Help me beef up guitar (in Audacity)

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SMX_Dizzy

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Yes, Audacity. It's not as bad as people think, and the sound quality is much better than Cubase LE...my Pro Tools rig is not working, so at the moment I don't have a choice.

Anyway, I've got a rhythm guitar track that is just pretty flat. I just needs more beef to be that real good rhythm guitar, ya know? My lead part is fine, but I just can't get a great sound out of the rhythm. It's really the only downfall in my mix so far. It just sounds pretty cheap, and I can't get it to sound really full.

Can you guys help me out? Unfortunately the only way I could find to upload it was putfile...I couldn't upload it here in a zip file, and soundclick sucks, so if you have any other suggestions let me know.

http://media.putfile.com/rough-guitar Actually sounds pretty accurate to the real track, so I wouldn't really question putfile's upload quality here. It sounds the same.
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
Yes, Audacity. It's not as bad as people think, and the sound quality is much better than Cubase LE...my Pro Tools rig is not working, so at the moment I don't have a choice.

Anyway, I've got a rhythm guitar track that is just pretty flat. I just needs more beef to be that real good rhythm guitar, ya know? My lead part is fine, but I just can't get a great sound out of the rhythm. It's really the only downfall in my mix so far. It just sounds pretty cheap, and I can't get it to sound really full.

Can you guys help me out? Unfortunately the only way I could find to upload it was putfile...I couldn't upload it here in a zip file, and soundclick sucks, so if you have any other suggestions let me know.

http://media.putfile.com/rough-guitar Actually sounds pretty accurate to the real track, so I wouldn't really question putfile's upload quality here. It sounds the same.
Click to expand...
I don't really think that the quality between software will be that noticable, if any.

Anyway, there's somethign not nice going on there. Like pops etc. Might just be putfile. It'd have been better if you posted a full mix, so we could hear it in the context of the song. Maybe better mic placement, changing the guitar tone, or just simple EQ could help, or even playing it slightly different(I'm not really a guitarist, so can't help you with that).
 
I actually kinda like the sound. But as Pandamonk says, would really need to hear it in a mix.
 
Audacity? For Shame!!!!!!

I've been using Audacity for more than a year. I love it!! it's free, for goodness sake! It's sooooo simple to use! Of course, I use my Yamaha
AW16G for real time effects, Otherwise, I found the Yamaha piece of crap too confusing to use as an actual recorder.

I heard the pops that were mentioned, but other than that, I thought the guitar sounded great. What's your concern?

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=714806
 
Guitar sounds great to me. Sounds like it would fit in a mix pretty well also.

If there's no bass guitar in the mix, maybe a slight boost in the low end (~80Hz-120Hz?) can make the bass notes a little fuller, but really, they sound find now.

Figure out what's causing the pops and clicks.
 
Archiegood said:
I've been using Audacity for more than a year. I love it!! it's free, for goodness sake! It's sooooo simple to use! Of course, I use my Yamaha
AW16G for real time effects, Otherwise, I found the Yamaha piece of crap too confusing to use as an actual recorder.

I heard the pops that were mentioned, but other than that, I thought the guitar sounded great. What's your concern?

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=714806
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I like it too. It's simple to use, and if you know what your doing, it can sound great.
 
http://media.putfile.com/Shakebase---Summer-Days-rough-mix

Here's a verrrrrrrry rough mix of the song, barely anything is EQ'd or touched. I'll probably re-record the drums, but yea...the solo is a little out of time in the beginning if you're wondering. There are a few minor timing issues throughout the song, but we'll fix them when we take our time, since this song is just going to be for our demo.

Thanks for all the positive comments on the rhythm guitar. I'm honesty quite surprised. I'd still like it a bit more phat and full, so still fire away with some suggestions if you have any.

(btw, there is a huge sound difference between Audacity and Cubase LE. Cubase LE is really chopy/peaky, and Audacity is absolutely fine. I've been working with it for a while so I'm pretty capable with it.)
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
(btw, there is a huge sound difference between Audacity and Cubase LE. Cubase LE is really chopy/peaky, and Audacity is absolutely fine. I've been working with it for a while so I'm pretty capable with it.)
Click to expand...

FYI - There is no difference in sound quality between programs. This has been proven many times over. There could be different settings or performance issues that cause you to hear something different.

When it comes to thickening things up compression and quick delays are very useful.
 
^ Also to help fatten things up, put a short delay on a send and pan it to the opposite side (maybe 50-60l and r) Your ear can't hear the timing difference (up to about 25ms) and it just makes it sound fuller (look up the Haas effect).

Guitar sounds pretty good...I wouldn't worry too much about it.

