Question when adding third guitar track into the mix

juoppoeemeli

New member
Hi all,

I have a mix that consists of 2 guitars, drums and vocal. Guitars are panned that rhythm is left and lead is right. If I need to add one more guitar track panned right basically to fulfill the lead the question is should I lower the lead guitar volume when the third guitar track comes. Is there some "common rule" that I should follow? The thing is that now when the 3rd guitar starts the right channel volume raises compared to the left of course. Or should I leave it like this and maybe channel volumes are leveled when mastering the mix? Putting the third guitar into center is not what I would like to do.

Thanks in advance,

juoppoeemeli
 
I never have rhythm guitar behind lead playing, so this approach is different for me. I'd put rhythm guitar one on the left, rhythm guitar two on the right. Pan the solo in the center, or split it and boost it over the rhythm. I figure that if there is no lead vocal in this part of the song, then the other lead instrument should take it's place in the center. There is no right way, but that's how i'd do it with 3 guitars. It may depend on what that lead guitar track is doing also. If it's strictly rhythm until the solo, you may want to separate the solo from the track. If your lead guitar track is very busy the whole song, you may just want to use the volume, eq and panning, so it won't get in the way of vocals. Just my take. In summary, I'd leave rhythm guitar out of the center. If you are riffing/soloing when the vocals drop out throughout the song, stick that in the center. Track planning and arrangement. I'd like to hear the song if possible. There is no common rule. Does the song have a single solo in just one part of the song? If so, rhythm left, rhythm right, solo center.
 
Last edited:
Hi all,

I have a mix that consists of 2 guitars, drums and vocal. Guitars are panned that rhythm is left and lead is right. If I need to add one more guitar track panned right basically to fulfill the lead the question is should I lower the lead guitar volume when the third guitar track comes. Is there some "common rule" that I should follow? The thing is that now when the 3rd guitar starts the right channel volume raises compared to the left of course. Or should I leave it like this and maybe channel volumes are leveled when mastering the mix? Putting the third guitar into center is not what I would like to do.

Thanks in advance,

juoppoeemeli

Best to post the example, since there is no rule other than what sounds good. There's a variety of ways to approach it.
 
Yep. Post it.

As a general thing I treat a solo like a vocal track. So that would normally be centered, tho there are times that is not best for the tune...
 
Yep, there are no rules. I, too, usually have the lead guitar part centered. Sometimes I might pan it 5-10% one way if its playing licks the same time as the lead vocal.
 
As said before, it depends entirely on what the 3 guitars are doing, how much they each fill out the space, if one is meant to be the primary melodic voice, etc.

That said, if I have 3 guitar parts, 2 of which are always going, the 3rd will probably end up close to the center for me.

If your biggest concern is volume balance between the two channels, you could automate the lead volume down when the 3rd part comes in.
 
It´s black metal and harsh one. For some it may sound inaudible but the tone is very close to what we aimed for so it is no accident. So this is a cut straight to the end part of the song and the additional guitar comes in about 00:50. It is meant to boost the riff and the mood what is going on. This guitar track is now panned slightly to the left. The question is that when adding guitar track like this should I, for example, put something else at lower volume, in previous post mentioned volume automation or is it something else. Or can I simply plant the extra guitar track on top of the mix like I did here without further processing? In this mix the balance between channels is ok I think and the 3rd guitar comes in nicely at least for my opinion. But I am interested how situation like this in mixing would be handled by some who know how things are done properly.

Many thanks in advance,

juoppoeemeli
 

Attachments

  • Example.mp3
    4.4 MB · Views: 19
Those drums are just bleed, right? Even for death metal, those would be too weak.

The 3rd guitar is pretty buried here. I can't even hear it. However, a good rule of thumb is that if your mix is already near max volume and you want to add something else, you're going to have to turn something down.
 
Thank you for the reply, the 3rd guitar is indeed buried and needed to raise volume. Raw mix is peaking about -9 dbfs so there should be space to increase the 3rd track volume. I used compression only in example.mp3 to gain some volume but of course I will let the mastering engineer do it in the final mix.

juoppoeemeli
 
Those drums are just bleed, right? Even for death metal, those would be too weak.

The 3rd guitar is pretty buried here. I can't even hear it. However, a good rule of thumb is that if your mix is already near max volume and you want to add something else, you're going to have to turn something down.

I see your point, if you are already constantly hitting 0 dbfs and you put something more into the mix it may sound flatten and kind of gets lost in there. So could the volume automation be the best solution?

juoppoeemeli
 
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