A shove in the right direction

[sixways]

Hey guys,

I'm currently working on a Southern Rock sounding tune (think Gov't Mule, Drive By Truckers) and its sounding pretty good mix wise...until...the guitar solo. I can't put my finger on it, but the entire track seems muddy as hell when the guitar solo comes in. I've tried muting the rhythym guitar, pulling back the organ, adding reverb to the solo..nothing seems to help.

I'm thinking its got to be a frequency issue...(needs eq work), but I'm in the dark on why the guitar solo could make the rest of the mix go to crap.

Any ideas?

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[littledog]

A couple of possibilites:

If you have a compressor across the mix buss, the loud guitar solo might result in the rest of the mix getting ducked - therefore losing intensity and clarity. So you might want to try taking that off and see if it helps.

Another likely culprit is your guitar sound is too "full range", as far as the frequency spectrum, so it ends up masking other instruments when it comes in. Try rolling off some of the extreme lows and highs a a starting point. Then for even more clarity, sweep a notch filter around on the guitar solo track while the whole mix is playing, and see if you can find a "magic" frequency that when cut allows the rest of the mix to suddenly shine through.

 

[danny.guitar]

Another likely culprit is your guitar sound is too "full range", as far as the frequency spectrum, so it ends up masking other instruments when it comes in.

I agree, I spent a lot of time dialing in the right tone for a lead guitar in one of my songs, and when I was finally happy with the sound coming out of the amp, I noticed it sounded like shit in the mix, and wouldn't fit no matter how I panned or adjusted the volume, or EQ'd.

Then I dialed in a tone that would sound good in the mix. It sounded like ass coming from the amp, but in the mix it fit real well.

You could try to EQ it to make it fit, but that would probably require too much and make it sound bad. I would just retrack the solo with a tone more suited for the mix.

Do you have an MP3 you can post of the mix with the solo?

 

[Ford Van]

Run an eq, then compressor on it. EQ the hell out of it, and squish it with the compressor. The combinations are endless! I can make just about any lead guitar tone fit any song with enough eq followed by compression!

 

[rayc]

Drop an MP3 link in the MP3 Mixing clinic so that ears can help rather than hypothesis.

 

[sixways]

Ok, thanks for the suggestions. I'll try to get a link up tonite.

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