BTW No difference between two programs... I'm thinking your setup is probably the issue....
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
(btw, there is a huge sound difference between Audacity and Cubase LE. Cubase LE is really chopy/peaky, and Audacity is absolutely fine. I've been working with it for a while so I'm pretty capable with it.)
Click to expand...

100% not true. They're just hosting programs. If you're hearing a difference, it's got nothing to do with the program.
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
http://media.putfile.com/Shakebase---Summer-Days-rough-mix

Here's a verrrrrrrry rough mix of the song, barely anything is EQ'd or touched. I'll probably re-record the drums, but yea...the solo is a little out of time in the beginning if you're wondering. There are a few minor timing issues throughout the song, but we'll fix them when we take our time, since this song is just going to be for our demo.

Thanks for all the positive comments on the rhythm guitar. I'm honesty quite surprised. I'd still like it a bit more phat and full, so still fire away with some suggestions if you have any.

(btw, there is a huge sound difference between Audacity and Cubase LE. Cubase LE is really chopy/peaky, and Audacity is absolutely fine. I've been working with it for a while so I'm pretty capable with it.)
Click to expand...

Sounds like a decent mix could be made from this clip.
Id try and edit out the clicks, or re record so there are no clicks. The clicks sound like something hitting a microphone, or your system isn't powerfull enough to handle recording. What soundcard are you using?

For this style of music I don't really hear beefy guitars more so thin guitars that cut through the mix. Your guitar has more beef than most bands out at the moment with this type of style. Although I don't dig this type of music, so I might be wrong.

Eck
 
RAMI said:
100% not true. They're just hosting programs. If you're hearing a difference, it's got nothing to do with the program.
Click to expand...

If there is any difference in the sound of recording software it would be so minimal that it really wouldn't mater that much.
A good test would be to import the same track into each DAW and render (bounce) them with no plug ins or anything. making sure you bounce each track to the exact same file format.
Then import both bounced tracks into 1 DAW (making sure the 2 tracks are eligned exaactly, and reverse the phase of 1 of the tracks.
If you hear anything atall when you play back the 2 tracks together then what you hear is the difference between the 2 DAWs sound.

Not that I think there will be any difference.

Eck
 
RAMI said:
100% not true. They're just hosting programs. If you're hearing a difference, it's got nothing to do with the program.
Click to expand...

agreed. i don't really like the EQ's in audacity, i prefer the cubase LE ones, easier to tweak IMO etc. but yeah, software's not going to change the quality, at all. maybe the SOUND not quality.
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
http://media.putfile.com/Shakebase---Summer-Days-rough-mix

Here's a verrrrrrrry rough mix of the song, barely anything is EQ'd or touched. I'll probably re-record the drums, but yea...the solo is a little out of time in the beginning if you're wondering. There are a few minor timing issues throughout the song, but we'll fix them when we take our time, since this song is just going to be for our demo.

Thanks for all the positive comments on the rhythm guitar. I'm honesty quite surprised. I'd still like it a bit more phat and full, so still fire away with some suggestions if you have any.

(btw, there is a huge sound difference between Audacity and Cubase LE. Cubase LE is really chopy/peaky, and Audacity is absolutely fine. I've been working with it for a while so I'm pretty capable with it.)
Click to expand...
I think panning could really help separate the guitar tracks, and i don't think you need to beef up the rhythm guitar at all.
 
So I've messed around a bit, and doing some panning has sure helped. I've tried that before in some songs and it didn't really do the trick, so I threw the idea out...I thought I'd give it a shot again and it worked a bit. I'm gonna do some more EQ tweaking, one of my friends tried screwing with the mids, which was not originally what I had in mind, but it sounded really good.

Hopefully I'll have a new mix closer to the final up tonight. Thanks everyone!
 
SMX_Dizzy said:
So I've messed around a bit, and doing some panning has sure helped. I've tried that before in some songs and it didn't really do the trick, so I threw the idea out...I thought I'd give it a shot again and it worked a bit. I'm gonna do some more EQ tweaking, one of my friends tried screwing with the mids, which was not originally what I had in mind, but it sounded really good.

Hopefully I'll have a new mix closer to the final up tonight. Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Glad it's working for you. Never throw an idea out 'cause it hasn't work for a particular song. Also, be gentle with EQ. You shouldn't need to EQ too much(you should get the sound you want in tracking), but if you do EQ, it shouldn't be drastic. :D

Also, guitar is mostly mid-range, so screwing with the low-mids will beef it up a bit, and high mids will make it tinier. I'd suggest removing at frequencies you don't like/want, rather than adding at frequencies you do.
 
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