Guitar and tone recommendation

[Drugo8989]

Hi guys!
In my eternal quest to get a good guitar tone(in this case a good metal guitar tone) I'm still asking myself two or three things that I might consider to improve my tone:

-Guitar(I have an Ibanez mtm2 in standard tuning with seymour duncan pickups(i don't remember wich ones) wich by the way is my favourite guitar; a Schecter Hellraiser special with EMGactive pickups ; a Ltd h-1001 in B standard(with 12-56 strings i think) with EMG active pickups)(I bought all 3 of them used btw) : starting from the fact that I can't setup a guitar properly so maybe I could just improve my overall sound and playability by taking them to a luthier(the Ltd is kind of broken btw) I am wondering if I might upgrade by just buying another guitar "built" for metal and specifically for drop or low tuning.
So my main choices would be(6 strings and fixed bridge I think) :
- Solar guitars(?)
- Jackson misha HT6
-PRS mark holcomb
-ibanez(?)

Tonally prefer my Ibanez like I said

My main tone reference is modern metal so Djent metalcore and tech death

-Vst - - > I always had the impression that they sound sort of "hollow" but the main issue is obviously the background noise with high gain amp sim wich require a lot of noise gate to solve the issue but affect playing and sustain(especially in legato and string skipping tapping wich btw introduces string noise in any case).
I did a lot of tests and my old peavey vypyr has no background noise at all but since I live in an apartment I don't have the opportunity to record an amp properly (I have to set the volume to 1 ) and I don't know how to record properly an amp so I mainly stick to Vsts so I can use presets and stuff like that

So the question is:
-should I buy a low wattage amp(like 10w I don't know) and a decent mic and start to record it to avoid the background noise issue?
-will I get a better tone with an amp compared to vsts?
-should I buy an high end digital amp modeler like kemper or axe fx to get a better tone?

Btw I use an RME babyface pro fs as audio interface(powered and connected via USB so maybe this can introduce noise I don't know)....) and cheap Proel guitar cables

I can attach audio examples files (mainly for the background noise issue)

Yeah a lot of questions I know....

Thanks in advance for the the response guys

 

[T00DEEPBLUE]

it all depends.

Great-sounding amps are a thing. Great-sounding VST's are also a thing. It depends on the amp and it depends the VST.

Whether or not you should buy a modelling amp is a very subjective question as well. And the same answer applies; it depends on your budget, what your personal needs are, whether or not your living arrangements permit the use of speaker cabinets at decent volumes, how authentic a listening experience you need and how much versatility you want.

Nobody can answer these questions for you.

Having some amount of background noise and hiss when playing with any amount of gain is inevitable. It just comes with the nature of of using high impedance audio devices (like guitars) at high gain factors. You can do certain tricks and hacks to make the level of noise more bearable (or be present but not be heard). But so amount of noise is unavoidable.

 

[NoodleFace]

My VSTs can be noisy, I just use a noise gate set to whatever chills it out at an acceptable level.

That said those guitars you have are no slouches.

Amps and digital modelers do sound better than VSTs for sure, at least to my ears. Is it worth the $1500-2000? Depends on your use case. I like VSTs for their convenience both in recording and practicing with headphones.

 

[AkiraSpectrum]

attach sound clips of your issue.

maybe I missed it, but what vst are you using?

are you using a gate? i think the vypyr's had a built-in auto-gate for any of the gain channels. this may be why your vypyr has no background noise and your vst sims do.

 

[DarrellM5]

I'd try getting your current guitars set up (or learning to do it yourself via YouTube) and trying out a Helix or Kemper.

 

[nickgray]

but the main issue is obviously the background noise with high gain amp sim

You're likely using too much gain, and you're also catching EMI from your computer. Lower the gain, move away from computer, try playing around with guitar positioning (move the guitar physically, the pickups are catching interference from the computer or from something else, it's an extremely common problem).

Btw I use an RME babyface pro fs as audio interface

You don't need anything else, you have one of the best audio interfaces you can buy. Imo, the primary reason for getting a modeler is to get very low latency and to be 100% certain you'll never get buffer underruns, but with an RME card you can go really low. Still not 2ms low probably, but around 3-4ms, which should be plenty good.

I always had the impression that they sound sort of "hollow"

From my experience, by far the biggest difference between amp sims is in how they simulate the power amp response. Fortunately, for most metal tones it's not a crucial factor. The hollowness you hear is likely just you being dissatisfied with typical IR tones - modern guitar tones are very mid heavy, and most IRs go along with this trend.

 

[marke]

You have a good interface. Try all NeuralDSP plugins if you haven't already (you can try 14 days for free per plugin, Gojira is a good starting point).

