Modern Country Electric Gtr sounds......ie, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton

L

Legolas1971

New member
Hi,

I'm currently writing and producing country pop demos. I need my stacked gtrs in hooks to sound thin but definitely present in the mix. I know they do this
a certain way in Nashville but I haven't had much luck.....

Any suggestions?

Thanks....
 
Start at the beginning of the sound: A Les Paul (if it's got humbuckers) is naturally gonna sound fat and thick. That's what they do, and they're great at it. Can they do cleanish tones? Meh, I guess, but not very well. No one plays a LP for it's sparkling bite and clarity. Secondly, how many layers of guitars are we talking here? You might be using too much gain. Even with amp sims, you gotta kind of treat them like real amps (if they're good sims) and watch your gain/crunch/distortion/whatver you wanna call it. Too much gain can easily muck up a guitar mix with one guitar track, nevermind layers of guitar tracks.
 
Yeah, maybe I need to lay off the crunch/distortion. I'm only stacking 2 sets
of guitars (so, 4 passes; 2 panned wide left and 2 right). I guess I'm worried about the
chords not holding out as long as I want them to. That's why I raise the crunch. I've
gotta experiment with cleaner sounds. Maybe some delay will allow them to sustain
longer?
 
Legolas1971 said:
Yeah, maybe I need to lay off the crunch/distortion. I'm only stacking 2 sets
of guitars (so, 4 passes; 2 panned wide left and 2 right). I guess I'm worried about the
chords not holding out as long as I want them to. That's why I raise the crunch. I've
gotta experiment with cleaner sounds. Maybe some delay will allow them to sustain
longer?
Click to expand...

Short delays are a great way to fatten up the sound without having to stack guitars. Just experiment with those, and cut down on the distortion big time. It's really amazing how little you need a lot of the time.
 
You can try playing the LP in the middle postion (adjust to taste) with both pickups...and then run that into a cleaner, high headroom amp ...and the adjust the gain/crunch to taste, but a little goes a long way.
The middle position give it some of that single-coil vibe. If your volumes are wored individually, then you can really dial in the amount of neck VS bridge.

If you have a comp stomp, it will help with the sustain on the chords and you can tailor the attack to taste.
 
Thanks guys.....I'm going to cut way back on the gain and see where that goes.
The sound of modern country records regarding elec gtrs is so diff than pop or
rock. I guess I'm just not used to the cleaner sounds. But I can do it!!!!
 
second, or third, the compression on the guitar. Teles are definitely the way to go for what you want. But, I know a few of those guys use LPs and even marshall amps. So, the amp and guitar combo is important, but you can get what you want out of pretty much any combo.

I use Amplitube for when I can't crank the amps and it has a few countryish amps that'll work just fine. As others have said, cut back on the gain, roll of the bass, and crank the highs and presence and it should sit in the mix really well without being too fat.
 
A tele with compression and a lil slap back delay - played through either a fender amp or an AC30

Hard to get that country tone without single coils
 
I think a lot of people are lumping all "country" music in the same catagory.

I'm ashamed to admit I played in a "New Country" band for about 3 years until very recently. A lot of this shit they call "New Country" is just re-cycled 80's rock.....with a drawl. :eek: It's not all thin sounding Telecasters and slap back delay. You could probably play 90% of the "new" stuff with a rock guitar set-up with a few tweaks to the sound. It's hard to zero in and say you need one specific guitar with a certain amount of effects because most modern country has little to do with traditional country.
 
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RAMI said:
... It's hard to zero in and say you need one specific guitar with a certain amount of effects.
Click to expand...
Right you are.

You don't even need amplification to get different country sounds. Not to say some amp setups and toys don't accent certain styles but it really goes back to the basics, LEARN HOW TO PLAY THE GUITAR. Most of what you are hearing is accents from performance e.g. pulloffs, hammers, stretching, harmonics, pickhand muffling, resonationj, music theory...octaves, triads etc.

They're the types of things to work on to get the country genre, and then add that evil amplification, lol.
 
Very true Rami!

I'm definitely writing and recording "New Country." It's polished from top to bottom. I'm
usually a pop writer/producer but this stuff seems so close to the pop I was doing that
it's not a stretch anymore. I'm just trying to get my hook guitars to sit in the mix nicely
(not over powering) ie., Keith Urban and Taylor Swift. When I listen to their records I know
the electric guitars are there but they seem so subdued, mixed well or whatever you wanna call it. They seem barely there!!!!

That's what I'm trying to get too. Maybe it's more of a mixing issue....

Thanks
 
Legolas1971 said:
What about a Les Paul and Amplitube or Eleven plugin's? Will that do?
I guess I just have to keep messing with the amount of crunch I'm using.
For some reason, after i stack my guitars they sound too heavy.
Click to expand...
I play lots of classic country ...... basically if you're using any crunch it's too much for that style.
I go for a pristine clean with not even the slightest hint of break up.
Like a pedal steel clean.

And 'buckers don't do country twang real well. You can come up with something acceptable but it won't really have the 'twang'.

Newer country is a different animal ..... more like pop from the 70's. But still pretty clean.
 
Hi,

Yeah, I am doing the "Newer Country" stuff so I do need some gain
in there. I understand the more traditional country didn't use that.

Again, I think I can find a good balance between laying off the gain,
using compression and maybe a little delay. But I'm also thinking
I should add a Tele to my arsenal....
 
RAMI said:
I think a lot of people are lumping all "country" music in the same catagory.

I'm ashamed to admit I played in a "New Country" band for about 3 years until very recently. A lot of this shit they call "New Country" is just re-cycled 80's rock.....with a drawl. :eek: It's not all thin sounding Telecasters and slap back delay. You could probably play 90% of the "new" stuff with a rock guitar set-up with a few tweaks to the sound. It's hard to zero in and say you need one specific guitar with a certain amount of effects because most modern country has little to do with traditional country.
Click to expand...

I know Keith Urban uses LPs and Marshalls (don't ask how I know...I'm ashamed). Brad Paisely uses teles, compressor pedals, boosts, and AC30 amps (as well as a bunch of Dr. Z amps). So modern country could be pretty much anything, it's more in how you play than what you play
 
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