Distortion Guitar

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hawk0016

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Hey guys!
Does anyone know where to place heavy guitar distortion in a mix? My guess is that it would be in the middle. Also, do guitar solo's go on the left channel if they have a heavy distortion as well? Thanks!
 
depends on the format of the song.

for most rock music, the guitars are usually double tracked (or more, i.e. played twice identically, almost) and panned left and right.

if you're talking about an ambience distorted track in the middle of an acoustic song, it's gonna depend on where there is "room" for it in the mix.
 
Thanks for the feedback, volthause.

The reason I asked about the placement of the guitar solo is b/c we have a song that has heavy distortion in it. The solo is also very distorted. The rythmn tracks were recorded almost identicaly and the solo sounds good, but it's too much for the existing distortion. I've noticed some other bands throwing their guitar solo's on the left side. Have any suggestions for that? Thanks in advance.
 
okay, so let me see if i've got this straight.

you've got distorted guitars up in the right and left channels, and the guitar solo panned up front and center, but the solo is overpowering the 'rhythm' guitars?

if so, try rolling off the low end of the solo guitar, say hi-pass it at 175-200 hz, pull down 400-500 hz several db with a resaonbly wide bandwidth (2.5 or so should do it). low-pass between 5k and 7k. sweep it around and find where the harshness that blocking the other sounds is, but try not to lose so much hi-end that the guitar sounds dull.

it sounds odd because usually people have the oposite problem, i.e., the solo doesn't come out enough.
 
thanks. i'll try your suggestions and sweep the solo around to the left and ride sides to hear the difference.
 
double distortion tracks

One thing I've found in regards to having two 'nearly' identical guitar tracks that are then panned right and left...if your working with an acoustic guitar...this works great...because the slight differences give that 'reverb' feel...
However, with heavily distorted guitars...I've found its too easily muddied...and I just make a copy of one guitar track...and then pan them....my need to do this could also because I'm not an expert guitar player...
 
and I just make a copy of one guitar track...and then pan them
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That just makes it twice as loud in the center. It's not really panning them. The signals have to be (slightly) different to make panning useful. Maybe try running one copied signal through slight delay or reverb. That would change it enough.
 
Thanks kormaniac -
we actually decided to try copying the one track and putting both of them on left and right channels. then, adding effects to either the left or right channel. like some light chorus and reverb.

also, that leads me to a question..................is it better to record all the effects on the front end or just apply them to the mix when everything is recorded?

thanks in advance.
 
hawk0016 said:
Thanks kormaniac -
we actually decided to try copying the one track and putting both of them on left and right channels. then, adding effects to either the left or right channel. like some light chorus and reverb.

also, that leads me to a question..................is it better to record all the effects on the front end or just apply them to the mix when everything is recorded?

thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

I would recommend delaying the tracks that you double recorded. It's a good way to separate the frequencies.
 
i like to record distorted guitar tracks in bundles.
if there is one track, i will no doubt have the guitarist play it again.

then, i'll have the 2nd guitarist play his rhythm track twice too. I pan the "identicle" ones l/r. so, now you got 2 tracks on each ear. don't pan them the same (like both tracks hard left. maybe one at 90 and one at 70)...just an example.

mess with volumes and make it sound thick.

if you have solos, you can bring them right down the middle.
 
hawk, you might also consider posting an MP3 in the mixing clinic. You'll get some tips based on what people can actually hear.

Based on what I'm reading, it sounds more like a tracking problem than a mixing problem. Perhaps you should retrack with less saturation, and concentrate on layers, not distortion (which builds up very quickly), to give you the impact you're after.

I'm guessing you've got an overload of 8Khz fizzing destroying all your tone.
 
yeah, lower your dist/gain knob a bit - at least, more than you think you would want to...sometimes a lot more. it gives a much thicker sound.
 
A cool trick to help distorted guitars retain some definition is to record a clean but slightly dirty track of the same part and layer it in with the distortion. It really helps define the attack and notes of the chords.
 
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