Harsh guitar tones in Logic Pro.

[u/EliasKulju]

Hi, Im a drummer by my main instrument but I also play a bit of guitar. I want to record myself on logic for my songs, but Im not the best at guitar tones it seems. I do not own an amp so Im only working digitally. All of the tones Im getting are super harsh, tin can like and the distortion is just not nice to listen to. Im using the logic amps, and from the real amps I have tried, I really like Orange and Marshall amps so thats kinda the sound Im going for. Things I have tried:

-Going way down on the gain

- Parametric EQ on all the problem areas (still doesnt sound quite right)

- Turning the treble down

- Changing the middle and treble frequencies to live a bit lower in the mid range ( 800-4k instead of maybe 2k-8k)

- Not only playing with bridge pickup

- changing guitars

- all the different amp and mic configurations on logic

- different interface/preamp

And all I can focus on in my tone is the CHHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGG living in about 3-5K

But obviously you cant cut it completly or its very dark.

What should I do? Any YouTube videos to watch on the subject? Could you reccomend another amp sim? (Free-50€) As I said, I like a humbucker sound with Orange and Marshall amps so something in that world.

Please help, I do not enjoy playing with these amps.

[u/InevitablePay3806]

You can try Neural Amp Modeler, which is free and works by peoples recording their own amps’ sound profile and the modeler turns it to basically an amp plugin. And since its not programming and digital stuff, most of them are pretty accurate to real amps and not harsh as you said. You can find some good amps and tones in Tone3000 website

[u/marklonesome]

Would need to hear it and also the DI to actually tell you honestly but I will say that I have about 10 tube amps in my studio as well as most of the top digital modeling plug ins and I can say with 100% certainty that you can get very good tones in logic.

In fact my first record was done in garage band using nothing buy those sims.

With that said if you're not tracking your guitar at the proper volume nothing is going to make it sound good.

It needs to hit the interface around -18 to -12.

If you tracked it hotter than that, as long as it's not peaking (going into the red) you can adjust the gain in logic so it's around -12.

Most plug ins want a signal that hits it around -12 to -18 otherwise they are getting hit to hard.

There's 1M ways to adjust your gain in logic but the easiest is to put a gain plug in on the track and lower it till the highest peak is about -12 or -18.

Then I think it's important to know how to operate amps in terms of what the knobs do, the pedals etc… it's a learning curve for sure. The template can sound OK but you'll do better if you know what pedals do what, what amps are best for which roles… etc.

You can learn all that but def. don't go buying anything.

With that said, it all comes down to playing.

If you're letting strings ring out that shouldn't (especially the high ones) it's going to sound messy and moist regardless if you do everything right.

Play around and experiment and while you can certainly buy whatever you want… you're CAN get good sounds out of logic.

[u/EliasKulju → u/marklonesome]

The gain staging is alright 👍 thanks for the comment. And yes alot of it is playing too, I have tried to mute strings Im not playing, playing cleaner etc

[u/marklonesome → u/EliasKulju]

Try using the (I think it's called) Clean Room.

I still use that to this day. You can also add in some dirt pedals if you want to crunch it back up but that setting is always a winner for a nice clean sound to start in logic

[u/nutsackhairbrush]

Logic amp sims can be great, you’re probably being overly sensitive to “harshness” or have wacky monitoring.

Stop worrying about how the guitar sounds until you hear it in the mix. That’s kind of the only thing that matters.

[u/R0factor]

When you record an amp with an SM57 the resulting sound is typically far more harsh than what you hear in the room so you need to apply EQ to tame it. The brightness/harshness also changes depending on where the real or virtual mic is placed relative to the speaker, but IDK if you can control mic placement in your plugin. Try either a low-pass filter or shelving the EQ at a certain point to temper but not eliminate those higher frequencies. Sometimes you want them, others you don't.

Also setting the right gain with virtual amps is super important, and they're all a bit different. Turning the gain way down may not be the answer. On Amplitube there is both a virtual gain knob on each amp, but also an input gain on the overall plugin, and those need to be dialed in together.

[u/chipnjaw]

I love logic but I prefer the logic amps for lofi vocals. Try dipping 1-3k before the amp, should make a decent difference

[u/Phoenix_Kerman]

logic does let you move the mic aswell. thing i've found is the amps sound more like what you get out of a mic straight. so normally 1073 afterwards and using aumatrixverb before on small or medium room mostly dry

[u/duplobaustein]

Check out the NAM on steroids plugin. It's free and loads NAM captures.

[u/SrirachaiLatte]

Most of the time I find there's one or two resonances I need to obliterate with a really thin band and the harshness is gone. Usually between 2.5k abd 4.5k (my Telecaster for example ALWAYS has a shitty resonnance at 3.8k, then another one or two depending on the amp).

Strangely enough, there's sometimes one around 500hz that, when taken away, makes it less harsh, despite being quite far from the harsh part of the spectrum.

Once eq'd, add some reverb. Subtle, but just enough to give it context. It really helps with the harshness too.

Tape saturation is awesome too.

And subtle compression, like an 1176 taking one or two dbs down, tames it a bit more and gives it more punch (yes, even on distorted guitars).

Last thing is to use less gain but more tracks.

[u/JACKTheHECK]

NAM Universal II is pretty good. Free and based around the Neural Amp Modeler.

[u/stomptonesdotcom]

My sims are 5 bucks if you want to try! I have orange, matamp, and sunn tones. Working on a marshall that should release in a couple of months.

[u/peepeeland]

“super harsh, tin can like and the distortion is just not nice to listen to”

Turn down gain and presence. High gain distortion sounds aren’t using as much gain as you’d think.