gah! why can't i get my live instruments to sound right alongside my electronic backing?

something to give the synths a bit of "real" space is a good idea - a nice short reverb or delay perhaps?

dry softsynths sound like ass most of the time - i either run mine back through preamps or run them through an amp and record that. takes off the harsh edges too

If it's not in time, could there be a latency issue? I used to use a Reason setup with an awful and unavoidable latency problem.

also how are you recording the guitar? dry DI guitar is guaranteed to sound like stinky poos

grozart, maybe you could post a short clip so we can hear what the problem is?

will do. I'm basically queuing all my sounds in Acid Pro (I know, it's just that I'm familiar with the set up) and recording directly from the guitar into the sound card (my issues with recording any other way is documented elsewhere on this board). The synth sounds I compose in Reason, affect in Sound Forge for realness etc... Everything just sounds a bit flat, like someone trying to play along to a CD or something... What am I doing wrong here? I'll post a sample up tomorrow.

are you using any amp/speaker sims on the DI guitar?

Yeah, I mean straight up DI guitar is like eating mushrooms straight. Which is to say it's gross and ought to be avoided until you've got some applesauce or pizza or something.

also i think there may be issues with plugging straight in to the soundcard if it's not really designed to be a DI. what soundcard is it?

It's an Edirol UA-20. It has an input select for guitar. I tend to make it sound fuller in Sound Forge. How else should I record the guitar? If I plug it through my amp first I get all kinds of buzziness and horrible shit.

This is the track I'm working on so far. You'll be able to hear the bass and guitars as they stick out like a sore thumb. I'm also using Acoustica Beatcraft for some of the drums and I think they sound like shit too. What's a good soft tool for making realistic drum patterns etc?

This is the track so far:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/71gbou

Last night I had the inspiration to listen to it without a lot of the added layers and it sounded pretty good, but obviously unfinished. I'm tempted to lose these excess sounds and start afresh with some new ideas. It's fun writing while I produce as it's a bit like weaving a patchwork quilt out of all kinds of different stuff.

I like the way the track goes from acoustic to "Viking hordes" to "Viking hordes with synths"! The guitar in the first bit is muffled, but I don't think that matters because it's more of a background to the piano. I think the bass sound is OK. With all those synths on top at the end it's probably better that the bass is clean.
What effects do you apply to the guitar in Sound Forge?

just a little compression, a bit of delay/reverb and noise gate (not in that order though)

Oh and thanks, that's kind of the vibe I was going for :-)

Bah, I've been bashing away at this for over an hour now, and the more I do, the more I seem to be getting frustrated and taking bits out... Maybe there is too much going on (but I quite like that in a way)... Maybe I should just wack a lead vocal on it, tie up a few loose ends like the drumming and say it's done? What does IMM think?

just wack a lead vocal on it, tie up a few loose ends like the drumming and say it's done

^^^ This. This is what I usually do, then after a couple of days the solution to making it sound better appears.

track sounds good, even the guitar is ok, but a speaker or amp sim could take away a fair bit of the "DI" quality it has which may help.

dry softsynths sound like ass most of the time <-- needs to be in faq