great song, good songwriting! thx!
Thanks a lot!
Greg, since you say you did not use any EQ on the guitar, may I ask what settings you use on your bass and guitar amps? Do you turn the lows all the way down on your Marshall to make room for the bass or do you leave some there and compensate with less lows on the bass? The sonic landscape seem very full and I can not for the life of me figure out how you manage to do this. Been trying for years man.
Thanks. I think the way to do it is to not overthink it. I wish I had some secret formula to share with you, but truthfully, I just crank my shit and go. I mean, I've spent and still spend a lot of time testing things out between songs, but when it's time to track I just let er rip. You want a big guitar sound that fills up the mix? Then use a big, balanced guitar sound and play like you mean business. Honestly I just dial in a sound I like and mic the cab. I track pretty loud. I don't think about stuff like "is this guitar tone gonna work with the bass?" I don't roll off highs or lows on anything thinking that something else has to fit there. I just make sure it sounds good to me and go for it. If it sounds good at the source, it will work. Having said that, I know how I want things to sound, so I'm not going to use a big ol flubby bass tone on a song that I know needs to be tight and punchy. Here's my amp settings for this song:
All guitars -
Gibson Les Paul Traditional Pro + Marshall JVM410
L Rhythm:
OD1 Green channel
Bass - 7
Mid - 7
Treb -5
Gain - 3
Resonance & Presence - 0
Channel & Master vol - 6
Vintage 30 2x12 + SM57 on-axis, on grill, pointed where dustcap meets cone
R Rhythm:
Same amp settings as left
1960a 4x12 Greenback + same mic and position
Lead:
Same amp settings + Tubescreamer set as clean boost - (Drive 0 - Level max - tone 12:00)
Greenback + Audix i5 on-axis, on grill, halfway to edge of speaker
So it's 3 guitar tracks, all the same guitar and amp settings, different speakers and mics. I think most people mic their cab and leave it there only changing guitars or amp settings. I typically do it the backwards way. I'm a big fan of how speakers and mics change the sound as opposed to swapping guitars or tweaking amp settings. But I will sometimes just keep everything the same and use different guitars. It just depends on my mood. All of my shit pretty much ends up sounding the same anyway. Lol.
For the bass I used my junky ol Squier P-Bass into an Orange Bass
Terror into an SWR 4x10 mic'd with a 57. All controls were roughly set at high noon, although I can't remember exactly.
Two rhythms panned 100% to each side. Lead is like 25-30% left. Bass is about 7% right. No EQ or reverb or anything. There might be some slight compression on the bass, although I can't remember off the top of my head exactly. I don't mind a little EQ work if necessary. Hell I'll EQ the shit out of something if I want to. I don't adhere to any arbitrary rules. It just so happened that this one worked out just right and needed no guitar or bass EQ for my own satisfaction. I consider that a small personal victory in the tracking department. Someone else might mix this and decide to EQ as they see fit.
So that's about it.