Bring it forward?

[punkin]

I did a couple electric guitar tracks for a guy who wanted to direct input from a POD...he was after a specific sound we couldn't reproduce using my in-house amp.. We're going to lay it on top of some previously recorded backgrounds.

Having not used a mic (DI)...I'm having a tough time bringing the the solo's up front...playing with pan an levels just seems to move things left/right or louder/softer. Can I achieve any additional 3D spatial effect than this? I'm using SONAR 3.1 in this application.

Any thought?

 

[Chibi Nappa]

Did the POD patch have alot of reverb? If so, you might have to re-track with less reverb dialed up on the POD, or with a longer pre-delay or something....

 

[Erik713]

I agree. Too much reverb can cause a track to fade into the background.

Also, you can remove some lower frequencies / raise some higher frequencies, and that should move the track higher (not forward) in your soundstage. That might bring the solo "away" from other instruments in your mix.

 

[punkin]

Thanks all...yea...there is a bit of reverb in the instrument patch...the sound he was after is very thin, crispy with a lot of "ring" to it...also a lot of sustain...from what I can tell, there's a bit of delay and quite a bit of compression in his setup.

The general instrument set up is very bright...so I don't think turning up the highs is a good idea. With some of your ideas, perhaps I should take a look at the background tracks and simply try to push them back a bit.

All the back ground tracks were done using multiple mics so there's a sense of a room with dimension and reflection involved.

 

[Erik713]

yeah, if you're pretty bright on the solo already, check where your other instruments are panned. For example, if you have a rhythm guitar and it's panned center during the solo, move it!! If you have some other instrument in the same range, they could be "fighting" for the space. Panning and EQing are very effective here.

However, to bring something forward and back, nothing beats good old volume adjustments. If you can turn the volume up without clipping (perhaps a limiter for peaks?), that would probably be my first suggestion.

 

[Massive Master]

One thing to keep in mind when recording a POD -

If you have the open tracks, ALWAYS record the "dry out" to another track while recording and just tuck it away somewhere. Later, if the sounds aren't blending properly, you can just run that dry signal back through the POD and tweak until you're brain-dead. The dry signal will contain the proper "feel" elements brought on by the preamp settings (harmonics, controlled feedback will remain intact).

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com