electric guitar not sitting quite right

guttapercha said:
Hey,

The lead sound just doesn't sit right in this mix for some reason. I've eq'd it a bit, but it's just grating a bit to my ears. If you're familiar with some of John Scofield's work, you'll sort of see where I'm trying to go with this.

I'd appreciate some feedback on the Tune "Scophile".

http://www.nowhereradio.com/artists/album.php?aid=4459&alid=-1

JD
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with the work, but I hear what you're talking about.
Just ideas... try adding some reverb or echo to the sound. That may smooth it out some... or double track it and widen it in the stereo field by panning it with different EQs/reverbs or so on to meat it up... cool playing :cool:
 
I like the lead. You want it to stand out some. Take the entire mix, as a stereo file, and use some compression on it. How do you mix? If in software, a multiband might help. You can set different compression for different frequencies. This shouldn't need too much.
This is far from perfect, but it was simple to do.
File

I think in reality, you need to eq out some highs, from the lead. That will allow more bottom and mid to shine in the whole mix. I simply slapped on a free multiband, and used a preset. With some tweaking, you can make it sound more uniform.
 
Thank you for listening and the kind feedback on the playing. I actually was wondering about how to give this more space, like with the guitar panned about 2/3 to one side, but then having the reverb of the guitar about 2/3 to the opposite side. Neal Schon's guitar does this on the intro to Stone in Love on Journey Escape. (I'm showing my age a bit).

I mix in Cubase, and am clueless about mastering. What is a multiband?

I listened to your master, and the guitar does sound smoother and more "in" the mix.

I heard that Isotope Ozone is a good mastering program, but that is pretty spendy. Are there mastering plug ins for say Cubase that might do me right?


Dogman said:
I like the lead. You want it to stand out some. Take the entire mix, as a stereo file, and use some compression on it. How do you mix? If in software, a multiband might help. You can set different compression for different frequencies. This shouldn't need too much.
This is far from perfect, but it was simple to do.
File

I think in reality, you need to eq out some highs, from the lead. That will allow more bottom and mid to shine in the whole mix. I simply slapped on a free multiband, and used a preset. With some tweaking, you can make it sound more uniform.
Click to expand...
 
hmmmm...kind of sticks out. It's not that bad but I know what you mean. Nice playing btw.

To start with it's too loud at times.. The tone is different from the rest of the mix somehow, everything else is so mellow. My first instinct is to suggest setting it back with some reverb, but that might put it ina different room on top of whatever else is already going on. Maybe a really warm verb to fatten it out on the bottom.

Sweet jam
 
Doug H said:
hmmmm...kind of sticks out. It's not that bad but I know what you mean. Nice playing btw.

To start with it's too loud at times.. The tone is different from the rest of the mix somehow, everything else is so mellow. My first instinct is to suggest setting it back with some reverb, but that might put it ina different room on top of whatever else is already going on. Maybe a really warm verb to fatten it out on the bottom.

Sweet jam
Click to expand...

Exactly. The thing is, the tone is exactly what I wanted, it's just how to get it to fit.

Thanks for the compliment. I love laying down some lush hammond chords to jam over. :)
 
Usually, with something like this, a small amount of compression will help. If you have access to a multiband compressor, you can set it to compress the lead more than the other sounds, and that might help to make the mix more cohesive. If Cubase uses vst type plugins, there are many free ones out there. I know nothing about cubase myself, but is there an effect for compression? Some call it amplitude, or dynamics processing. Multiband is just a compressor that has more than one channel, or band, for doing the compressing. That way, you can have it compress certain frequencies more than others, as the compression is triggered by different sounds, in different parts.
 
Dogman said:
Usually, with something like this, a small amount of compression will help. If you have access to a multiband compressor, you can set it to compress the lead more than the other sounds, and that might help to make the mix more cohesive. If Cubase uses vst type plugins, there are many free ones out there. I know nothing about cubase myself, but is there an effect for compression? Some call it amplitude, or dynamics processing. Multiband is just a compressor that has more than one channel, or band, for doing the compressing. That way, you can have it compress certain frequencies more than others, as the compression is triggered by different sounds, in different parts.
Click to expand...



Will the endorphin from digital fish phones be worth a shot?

http://www.digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=3
 
sounds good to me...a little like Peter and Gorden from the 60's .You might try doubling the lead ,and doing a different eq on one.....
 
Sonic Rat said:
sounds good to me...a little like Peter and Gorden from the 60's .You might try doubling the lead ,and doing a different eq on one.....
Click to expand...


That's interesting - do you mean actually double tracking the lead? Yike, I don't think I could get the improvisational parts (90%) the same as the first track. Do you think that cut/pasting the track into a new track and then dinking with the eq is worth a try?

Peter and Gordon...oh snap! Maybe you listened to the other tune on that website, called "downgraded"! Of the two tunes on there - much more likely to be Peter/Gordon-esqe. The "Scophile" tune is the one I was referring to .

I must say I love doubletracking vocals though....

Thank you,

JD
 
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