Distorted guitar disappearing?
- Thread starter punkorama
- Start date
You can try panning it wide. If it's just a single track, double it. Pan one hard left and put a short delay (10 - 20 ms) on the duplicated track panned hard right. This can help to open things up and make it stand out a bit more. You can also try cutting some low frequencies. I haven't had much success in boosting highs or mids with distorted guitars, but an occasional cut help.
Wireneck
New member
Just a few generalizations because every mix will differ.....
-make sure you have plenty of mids in the sound
-Use LESS distortion than you think you should.
-hi-pass around 100hz, sometimes higher to make space for other instruments
-Don't listen to the tone solo'd, mic up the amp and play with the mic positions while the other tracks are playing. Listen for a tone that sits well within the mix. Don't be afraid to set the Eq on the amp different than you might for rehersal. After all, what the amp sounds like in the room really doesn't mean shit if your not accurately getting it to tape to begin with.
-Lastly double track and pan left and right (how much will depend on style/taste)
Try some of this and I suspect you will be on your way.
-make sure you have plenty of mids in the sound
-Use LESS distortion than you think you should.
-hi-pass around 100hz, sometimes higher to make space for other instruments
-Don't listen to the tone solo'd, mic up the amp and play with the mic positions while the other tracks are playing. Listen for a tone that sits well within the mix. Don't be afraid to set the Eq on the amp different than you might for rehersal. After all, what the amp sounds like in the room really doesn't mean shit if your not accurately getting it to tape to begin with.
-Lastly double track and pan left and right (how much will depend on style/taste)
Try some of this and I suspect you will be on your way.
wires got some great suggestions there. basicly a distorted guitar and many of the other sources will share alot of these mid freqs and often they can muddy up or phase each other out. when recording the guitar make sure to listen for problems in cymbal and guitar relations. alot of times a crash hit can wipe out a good sounding guitar. all those upper mids just phase out. so as above... pan, double. think of specific sounds for specific parts. give your lead part a brighter sound which will cut through that middy mush. give rythem guitars a little bottom so you feel them underneath the mix (hopefully blending with the bass). with a little playing around with the eqs and pans you should be able to pull the guiter into its own slot in the mix.
you think skas a pain for guitar, try some death metal. all the cymbals, clicky blasts, clicky middy bass, layers of mesa triple rec amps (which to this day i cant get a good recording of. cant stand em in the studio). it can be a damn phase nightmare.
you think skas a pain for guitar, try some death metal. all the cymbals, clicky blasts, clicky middy bass, layers of mesa triple rec amps (which to this day i cant get a good recording of. cant stand em in the studio). it can be a damn phase nightmare.
RedFrogAudio
New member
I agree with Wire and Alex. Knock out the bass from the guitars. It's so hard for engineers to atempt to capture a wonderfull 20-20k range on everything, and then go back and just drop part of the frequency range in the mix. Throw away what you don't need, keep what you like. The consumer will never know. Hell, the consumer thinks that MP3s sound good
BrentDomann
Has a Dedicated Member.
I would agree with the above posting that less distortion is your key to more powerful guitar. A cleaner sound will cut through much better and will also sound a tad "beefier" if you mic it well.
I am not going to blabber on about the technical crap, but just try using about half the distortion you are now. It seems to work much better in a "mix" setting. I did that quite a long time ago, and haven't had to look--er...listen--back.
Also, try pulling out the frequency ranges that certain instruments don't make use of very much (i.e. pull out frequencies below 100 Hz on your guitars to give the bass room to breathe). That will get rid of a lot of mud.
Good luck.
~Brent
I am not going to blabber on about the technical crap, but just try using about half the distortion you are now. It seems to work much better in a "mix" setting. I did that quite a long time ago, and haven't had to look--er...listen--back.
Also, try pulling out the frequency ranges that certain instruments don't make use of very much (i.e. pull out frequencies below 100 Hz on your guitars to give the bass room to breathe). That will get rid of a lot of mud.
Good luck.
~Brent