Lead guitar in the Mix

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2002 2:30 am

Effects etc. Your opinions?

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2002 10:40 am

It depends on the style of music I guess. I hate overprocessed lead guitars though. A touch of delay or chorus, maybe a tad reverb and usually a boost in the 1 - 2 KHz region does it for me...but then again, you need a nice sound to start with. For leads I think Marshalls are fine, though I don't like them for rythm guitars.

I see you are from Germany as well - cool, what kind of music are you recording??

Best,

Markus

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2002 11:27 pm

Anywhere from bone dry to tons of delay, flange and verb. Depends on the song. The only rule I have is to make sure it somewhat matches the lead vocal in volume.

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2002 12:33 pm

I find that a lot of lead guitar players try and use as much distortion as possible, it's almost easier to play that way. I have found that about 1/2 to 3/4 the gain that they would like to use works best in the mix. It doesn't alwasy sit well to ask them to turn down the gain, but you can be a little sneaky and take a direct out and reamp it later with less gain. Less gain makes it a little more balsy. Think Angus Young...

Ian

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2002 12:48 am

Bone dry and a little sharp makes for ballsy. Think Angus Young!! Surprised

:tu: :w:

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2002 7:53 am

I very, very rarely have the desire to futz with the guitars (lead or otherwise) past what was recorded, with the exception of compression and EQ. The only time I'll bother to add in flange, reverb, delay, or what have you is when the guitarist wants that added in post-recording. (I make the distinction, because last project the guitarist had parts with delay and tremolo, even distortion, and he figured it would be ok to track them dry and add plug-ins later. I think to do so sounds disgusting: if you want trem on your guitar, plug in your trem pedal, y'know? But if he had actually wanted the sound produced by adding in the trem via plug-in, that's something different--and we actually did that for one track, the others were tracked with tremolo on the guitar chain.)

I'm of the mind that when you track something like a guitar, the sound has already been sculpted by the player. The exception is when part of the sound desired by the guitarist, is that it be sculpted, plug-in'd, and whatever have ya, post-tracking.

And I'm also of the mind that when you do something like vocals, you're tracking it with the mindset that it *will* be manipulated later.

Most all of the (experienced) players I've worked with pretty much agree.

And I still haven't figured out a pleasing way to deal with a lead softsynth, using my particular set-up. (Although most NI softsynths really don't need to be "worked" in order to sound good. But I digress.)

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2002 8:46 pm

try a grm doppler...mmmm...tasty

Posted: Sun Mar 17, 2002 7:52 pm

I agree with imacgreg.I'm a lead player, main guitar is a '62 reissue Strat with Texas specials through a 50 watt Marshall. I find that if I cut back the distortion about 25% or so, from my live sound, when recording it sounds much better and sits better in the mix. Adding a little delay, not obvious repeats,with a touch of'verb will really open up the guitar sound and give it it's own space.The delay thing I think works best on slow and/or melodic solos. Just cutting back the distortion helps alot. Trying to talk the guitar player into it,that is the hardest part.Make sure you have the fully distorted track recorded and a track with distortion cut back and let him and the band hear the difference,unless your doing metal, I think you'll find that they pick the less distorted track as sounding better every time.
Good Luck,
Luke

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