How do you get the guitar fat in the mix

M

musicsdarkangel

New member
Well, I record instrumentals, but I can never get the guitar to sound fat or in your face in the mix.

There is only one way I can do it, which is recording the part twice.

However, I do a lot of improvisation, and can't double track a lot.

Any suggestions?
 
need more info.... what is your signal path on the guitar? what are you playing, plugged into what, mic'd, line in..... there are too many variables without you getting a little more specific.
 
Ok, I uploaded a couple of guitar sounds to nowhere...they're guitar demo 1 and 2 at the bottom of the page here .

I only used four things,
1: Trademark 10 amp
2: Tascam mixer
3: Tape machine
4: A wannabe strat

I have no idea what sound you're loking for but that was almost the one I wanted.
Just thought I'd share.
:cool:
 
The best way to get a pair of guitars to stand out in a mix (I find) is to use two different sounds panned hard left and right. I usually go for a thick deep sound and a brighter and more cutting sound to balance it out. I then pan them slowly toward the middle until they gel together. I then EQ them slightly to reduce the muddieness in the two guitars. I find I can turn the guitars up a bit louder when I reduce some energy in the 300-500 hz on both. Just not the exact same frequency...it seems to smear the panning if they're too similar.
 
the question should be..........how do you get the bass fat in the mix............ i did a recording where the guitars sounded awesome and then i took the bass guitar out and all of the sudden the guitars sounded like dog poo............

I think "fat" guitar tone is directly related to "fat" bass guitar tone.

so you have to ask yourself....... does this guitar sound "fat" when i'm in front of the amp? does this bass guitar sound "fat" when i'm in front of the amp?

if the answer is no on either one of them.........it's gonna be real tough to get a "fat" recorded sound.

i just realised this post may make me sound like i'm being a sarcastic ass..........i assure you that i'm not.........and don't mean it to sound that way
 
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cstockdale said:
need more info.... what is your signal path on the guitar? what are you playing, plugged into what, mic'd, line in..... there are too many variables without you getting a little more specific.
Click to expand...


I run my guitar to my modeling amp. I'm playing a S470, no effects, and micing the amp.
 
cstockdale said:
need more info.... what is your signal path on the guitar? what are you playing, plugged into what, mic'd, line in..... there are too many variables without you getting a little more specific.
Click to expand...


I run my guitar to my modeling amp. I'm playing a S470, only effects used are on the amp but usually record dry and add verb later, and micing the amp.
 
some tips'n'tricks:

If it's that hard guitarsound (metal/rock) etc. you might wanna compress it bit more.

Hard pan Delay one guitar:
(feedback 1, dry and wet at 100%)
left the original, right delay between 10-30 ms for fattening or between 30-100ms for widening/slapping
(you might wanna at a second guitar in mono too)

do the parts where you don't improv. twice as you mentioned and hard pan left/right

and EQ it ofcourse to get the attention in the mix.

hope this will help you. good luck
ro
 
have you tried multiple takes of the same track, play them all together. sounds really good. You can then delay one, pan on left, one right, add reverb to one, etc, etc, etc
 
i do alot of my solos improv. heres what i do and it really helps quite a bit

1.record it
2.make a copy of the track
3.offset the copy of the track a little bit
4.pan them away from each other
5.get an amp modeling plugin and put that on one of them
6.add effects and a little eq

that gets me a much much fatter sound

and as DonkeyStyle said, Without a good fat bass sound, getting a good fat guitar sound that fits in the mix is really hard.
 
Without a decent drum track and bass track, a fat guitar sound is worthless.......

Checkout some of the MP3 clips from these guys - www.dayofthefight.co.uk . They're a great local band from where I am and get some amazing tones with their guitars, even with a lot of improvisation.

Neil
 
Try two mics on the amp - I use the good old SM57 close up to the speaker and then an NT2 (padded) about a foot back - great for rhythm in sparse arrangments where you pan R & L to desired position.

As others mentioned also recording twice is a good idea - have to watch the L/R panning though or else that becomes your trade mark sound on everything you do and gets a little dull & boring.

There's a few good suggestions here, try them all in different songs.

Cheers
 
Simple

Listen to "Novocaine" and the end of "Mr M" (both full length) at http://sodiumchannel.com/music.html

If you like the tone:
I used just one shure SM57 on ALL 3 amps:

Marshall Valvestate 100 combo (left-side guitar -my guitar- heavy rhytm)

Fender Twin Reverb (clean guitar)

Carvin Head + cab. (solos - Right-side guitar)

the mic was placed on axis, but several inches away from the speaker.

Peace...

PC
 
When you have good sounds with good playing and a good arrangement... the tones will damn near balance themselves.

By stressing on one component of a mix you're short changing the other equally important aspects of the music. I would recommend that you not focus on any one tone, but the composition as a whole.

Best of luck.
 
Hey, thanks a lot everyone! You guys are always great!

Anyway, I want to try micing the amp with 2 mics, but I'm not sure how to do that on my cubasis/delta 66 omnistudio breakout box setup.

Anyhelp on that would be great, or is that another thread?
 
Try one near centered an inch or three from the speaker and one with phase flipped ehind in the cabinet. Placement is everything, a half an inch or a degree of angle can make all the difference in the world. NEVER try to set a mic and forget about it, listen no matter what and keep moving it until it's perfect.
 
Axis said:
i do alot of my solos improv. heres what i do and it really helps quite a bit

1.record it
2.make a copy of the track
3.offset the copy of the track a little bit
4.pan them away from each other
5.get an amp modeling plugin and put that on one of them
6.add effects and a little eq

that gets me a much much fatter sound

and as DonkeyStyle said, Without a good fat bass sound, getting a good fat guitar sound that fits in the mix is really hard.
Click to expand...

And just to take this great suggestion and add a twist (this post made me think of this so I haven't tried it). If you can do your solo using whatever recording method and amps/effects you use and at the same time record the DI from the guitar into your recorder, you can use that DI'd signal to feed any amps/ amp modelers later - shoot you could even copy that pure DI'd signal several times and apply different sounds to it - (probably overkill?).
 
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