getting the right sound for a guitar riff

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cliff
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Cliff

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It might help to try doubling the riff and panning one track hard right and the other hard left. If you really want to put the lead behind the rhythm I don't think it will do that but it should help to blend it.
 
I'm a beginner at this: I have a Yamaha MT4X four track, a Fender Squire guitar and a Zoom 505 effects pedal. I've composed this Pearl Jammy (well I wish..) sort of song, and I'm reasonably happy with the sound of the rhythmn guitar I put down. But I want to put this other guitar riff over the top of it in places and when I tried doing it...well it just didn't sound right.

I mean it sounded like "oh well there's someone playing lead guitar right over the rythmn" - I guess the sound I'm getting isn't thick enough, and I want it to blend in and almost be behind the song and I can't seem to get anyewhere by fiddling with the volume and the EQs. I'm sure I can at least improve the sound if I only knew how. For you guys with Zoom pedals (I only just got mine and don't really know how to use it properly) I was using setting A1 for the riff. Maybe part of the problem is to do with the riff being quite high (9th fret of the high e-string) cause the lower notes I play elsewhere in the song don't sound so bad.

Any ideas?
Thanks for your help guys
 
Sorry a little late. Could not help it. Try not to play lead through every part. This is one of my own problems and many other artist's problems. Try not to fill every part with guitar if vocals are present. maybe a capo could be your answer. even lead,chopy chords, or delay effect could fill before and/or after vocals. Giving the song a fuller sound.
 
Thanks for the advice Cliff and jsteele.

Cliff I tried doing what you said and put the riff through two tracks and it did definitely improve things when listening to the song through headphones, but not really through a normal speaker/s.

I really need a THICKER sound from the riff. I think the thinness of it might be to do with the fact that I'm only playing one note at a time during the riff and the notes I'm playing are high up on the e-string. But sure ly there's a way to fix up the sound: at the moment it's so thin that you virtually hear my pick hitting the string (if you know what I mean).

Considering that I'm putting it through an an effects pedal (reverb, gain, chorus, etc), an amp (eq dials) and into my four-track (more eq dials) there must be a way to improve the sound... anybody? :-)

Christian
 
try toggling different pickup combos too. The squires (or fender strats for that matter) are not exactly legendary for thier fat low end. Heavy strings hold better too, so maybe you need to sit down with the pre effects side of things and dabble with a few changes on the guitar. Obviously EQ will help taylor things too, slight delay, reverb and chorus... but grab some strings that will hurt to use.
 
Try doubling your 2nd part (the part at the 9th fret) an octave lower (if you have the space on your 4 track to do it). That might fatten it up a little.
As well, sometimes less is more- try cutting out some of the effects you are using, or using less of them.
 
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