Mixing guitars

  • Thread starter Thread starter mojew
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mojew

mojew

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Just wondering what you guys generally do with your guitars and if I'm over eqing.

I generally find that I need to throw on lpfs (around 100hz) and hpfs(around 8k) as well as completely dial out certian frequencies that just sound nasty. (usually around 4k and 2k) to get them to sound good in the mix.

Is this normal? I like my guitar tone coming out of the amp, but then I find its nearly impossible to get it to sound how I want once its in the mix.

I'm doing poppy goldfinger style punk, if that helps.

Any pointers or opinions?
 
Basic suggestions

Mojew,

You have your high pass & low pass filters reversed, but I know what you mean.

Here's a few basic non-expert suggestions:

- You say you like your tone out of your amp. That may be a huge mistake, depending on what you really mean when you say that. What you really want to accomplish is to get a tone out of your amp that will sound good when it is recorded and sound good in the mix. That can be much different than generating a cool, stand alone tone that sounds hip in your rehearsal room. For me, sometimes that tone doesn't really sound all that good on its own but when I add it to a mix, it's right.

- As a general rule for recording (certainly not an absolute), get a brighter, more midrangey tone out of your amp than you would when you play live. Let the bass guitar and kick drum occupy most of the low end.

- As a general rule for recording (again, not an abslute), don't use as much distortion as you normally would when you play live.

Obviously, there's a whole lot more...proper miking, establishing a good room and the whole gamut of engineering expertise but the basics I've noted can get you pretty far along the path to a good solid recorded guitar sound.

Bart
 
also, anyone have any advice on how to properly use reverbs, delays, compressions to get the sound i'm going for?
 
sounds like you are EQing way too much. I would high pass around 100 and thats about it. If it still doesn't sound right, you need to fix your micing technique. Seriously. I can stick a 57 straight up into the center of a speaker cab powered by a a gibson/marshall and play, and i have the tone I want.

Rexamine your amp, mic and guitar setup...don't EQ..maybe compress a little to taste (like 2:1)..thats all you should need for that sound.


oh yeah..my tone knobs are set on the amp with the bass UNDER 5..the Mids are about 6-7 and the treble is at 7-8. I also don't Turn the distortion up so much that it sounds saturated.
 
funny. it sounds like i have a pretty similar setup.

i'm recording with a marshall jcm2000 and a japanese telecaster with a duncan jb in the bridge. I've got a sennheiser e835 pointed right at the the part where the speaker cone meets the flat part in the middle of my celestion loaded cab. and my tone controls are actually pretty similar to yours. and the distortion level is pretty low. not saturating.

my main problem is i get all these piercing whistley frequencies that i feel i need to dial out. maybe this is a mistake? or maybe this is a bad mic for this application?
 
When im recording, I normally have one SM57 about 2" from the cone, and another about a foot back,

anyone else mic like this?

- Idgeit
 
Idgeit said:
When im recording, I normally have one SM57 about 2" from the cone, and another about a foot back,

anyone else mic like this?

- Idgeit
Click to expand...

The only thing with double micing is you might run into phase cancellation dependant upon the room size/mic placement. Back in the day I used to mic the back of the speaker inside the back opening of the cab and had phasing issued form hell. As for just a dual mic set-up in front of the cab you can get a nice fat tone that way.
 
Out of phase, sorry im new to some of these terms, How exactly would i bring them back in phase?


- Idgeit/nebed
 
Idgeit said:
Out of phase, sorry im new to some of these terms, How exactly would i bring them back in phase?


- Idgeit/nebed
Click to expand...

Oh God... marked as a thread to stay away from! :)
 
do a search on the phase thing for more detail..but each track in your mixer should have a phase button to press..also test your mix in mono for phase issues. But i think the ambience micing is a good thing..I wouldnt reccomend it for something like metal (just a genre example) though because you are going for a really tight sound, and a second mic just makes it sound roomy..for heavier stuff that needs to be played with precision, you want close micing....but for other stuff it is great, because you can pan that room mic a little more towards the other speaker for depth.


as for the main post..maybe you can post a quick unprocessed sample of what you are describing? i dont know what you really mean, unless your pickups or speakers are crapping out..id have to hear it...sounds like you have a great setup for guitar sounds.a tele through a marshall, thats good shit..it would be a waste to have to EQ all that tone away!
 
The mic ain't bad - it just has more of a high boost than the Sm57. I would simply more the mic further away from the center of the cone - IE the closer to the center the brighter (and IMO mechanical) the sound gets. I used a tele into a marshall with a 835 about a month ago and had the mic about 6 inches way from the speaker pretty much centered between the edge and middle of the cone. It sounded fine.
 
actually, after reading a lot about eq and shelving and such, i found something i'm "happier" with. I'll post my mix tomorrow. I think i've kind of reached the limit as to how close i can get to what i want, as most of the bands i'm trying to sound like guitar wise use mesa boogie stuff.
 
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