I need help making my guitar recordings sound bigger.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:00 am

I have an acoustically treated room. I am using a Presonus Firepod. I have an SM57 and are using a variety of guitars and amps. I have also used more mics and different mic placements. I just can't seem to get the guitar to sound big on my recordings. This is much more evident the more distortion I use. The problem is the only way I get it to sound big is be turning the volume way on it, and it just drowns out the other instruments (even with some EQ work). I have tried reverb, mulitple tracks and delays, but am just not happy with it.

I play a variety of genre's from blues, fusion, classic rock, to heavy rock. But my mixing problem stands out the most on heavier track. Go to amazon.com and listen to Godsmack's Shine Down song.

http://www.amazon.com/IV-odsmack/dp/B000EXOAAO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1216659455&sr=8-4

Listen to the rhythm guitar. It sounds huge, but yet it doesn't drown out the other instruments or the vocalist. (This is just one example.)

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:33 am

I sometimes find a little compression (LA2) helps

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 2:41 pm

An option that I have used occasionally for loud guitars but still having the vocal stand out is using a sidechain compressor off of the vocal so when the vocal comes in the guitars duck a little.

I have been using this ducking on a lot of different tracks trying to get more volume without using outrageous mastering settings.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 5:22 pm

I have had success double tracking (not just doubling) the heavy guitar and panning the 2 tracks hard left and right. We had a slightly different sound on each, and it worked out pretty well. If your vocal sits in the center it should cut through. Also try cutting the eq slightly on the guitar tracks in the vocal range.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 6:17 pm

Both double tracking and copy paste will help the guitar sound bigger.
Copy the track, pan one hard L and one hard R. Scoot one track ahead or behind by 10 miliseconds or so. Scoot it around until you like it. If you go too far it will sound like echo.
If you double track you might not do the scoot thing, because the tracks will be ever so slightly different any how (unless you are one hella-perfect guitar player!!!), but you could!
Also try a second mic on the amp a little farther back. Mix the tracks together for a sound.

Posted: Mon Jul 21, 2008 8:40 pm

atl123 wrote:

This is much more evident the more distortion I use.

I missed this part when I first read your post. One rule of thumb on distortion is ... Turn it up until it sounds good, and then crank it back one notch, now your ready to record.

Posted: Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:24 am

Listening to the sample as you indicated tells me there is no double tracking. There is only a 15 to 20 ms delay, perhaps from a room microphone, into the right channel, of the guitar. That's what makes it slam with that big left right feeling. Leaving the center image clear for other stuff like vocals.

There's no tricks. It's just good mixing. No special plug-in blah blah any thing. It's the balance. Not the unbalance.

Crazy but balanced wacky engineer
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:23 pm

I have played around with my guitar tracks A LOT. One cool thing that worked was to track 5 tracks of guitar. One dead center, one 100% left, 100% right, 50% left, 50% right.

I found using LESS distortion on the amp or pre amp actually made for better sounding tracks as well.

When you play each track, try to play it EXACTLY the same each time.

Fun stuff.

Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:35 am

foolsfortune wrote:

I have played around with my guitar tracks A LOT. One cool thing that worked was to track 5 tracks of guitar. One dead center, one 100% left, 100% right, 50% left, 50% right.

I found using LESS distortion on the amp or pre amp actually made for better sounding tracks as well.

When you play each track, try to play it EXACTLY the same each time.

Fun stuff.

That is the worst idea I have ever heard.

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 10:17 am

uhhh...sorry, Shadow Fox...but that's actually not that bad of an idea...
why do you think so?
i don't know if i would put a guitar dead center, but i've done 4 tracks at 75R, 75L, 100R, and 100L....each played seperately with different eq settings/ different amps and it sounded pretty darn thick....and tight.
i now use this technique with all my new rock recordings...
and i can't agree more with the whole less distortion for recording is better.

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:04 am

i hear his problem. my distorted guitar sound really thin and not beefy enough, even with some low end help from an eq.
i think it might be my converters in my mackie 1640 or maybe its cubases converter when i get the final mix down

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:16 pm

"maybe its cubases converter"

Rule out Cubase. Your software is not the problem.

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:47 pm

Cubase is software, not a converter. You can't say digital summing is doing conversions? Yeah it's converting one thing into another. Both things are still digital.

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 2:40 am

ShadowFox4122 wrote:

foolsfortune wrote:

I have played around with my guitar tracks A LOT. One cool thing that worked was to track 5 tracks of guitar. One dead center, one 100% left, 100% right, 50% left, 50% right.

I found using LESS distortion on the amp or pre amp actually made for better sounding tracks as well.

When you play each track, try to play it EXACTLY the same each time.

Fun stuff.

That is the worst idea I have ever heard.

Well, I've heard a LOT worse ideas in my life, you must not get around much, dude...LOL!!!!!!! I agree that a cenetered guitar can be an issue (especially if there are vocals involved). But a lot of times, "less is more" when it comes to distortion, and that doesn't appear to be the case until you start stacking tracks. Frankly, there are TONS of posts here offering suggestions on this subject, maybe try the search engine...?

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 3:51 am

ShadowFox4122 wrote:

foolsfortune wrote:

I have played around with my guitar tracks A LOT. One cool thing that worked was to track 5 tracks of guitar. One dead center, one 100% left, 100% right, 50% left, 50% right.

I found using LESS distortion on the amp or pre amp actually made for better sounding tracks as well.

When you play each track, try to play it EXACTLY the same each time.

Fun stuff.

That is the worst idea I have ever heard.

FoolsFortune, mhutch , RemyRAD have the right idea. I would leave the center channel out if there are vocals in the mix. It's far superior to the pan an delay ideas that DonnyWright suggested. Unless the goal is to make the guitar sound thin and week.

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