I was working on a song (that I wrote myself and simply wanted to record), and I thought at one point, there should be a sweet little solo.
Now, my main instrument is bass, but I very often play guitar, but I am not good at any sort of solo, I'm only good at short simple solos.
Anyway, I'm not talkin 80's hair metal solo... the whole song is written clean, no effect on it at all (until I put reverb on it in CUBASE)... And at one part, it gets louder, more powerful (crescendo if you will)...and at its loudest point (loud as in being strummed more aggressively) I layed a solo over it (left and right guitar)
The solo... goes in there. It sounds good... But how do I make it sit snug in the mix, yet, on top of it?
Should I be concerned mainly with the EQ? I already got the best sound I could get out of my Ibanez GRX and Kustom 16W practice amp. Alot of people actually think my recordings sound really good for a crappy guitar/combo, I just have to do it right.
I've heard the general rule all over the place, if whats coming out of your speaker sounds like ass, its going to sound like ass when its recorded (and played back, therefore making it harder to make it sound good). Same with drums...
But in this case, my equipment is tweaked to where it sounds the best, I placed the mic where I think it sounded best... And now I want to digitally tweak everything to wear the lead sticks out because at this point, it is not. Not to mention the lead has lots of hammer ons, so the first pick tends to jump a little, and I want it to sound level and clean, and sit on top of it.
Btw, I am using an SM57 to record the guitar and this is going through a firebox. I'd like to hear some input on this, being pretty much a newb. All the help is appreciated. THanks!
Comments
Nice ideas, I've used compression before, and i know compression
Nice ideas, I've used compression before, and i know compression is a powerful tool, I just guess I haven't fully understood compression and how much is enough and too much...
But I will definately try some of those ideas. For some reason the idea of layer takes or copying and pasting takes (on top of eachother) seems weird, but I guess I've never tried it so it wouldn't hurt.
Throw some more ideas at me! :-p
Re: Heres a good question... I'd like to see how you do it.. hx
Re: Heres a good question... I'd like to see how you do it..
hxckid88 wrote: ... But how do I make it sit snug in the mix, yet, on top of it?
Ah...That's the question, isn't it? If everyone knew how to do that, every mix would be a gem.
Anyway, the compression is a good starting point.
Is the solo recorded the same way as the rhythm guitar? On the same guitar? Mic'd in the same way? Then you may want to try something a bit different to give it more of a different sound from the rhythm guitars. If it's got the exact same sound, that would make it harder to separate from everything else.
Compressor's a great option and will probably work... generally
Compressor's a great option and will probably work... generally i'd try EQ first though. Find a freq. that sounds great when you apply a gentle boost (say, +1 to +2dB /w a Q of 0.7 to 1) on the lead guitar. I'd start around 1kHz and swing the centre freq. around a bit until it sounds 'in-your-face' with the lead-track solo'd. When you find something that makes the lead really stand out, apply a cut (same Q, centre freq. and depth) to the rhythm-guitar tracks. This makes some space for the solo w/o actually tweaking volumes much or worrying about FX you don't really understand (compression).
... it's worth a shot at least...
Sorry for the bad title, it was more of an attention grabber, bu
Sorry for the bad title, it was more of an attention grabber, but I understand the whole spam thing, my bad. =D
Anywho, yes I did record the lead guitar with the same settings and mic position as the rhythm guitar. Thanks for pointing that out, because I think I will start trying that to get different sounds so for leads and rhythm.
I think what I'm often afraid of is if I record something, I think I'm done with all the rhythm takes, and I move the mic and decide to go back, and I maybe forget where I placed the mic before and it sounds way different, or change the settings and I dont remember the settings (and therefore, it sounds different). I guess it's not a bad thing to have different sounds for both rhythm, I mean, people often do use different guitars, heads and cabs, it's not much difference...
hxckid88 wrote: For some reason the idea of layer takes or copyi
hxckid88 wrote: For some reason the idea of layer takes or copying and pasting takes (on top of eachother) seems weird, but I guess I've never tried it so it wouldn't hurt.
Throw some more ideas at me! :-p
I cannot recommend copying and pasting the same track.
I'd start around 1kHz and swing the centre freq. around a bit until it sounds 'in-your-face' with the lead-track solo'd. When you find something that makes the lead really stand out, apply a cut (same Q, centre freq. and depth) to the rhythm-guitar tracks.
^That's pretty much what I was getting at without totally spelling it out.
Just experiment with all of these ideas and you will eventually come up with your own idea of what works for you.
And yes, variety on the rhythm tracks is a good thing; even if it is just different EQ.
Here's what I would try, but this is all guesswork having not he
Here's what I would try, but this is all guesswork having not heard a lick. If you already have panned left and right rhythm gtr tracks, pan both lead takes straight down the middle or slightly left and right. That is, if your playing was solid. If not, dump one solo take or paste the best parts of each together into one. If the tone/playing is a bit uneven you may want to add compression to the individual solo tracks. Then send ALL your guitar tracks to the same group/bus and put a stereo compressor on the group. That way the lead stuff will kind of push the other guitar stuff out of the way when they come in (if you set your levels right) and the rhythm stuff will fill back in nicely when the solo is over. Also make sure you have plenty of mids on the lead track. maybe boost the lead EQ where ever you may have cut in the mids on your rhythm tracks.
Or try something else.