Andy's guitar EQ when mixing

[Sly]

This morning I was listening to Killswitch Engage's "The End Of Heartache" and also "The Undying Darkness" from Caliban, the guitars sound really 3D.
I noticed the guitars do have a real gap somewhere to let the drums, vocals and bass midrange to come through. I usually reduce around 500-600 Hz and also somewhere in the 5-6 khz area (fizz), but I tried this on a recent project, where I had four tracks of guitar, reamped with a 5150, only 57 :

I duplicated each of the four tracks, now we have 8. Let's call them take1 take1copy, take2, take2copy, etc...
On each original track I tried to keep only the low/low mids area (from 60 Hz to 250 Hz), and applied a multiband compressor to tighten the things.
On each copied track (take1copy,take2copy...) I only kept the high mids/highs area (from 1 khz to 12 khz), and reduced the fizz a bit.
I didn't have the time to experiment more but it sounded more clear and 3D, I wonder if Mr Sneap does something like that to his guitars, or if he just apply a slight EQ there and there ? What do you think of that ? I found it works better than a simple cut in the 500-600 Hz area. Andy can you tell us a bit more about what you do to the guitars ?

 

[Andy Sneap]

i think you are over thinking things........ you are just hearing a good tone with a touch of eq.

 

[Sly]

Ahah I'm sure you'd say that, so it's definitely the crushing tone you get out of the amp
It just amazes me how the 300-800 Hz area is clean and still the lower part and the higher part of the spectrum are really tight and present.

 

[Andy Sneap]

yeah i usually do a bit of brightening up, a touch of compression IF it needs it, my C4 setting isn't the holy grail and thats it. It really is down to the set up and the player really.

 

[Jaymz]

Do you usually add anything in the 4-5k area? Thats a real nasty hiss frequency problem zone for me atm, perhaps a healthy 8-10k for brightening them up?

 

[Andy Sneap]

depends what speaker was used, sometimes you can get a real nasty 3kish thing going on that needs notching out.

 

[Sly]

I think it also depends on how the guitars were tracked. Andy, from what I've heard from your samples, the tone you get has an awesome balance : not too much but tight low/low mids (definitely too much bass on the amp EQ tends to be the common error I do, resulting in a bad balance in the low mids), great presence but nothing giving you an headache. Mic position plays a huge role in the boxy or airy top end, tricky.
I generally find myself cutting some 150-300 Hz, 500-600 Hz, 3-6khz ; boosting around 1k/2k and 8,5k. But you can't replace a great amp EQ.
I guess a good guitar sound is the player, great mic position, and a balanced EQ on the amp.

One error I do is to try to get too much "tone color" from the amp, instead of focusing on balance and clarity. And that's even worse when using four guitar tracks : it all becomes harsh !

 

[Jaymz]

Indeed, im always using V/30's with the usual dustcap mic position approach, im guessing its something to do with that. Ill be tweaking the mic placement in future as I usually run into some frequency problems in some region or other. Im guessing your EQ quite similar to Colin R when needs must?

 

[Sly]

Andy's recent tones are a bit more scooped and "big" than Colin's recent works, but Colin gets an amazing clarity and tightness it's unbelievable. Needless to say I love both

 

[Jaymz]

Andy's recent tones are a bit more scooped and "big" than Colin's recent works, but Colin gets an amazing clarity and tightness it's unbelievable. Needless to say I love both

Yeah I mean we all pretty much have similar EQ boosts/cuts, just getting the great tone before any EQ hits it is what im trying to nail!

 

[Machinated]

I have found myself using less and less EQ recently, and just tried spending more time getting that 57 in the right place. Since doing that, I haven't cut/boost more than 1.5dB on an EQ (and only a couple of bands, if any).

 

[nwright]

+1

I've found that the best tones I've had are the ones I do the least amount of work on.

That's a totally "duh" statement, but for me it was profound.

 

[yarrick19]

I'm always curious to how much EQ has been applied to guitars when I listen to a record.

Is anyone willing to post some short clips of a raw guitar track and then the same track with EQ applied on the final mixdown?

 

[Exocaster]

+1

I've found that the best tones I've had are the ones I do the least amount of work on.

That's a totally "duh" statement, but for me it was profound.

+2. There's no substitute for a good sound at the source. The more I read from Andy, Neil Kernon and others, the more I realize how little is actually done to distorted electric guitars in a mix most of the time. Amp settings and mic placement are what get you 95% of the way there.

 

[Ermz]

Definitely agree with all that. I've spent the last 2 months trying to sculpt bad guitar sounds into good ones and you simply get there so much quicker (and with better results) if you simply capture a good sound from the outset. There's a limit to how much you can push your EQ's before you just end up with a phasey mess. Remember, every signal process you run your track through DEGRADES it in some fundamental way. Always aim to do as little processing as you can possibly get away with. My best mixes without fail have been the ones I've done the least to.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

I was in Andy's studio while he worked on the Cradle of Filth mix two years ago and watched him very briefly working on a song, I can tell you that the only thing he had on guitars was an Oxford Eq with just a very very slight eq touch somewhere around 6 or 8K (I think...) and that was it, no C4 or anything. Those kind of things make you want to kill him straight away!

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I was in Andy's studio while he worked on the Cradle of Filth mix two years ago and watched him very briefly working on a song, I can tell you that the only thing he had on guitars was an Oxford Eq with just a very very slight eq touch somewhere around 6 or 8K (I think...) and that was it, no C4 or anything. Those kind of things make you want to kill him straight away!

lol are you sure he doesn't have like a secret outboard plugin routed and taped underneath the desk? My guess is a death metal pedal going into Vamp into sonic maximizer, then into PT. I'm sure the raw mic setup is just a disguise.

 

[noarin]

rofl!

 

[Chryst Krispies]

lol are you sure he doesn't have like a secret outboard plugin routed and taped underneath the desk? My guess is a death metal pedal going into Vamp into sonic maximizer, then into PT. I'm sure the raw mic setup is just a disguise.

The secret Digitech Death metal pedal!

 

[Jaymz]

I agree!