mixing guitars
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Posted on Jan 30, 2010 09:46 am
anth202
Member Since: Jan 30, 2010
My 4 piece band is doing recordings at the moment and im trying to mix my guitar tracks with everything else. The style of music is funk pop. We have done a few rock tracks which were easy to mix because I'd generally do two takes of distorted guitar and pan them left and right and do some lead stuff in the centre. If I take this approach with clean guitar sounds, it sounds like I have a chorus effect on the guitar (i.e. it sounds too spacey). I've tried doing two different guitar parts (usually doing chords with one and octave melodies with the other) and panning them but I still can hear it (not as bad though). If I have one guitar and its panned in the middle it sounds abit thin. I really wanna fatten up the track but I don't like the tone of having two similar guitar bits panned. How do I overcome this? I was listening to whitest boy alive (similar vibe but we are more upbeat) and they only have one clean guitar but there is a keyboard player.
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cruxTypo SzarMember
Since: Jul 04, 2002
Jan 30, 2010 11:38 am If ur chorusing then im gonna presume ur doing two takes? That would probably chorus the guitars, maybe instead try using two mics or just multiple inputs from one source. ofocurse ud have to space the mics properly, but since the playing is all at once the only delay between notes will be from space which will not be such a noticeable chorusing (since chorus also needs the notes to be slightly off-pitch from eachother)
on the whole i dotn think ppl double track clean guitars, just try to get a thick sound through mic technique and from the source. try reverb also to beef up the single source if u cant double ur input.
Another good way to avoid chorus is to really differentiate the doubled part, if ur panning two takes, use two totally different guitars with widely different tones. They should be different enough.
Dematrixhttp://www.reverbnation.com/2ndgMember
Since: Nov 27, 2007
Jan 31, 2010 05:11 am i agree with crux, if youve got 2 guitars then use them for sure.
sounds like you might be getting some phasing with the guitars.
if you want to fatten em up, then double track each side with individual takes, so 4 in total, then on each side, instead of having the 2 tracks the same vol, get the one you like at a good vol, making sure the 2nd track on that side is turned right down to nothing, then slowly bring up the vol on it until you can just hear it filling out the louder one slightly. so its more like a filler rather than another full blown track.
this 2nd track be sure to use a slight different setting and or guitar. Doesnt have to be drasticly different.
i know what youre saying about the chorus type effect, IMO its a phasing issue which can be caused by a number of things, like using the same guitar with the same settings for multi tracking, or even playing the guitar so tight at times with the other it competes for space or clashes/phases the other out or makes it sound too stereo spreadish.
If your getting that from just one track each side playing different things, then it could well be a mic placement thing too. change mic posi's with each new track.
how many mics you using? are you recording your tracks in mono, to a mono track in yer DAW?
Panning a third track of the same thing in the centre, can make things worse too because youve got 2 already panned to the outside, and then the centre one will be going right across the stereo field from left to right, that could be making things alot more muddier than they need to be.
try panning, left 80, right 80, left 30, right 30.
Jan 31, 2010 10:57 am thanks for the responses. I have been using the neck pickup of a strat guitar because I like its clean sound but I do have a gibson les paul (not a fan of the muddy neck pickup) if you think this will help. I have a semi hollow that could work nicely but its in for repairs atm. I also have another amp I haven't used. I am using a sennheiser e906e and have the mic 2 inches away and positioned in between the cone and edge of the speaker. I like the sound of this and haven't really changed it up but I guess I should try that for the other takes. I also have a rode nt-1a condensor that I am not using. I am using mono tracks deon. I might try recording direct and miked amp (at the same time using a signal splitter) but I find it hard to get them in phase (any tricks for that?). So I could do this for the left side (with one guitar) and the right side (with another guitar) and see what happens. Or I could do what deon suggested and do 4 different takes (using a combo of different guitars, amps and mic angles)?
I also have a track that is playing something totally different that I have been using. Right now I have guitar 1 left 50 and guitar 2 panned right 50 (with different eq). Where could I pan this different 3rd track if I get two tracks of the same guitar panned 100 on either side.
Dematrixhttp://www.reverbnation.com/2ndgMember
Since: Nov 27, 2007
Feb 02, 2010 06:08 am you pan it anywhere it sounds best really.
it depends if its playing the whole time or just in bits and pieces of the song.
in the centre is for up front stuff like vocals, lead guitars/fills etc.
i personally would have your first 2 tracks at 80 L/R
and then the 3rd track recorded twice and put it in @ 30 L/R
