is to cut bass frequencies out of the Guitar track to make room for Bass, etc.

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I try not to solo them when mixing. i am listening to them in the mix as i am eq. i have tried lots of different eq setting. from shelving hard around 100 hz. also tried shelving hard at various hz up to 300. still fizzy. I will try the one guitar. I will also post a sample of a tune where they are fizzy. 

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Fizzy means high pitch noise, right? 100 and 300 are not where i would look. Try a shelf up around 5k and higher and lower it.

Try ribbon mics. Even the emulation should reduce fizzy.

Turn down tone knobs.

Shift to neck pickups.

Turn down presence on amps.

 

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My personal preference is to insert a parametric EQ of choice, increase the gain on a mid/hi band with a narrow Q, then sweep it back and forth in order to increase the fizz.   Once you find the right frequency, then start lowering the gain below 0 until it starts to improve.   Repeat that process one or more times to cover the range of the fizz since it often isn't a single frequency.   It takes some time but it should help.   And once you've done it a few times it will get easier to find the right balance between reducing the fizz without dulling the guitar. 

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17 hours ago, Tracey A Meyer said:

i have all the amp sims i think. Amplitube 5, guitar rig 5, TH2, and a couple others. But when i do to mix (and i am not an engineer, just a novice) , the guitars are fizzy. i have tried and tried to get them to not sound fizzy.  Any suggestions?

I would not rely on using the pre-sets for any of the amp sims and this includes any effects as well.  Assuming the dry guitar was recorded good, you can make any guitar sounds from the list of amp Sims you have. They key is to learn everything about each amp sim you use. Then you can dial in the sound with ease whiteout relying on pre-sets.

The person who make the presets did not have your taste, your song, your guitar sound in mind and they are usually overly exaggerated as well. Just  learn what each knob, setting, dial, cabinet and speaker selection does to the sound and then dial in the sounds you want.

 

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I've spent years finding out how to get the best possible sound out of amp sims. The bottom line is that you need to work with amp sims to make them sound good. Just like you won't get a good amp sound just by sticking a random mic in front of it, you need to tailor the amp sim to your pickups, intended result, and playing style. I think you'll find the following references helpful.

5 Ways to Optimize Amp Sims

Use De-Essing to Obtain Better Amp Sim Sounds

How to Make Amp Sims Sound More "Analog"

Multiband Signal Processing

Also check out the video for my Helix multiband presets on youtube.com/thecraiganderton, it has some audio examples comparing single-band and multiband distortion. All of my recent albums use amp sims on the guitars, and don't have the fizz. The albums Take Me Back to Tomorrow, The Singles, and Joie de Vivre also use a lot of multiband guitar processing.

 

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Great advice right there :)

You might find that you'll get better luck by using impulse responses and an IR loader rather than the built-in cab simulation. But proper gain structure and EQ, as well as a good DI signal in will go a long way to getting a great tone.

 

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2 hours ago, Lord Tim said:

You might find that you'll get better luck by using impulse responses and an IR loader rather than the built-in cab simulation.

Lately I've been experimenting with using emulations of analog filters to "build" cabinet responses. The results are encouraging, to say the least. I analyze the impulse response, then try to create an analog filter curve that matches it. In addition to taking up much less CPU, there's a certain realistic "warmth" to it that I don't always find with impulse responses.

The first cab simulation I did back in the early 80s with the Quadrafuzz used analog filtering, and it was decent...but with today's multi-stage parameters, you can REALLY go to town!!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/24/2020 at 8:09 PM, Lord Tim said:

Great advice right there :)

You might find that you'll get better luck by using impulse responses and an IR loader rather than the built-in cab simulation. But proper gain structure and EQ, as well as a good DI signal in will go a long way to getting a great tone.

 

 

I just purchased a boat load of these. Have never really used them before. so that is what i will be doing this weekend. playing with IR.

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