3 acoustic guitars

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oceanflame

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Hi!

I have an original song, which I wrote like 3-4 years ago. But the thing is, it has 3 acoustic guitars, 1 bass, 1 lead guitar (electric), drums, vocals, and maybe additional synths in it. I recorded it 2 years ago, and my ears weren't as trained as today, so when I listen to this old mix, all the guitars, the acoustics, not the lead, are all lost in the mix.

Is there a way I can hear them clearly? I mean, should I put one guitar far left, one in the middle, one far right? I don't know... One acoustic guitar is playing the main riff, and the others are doing random stuff sometimes through the rest of the song. Should the main riff be in the middle?:confused:

I hope someone can understand what I'm trying to say/ask...

Thanks
 
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Well...how do you have them all panned now?
Are they all in the same spot, on top of each other?

Your stereo field goes 180° left-to-right…use it. :)

If you can post up the song...it would help knowing what it sounds like.
 
In addition to the good advice and requests from Miro, another question:

Are all three acoustic parts from the same guitar? If not, play the EQ to the strengths of each guitar body's timbre - i.e. if one guitar has a warmer, woodier sound, EQ to get the most out of that, if another has more attack or is twangier sounding, leave some of the bass for the first guitar, and play up (slightly) the twang/attack of the second guitar. And so on.

Similar consideration can be given even if the guitar is the same but the player/playing style is different or the parts are in different keys.

Also, sweeping the guitar parts with a narrow Q parametric to remove different sets of resonants from each guitar will tend to make the "footprint" of each guitar a bit smaller, giving each of them a bit more elbow room in eath other's own "holes".

G.
 
oceanflame said:
should I put one guitar far left, one in the middle, one far right? I don't know... One acoustic guitar is playing the main riff, and the others are doing random stuff sometimes through the rest of the song. Should the main riff be in the middle?
Click to expand...
This seems like it would be worth a try. There aren't to many reasons it shouldn't work in theory.
 
Thanks for the inputs! I'll try to post the old mix during the next days, I need to find a good quality file, since the one I found was really shitty mp3 128kbps.

I haven't record it again yet, I'm writing down what I should do to improve it first, and this was one of the things I wasn't so sure about...
 
I know it's been almost 3 years, but here's a link for the song: https://soundcloud.com/#oceanflame_music/time

Finally I decided that one of the acoustic part would be made by an clean electric sound. I'm quite happy with the result, though I know it could have been better.
Let me know what you guys think, if you're still around!
 
Obviously you have already recorded this, but I will usually play different parts when using multiple acoustic tracks, then scooping some of the muddy EQ area out helps define them all a little better.
 
Yeah I recorded this I think 2 years ago. I played with the EQ, and it helped a lot.
 
This song sounds great. The only thing I would say is bring down some of the low end on the acoustic guitars.
 
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