Guitar mixing tips for a typical alt rock song

bolenti

New member
Hello there,
I'm experimenting on the mix of a typical alternative rock song which I want the guitars to sound a bit like The Smashing Pumpkins Siamese Dreams album, reference song Hummer. I have trouble getting the bass and the electric guitars work together to achieve the targeted sound. I tried to tweak a high pass filter on the guitars but removing the lows destroyed the mix as the distorted guitar riff goes thin and if I don't use the high pass I get a blurry low end.

Could someone share a few tips and/or suggestions on how you get the bass and the distorted guitar work well together to get a nice blend?
 
I'll have to check out the specific song you reference, but as I remember it, the guitar tones on that album WERE extremely thin... not much midrange, tons of lower treble. Perhaps try a shelving EQ, because it can act a lot more gently than a straight band-pass filter.

The other thing I recall from that album is tons of layering. many many parts piled up and probably very compressed.
 
There's no such thing as a "typical mix". You do what you gotta do, and every mix has it's own unique needs. This is a compounded truth if you're trying to compare your mix to the Pumpkins, who used the studio the way a pimp uses his stable.

The fist thing you need to do is to NOT try and get your instrument tracks to sound "awesome" soloed and then try to mix them together. That rarely works out well for the newb ear. The second thing to avoid are preconcieved notions that you need to use a bandpass that does this on this instrument, and one that does that on that one, or that kind of garbage. Here's what you need to do instead:

Actively picture in your head what you want the combination to sound like. And screw the Pumpkins or anyone else, it's YOUR sound that YOU are trying to make. Figure out what your sonic goal is, at least roughly if not specifically, before you do anything, including hitting the record button. Then get your recording as close a you can to your goal without having to over-depend on the studio tricks (even if you know that tricks will be necessary no matter what.)

Then when it comes to mixing, get a rough "faders up" mix going and listen to what's happening with the tracks playing simultaneously, and work on them based upon what you hear from there. Listen to what you got, compare that to what you want, and then apply what you think will give you the difference.

G.
 
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