how to differentiate parts

[wyattbridges]

hey guys, i was wondering if anyone could offer me some insight on something. i'm in the final stages of production on a cd that me and my friends are recording. it's a post-rock porject (similar in sound to caspian and exposions in the sky). i'm producing it on logic pro 7, but on this last track that we finished recording yesterday i'm having extreme difficulty in differentiating the different sounds from one another. there are 5 guitars playing at one point, and they just sound so muddled and intermixed. most have heavy reverb and slight delay. i've also EQ'd them all separately and panned the tracks but i just can't get the parts to stand out from one another. we recording the various parts with 3 different guitars too and it's just can figure it out. what do you think?

 

[mikeh]

If you tracked the effects (reverb & delay) - vs. adding effects after tracking - then you only have a few good options.

You could first see if all the guitar tracks are really needed - if not mute some (in fact that may be a good way to find which tracks may work together.) Another possible option is to EQ certain tracks differently - while I'm not a fan of extreme EQ to fix tracking errors....you gotta work with what you have. You could possibly use some filtering on some tracks......but I have not used a lot of filtering - so I can't attest to how well that would work.

 

[Dogbreath]

That's what I was thinking.

Mute 1 or 2 of the trax and see if they're actually needed to make the part sound right...

And try some different EQ's to each and see if that'll help create a space in the mix for them.

Were they tracked with the reverb and delay or was that done after?

 

[wyattbridges]

the reverb and delay were added after

 

[mikeh]

You indicate the effects were added after - can't you simply dial the effects down (or out).

I'm confused to what your exact problem is. Was a final "mixed" stero mix loaded into your Logic? Or - were the effects added using Logic Pro? Or -was everything actually tracked in Logic?

If guitars are tracked with effects - you are stuck with the effects - but if the effects were added at the board (or in the box) - then you should have the flexibility to dial them out.