so if the guitar may sound great to the ears out of the mix but in the mix terrible..

videodrone

New member
Im recording a basic guitar adn bass track with other occasional sounds,

now, heres the theory we've all heard before -

"Dont tweak the guitar by itself, make sure you tweak it in the mix, because while it may sound great solo'd, it most likely will sound like crap in the mix, always do your EQing with it in the mix"

I understant that and I know why that is true, BUT...........

Lets say I start out with the guitar track first like normal and plan on adding bass afterwards,

now, when im recoriding the very first guitar track, how do I tweak it? Do I select the perfect tone so its sounds nice and full?
Isnt that like saying it doesnt matter though cuz when I add bass and other instruments that it'll prolly sound like crap in teh mix?

So my question is.......

when tweaking that guitar sound, is there a certain idea behind it, like maybe getting a certain tone that tends to work with bass adn is easily tweakible in the mix without doing to much EQing?
 
I'm not sure if I understand your question correctly, but one way to approach getting the right guitar sound is to have a sample of the song with drums and bass playing while you apply various guitar tones against it. Once you pick a guitar tone that you can work with, then tweak it if necessary, but only against the same sample of drums and bass.

Then when you record the track for real (assuming you havent added the bass guitar yet) leave the guitar sound as is. Reserve any judgement until the bass has been recorded. Usually you will not have to make any adjustments because you have already determined how the guitar should sound from the sample you recorded earlier.

Cy
 
thats what i did, i tried doing bass first than and then tweaking guitar around that and then reversing teh role and rerecoding bass agaisnt the guitar sound,

but that leaves me in teh same boot, how do i tweak the bass sound? if i selct the bass tone solo'd (since its the first recorded insturment) than how do I know were to start on a bass tone that will sound great in the mix? because if the general rule goes it will prolly sound crappy solo'd but great in the mix, than how do i know what will sound great in teh mix if there is no mix to start with?
 
videodrone said:
than how do i know what will sound great in teh mix if there is no mix to start with?

You just gotta start somewhere. I would start with just drums and bass because that's your foundation. Get them to sound as good as possible together. Knowing what sounds good depends largely on the song. Try to determine what sound will go best with the song. If there is a professionally done song that has the same feel and sound you want to capture, then get out the CD and use that as a reference to what you want your basic tracks to sound like. Get the bass and drums sounding good together. Don't try and get each instrument to sound good on its own. Just slap the two together and work from there. Once you have a decent rhythm section, then I would start adding guitar..

I'm not exactly sure why you would have problems with the bass if you got the guitar and bass to sound good together from an initial sample. Usually what happens is you record final takes of drums, then add the guitars, and then notice that it doesnt sound right until you add bass when it all just fits together like you originally spec'd it, all assuming you used the exact same settings and referenced both the original sample and the actual recorded tracks through the exact same speakers.

Cy
 
i agree with cyrokk 100%. knowing how things should sound is experience. it is almost impossible to just start recording things and have them sound awesome, it takes time to train your ears. you have to experiment alot to find out what works and what doesnt.
 
It just takes time to train your ears. You will learn a few tricks that work and slowly add to your bag of tricks. You might find that micing a certain way with certain amp settings give you a good lead tone that sticks out or a rythm that has balls but doesn't overwhelm. The only way to know what works is stumble across it until you find it for yourself.

Expect a lot of shitty tracks and mixes and expect to redo just about everything until you find what works for you. The advantage of recording with your own gear is that you can spend time experimenting and trying different ways of doing something. Go out of your way to record tracks with different mics, room positions and distances until you find combinations that really seem to stand out.

Good recordings rely on you having the discipline to redo the stuff that sucks and not over process the stuff that doesn't suck.
 
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