scooped guitars....good or bad?

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WEBCYAN

WEBCYAN

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scooped guitars....good or bad?

A Perfect Cirlce's rythhm gits are very scooped in the mid range. Some have said this sounds god while playing solo, but with a full band the mid range should be quite hi.

so, what do you all think.

If you scoop the gits doesnt that give the vocals a perfect place to 'sit' in the mix?

My gits and vox seem to clash too much....
 
That depends on a lot of factors. The context of the song, the timber of the singers voice, the actual recorded tone of the guitar, what other instruments are present, etc.
 
Scooped mid, heavy distortion guitars are a sound man's nightmare, in a live situation like a nightclub, they don't cut thru. I have seen a lot of players in clubs that seemed like they were pretty good, but its hard to tell when you can't distinguish a single note they are playing. Recording-wise I would have to agree with the above post, depends on the context, but when you cut mids, you are cutting out a lot of the fundamental frequencies (the actual pitch of the notes played), gotta be harder to get the mix right. A kick drum's fundamental frequency lies between 50-70 hz ( I think) what would happen if you were to cut that to make room for the bass guitar? Try recording the guitar "straight" and then scooping the mids after; that way you can always add as much midrange back in as you need.
 
Scoopin'

I'm a newbie, so take my advice with a grain of salt, but this is what works for me. For a heavy, thick sound, I set my amps eq; highs 5, mid 6, lows 4 (pretty much straight up). I keep the distortion pretty low, like at 4. Close mic my cab. During mixing I cut the fundamental freqs of bass, vox, bass drum and snare out of the guitars. Well, I try to. Check out the chorus parts of this mp3:


I don't know if this what your looking for. I'm still experimenting. I'm going for a that Finger Eleven guitar sound, but I have a really shitty guitar rig to work with.
 
WEBCYAN said:
scooped guitars....good or bad?
Click to expand...
If the sound is what you're looking for, then it's good! Otherwise, it's bad!!!

:D :D
 
really?? ;)

Well. Heres my thinking...

My rythm(sp????!?) playing is fairly power chord based. Not always, but 60% of the time. I use it mainly to establish an underlying melody, much like the bass. I dont want it to stand out too much, and want it to be more "fuzzy" than harsh and distorted. I generally do cut mids.

But my lead playing is clean or distorted depending on the situation. Lots of countermelodies. And I make up for lost mids here. The mids on my lead playing are pretty much normal.

Does that sound like it should work recorded?
 
btw, apush, good song! I like it.

The r. gits during the chorus seem a bit too harsh. Too much presence.

But, I really like the song! Great use of dynamics and buildup. You need a singer!
 
First off, the way I see it is if you like the way your guitar sounds by itself straight out of the amp, record it that way without trying to color the sound too much. That way you have a sound that you like from the beginning, even if it could use improvement, you still have a good place to start and won't need to mess with it too much to get it where you want it.

I used to HATE midrange. I'm in to metal, and metal is infamous for scooped mids. But as I started to get into recording, I noticed it was very difficult to make out the guitar, which made me want to boost it, then the whole mix would sound shitty. It's like the guitar tone was a big ravine, lows on one side and highs on the other. The sound just lacked something. MIDRANGE. When I started bringing up the mids it was like filling the ravine and now I had a nice, full sound. After all, Guitars are midrange instruments. Another benefit I noticed from boosting mids was suddenly I didnt have to crank my amp so loud at band practice.

With all that said, scooped mids are still widely used on albums, so it works for a lot of people. If it works for you, then thats what matters. One thing I've learned here is that there are no rules in recording, just guidelines to help you achieve the sound you invision in your mind. Whatever way you get to that end result doesnt matter.
 
Thanks, Webcyan.

There was no EQ on the guitar! That recording is with everything straight up. If there is too much presence, you can roll off that freq to taste. It's better to roll of a freq than try to add it later. I think that high presence you're hearing is the acoustic gt on the right side. Yeah, it's too loud.

Actually I am a singer (http://www.mp3.com/statik). I recorded this by myself (playing all the instruments) in about an hour. My girlfriend was yelling at me so I had to stop. I only got one take on drums and I didn't get a chance to mix much. The guitars on the chorus are too loud. The acoustic is too loud through the hole song. When I get the time I'll redo the drums and add vox. I'll post the finished mix.
 
the lead git overall is a lil bit boring, but after a while it changes into a very cool riff. and when the lead git starts back up again and does that little squeal beforehand, very cool.
 
oh yeah, your also a pretty good singer.
kind of a mix of maynard keenan, the guy from creed, and brandon from incubus. imo....
 
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