As for guitars, you seem to have a few of these midrange guitars already. Don't buy another one maybe? High end guitar won't fix those issues you talked about either, but you'll notice the difference in playability, balance etc. Look for something like Original Series ESP. Save money if price is an issue. Yet another overmarketed "LTD level" guitar - while potentially good - will not make a huge difference.

 

[HoneyNut]

Buy an amp, it's much more fun than using modellers or VST. There is no contest there.
But if you need the versatility of a modeller / VST for recording, then yeah sure. But are you sure that you want to focus on recording? Or are you more concerned about playing the guitar? This is the question you have to ask.

You can get a modeller down the line. But an amp is something to experience first. Modeller have a sound that includes the virtual amp, plus the microphone it is used to record, so the final sound essentially mimics what a real amp recorded would sound like. The modeller will NOT give you the sound you hear standing or sitting next to a real amp.

Do we want a real life partner or do we want a virtual partner on the pc? There is a big difference in answering that.

But if amp level noise is an issue in your apartment, and you are adamant on recording, yes, just get a decent modeller like any variant of the Helix. Helix is great for it's budget, and it's not trying to bullshit its way into paying more for the top of the line stuff like some other brands. That's my current take on it.

If you do go down the modeller route, youd either eventually need good studio monitors, or a guitar PA speaker to hear yourself. Playing through studio monitors is, yeah, good for recording and all that blah blah, but it will never replicate even your basic Peavy Vypr's feel, no matter how expensive your modeller or vst is.

 

[HoneyNut]

I'd just get either of these two. They are both combos (meaning, head + cab in one chasis). Your guitars are great enough, just have them setup at a shop.

EVH 5150 Iconic Series 40-watt 1 x 12-inch Tube Combo Amp - Ivory

2-channel, 40-watt, 1 x 12" Tube Combo Amplifier with Noise Gate, FX Loop, Power Reduction Circuit, and Speaker-emulated Output - Ivory

www.sweetwater.com

Or

Line 6 Catalyst 200 200-watt 2 x 12-inch Combo Amplifier

200-watt, 2 x 12" Guitar Combo Amplifier with 6 Original Amp settings, Dedicated Boost and Reverb Sections, Power Attenuator, 18 Effects, and 4-channel USB Recording Interface

www.sweetwater.com

Yeah, these things are like a medium sized box, but itll still sound awesome at quiet levels.

 

[budda]

I went from a bi-amp setup to a modeller and played more at home in 6 months than the 4 years prior

 

[Amer Alameddine]

I prefer the VST route for a few reasons. They really do sound great, especially the higher quality ones like Neural's offerings, so you can great tone and have fun playing. And for Djent/Metalcore, there are a lot of demos online of players using VSTs to play those genres, and they sound great. Since you mentioned you have an interface, I would recommend downloading some of the demos and playing with them.

• The convenience, not having to carry it around, and if you have a laptop, that's really beneficial
• You don't have to crank loud it to get the saturation as you would in a tube amp
• You can try out a bunch for free before committing to one with the free demos
• Presets, and easily switch between them, though some amps offer this
• Bringing in IRs to help you get different sounds
• Easier to record with for reasons that were mentioned by yourself and other users

 

[Drugo8989]

Thank you all for the responses!
So I was thinking that maybe I could attach some audio files and some screenshots so you can understand what I am talking about
I recorded( with 22 ms latency) a quick random rhythm guitar and a quick part of a lick taken from this video() with different noise gate settings so you can hear my background noise and give me you opinion
Obviously on the rhythm section the nosie gate is not a big deal but on the lead part I have less sustain(the NO noise gate bias and the bias noise gate is already a good example)
(In any case you could hear the noise of the noise gate closing too slowly mainly in the "Archetype Gojira a little bit of noise gate"file wich sucks and I can't have control on it so maybe I need a better noise gate vst with more control)
The guy from the youtube video sounds a little bit more defined anyway(he uses Bias Amp)and is not using a fret wrap(I didn't too) and it seems to me that he is not muting of the strings with the palm of the hand(I did)
I used my Ibanez MTM2
Another possbile advice that you guys could give me is the input level on teh audio interface or the plugin( I recorded the bias fx solo with no noise gate with level input peaks at -12 db and the bias fx solo with noise gate level input peak -20 because of the noise gate obviously)(the Archetype rhythm guitar level input screenshot is in the attached files)
I link my Google drive folder with everything in it
Thanks in advance as always for the effort of listening all the files and answer these questions


LINK: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ba0Zg8kSXl8GIWXq2DLb3YU44TFaKe7c?usp=sharing