u/pr0p1k

16:46 "playing" sounds a bit Australian with the diphthong being closer /aɪ/.
16:29 "experiment" is /ɪkˈspɪɹ.ə.mənt/ with /ɪ/ vowel. I thought it should the cheer-chair merger, but wiki says the merger merges towards the "chair" vowel, not the opposite.
18:01 "best" vowel is lowered similar to the "playing" diphthong.
18:09 "amp", 2:03 "band" have æ-raising (actually not sure about this one)
18:22 "get" sounds like "git"
16:27 "then" doesn't feature the pin-pen merger, and sounds rather like "than". The vowel is lowered again.

2:00 - 2:05 I really can't tell if "all" and "call" have /ɑ/ or /ɔ/, and next to the word "moderate" with a clear /ɑ/, it sounds like his "call" vowel is backed, but not really an /ɔ/, thus I can't tell if he has the cot-caught merger 😭

Just based on the absence of the pin-pen merger and presence of æ-raising, I would put him somewhere around northern Michigan. What do you think?

Hey, I am really struggling to play guitar because of my sound being extremely dirty.

It demotivates from practicing, plus I can't even record what I can play relatively okay.

The question is: is it a skill issue - should I palm mute properly,

or gear settings,

or string imbalance/pickup height issue?

Gear:

Schecter Omen Extreme 7 (standard setting, additionally tried isolating it with copper tape)

NUX MG-300 MK2, LT More standard preset (the others don't sound nearly close to what I want

Here's a sample of me (badly) playing some riffs: https://voca.ro/14yCr6vD98yF

4 settings:

0:00 - Noise Gate at 61

1:06 - Noise gate at 76

1:54 - No Noise Gate (thus whistle from the tube screamer)

2:28 - No Noise Gate, No tube screamer
3:06 - No Noise Gate, No tube screamer, no djent - actually okayish sound

The sound is super dirty whenever I play anything like djent (7th string, palm muting) - the notes are barely discernible, power chords sound even worse.

Some lower strings riffs sound pretty discernible and the noise is not very noticeable.

Why do I sound so terrible?