Guitar mixing pointers?

sk8ersick666

sk8ersick666

I need a beer...
Apr 12, 2009
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Hey everyone, back with another awesome super noob question for the pros here on this forum.

So I wanted to know what frequencies do you guys usually "get rid of" when mixing guitars. I'm going to take a wild guess and diagnose that as the reason why my mixed sometimes turn out "cloudy" or "muddy" i guess you would say.

I've made the mistake of hunting for the guitar tone I like by itself and then when i try to mix it it with the rest it just sounded awful. Then, with a lot of trial and error (and thanks to the awesome people in this forum) I learned that the tone should complement the mix as a whole even if it sounds thin soloed.

THAT is what i just dont seem to be able to achieve. I end up clouding my mix with guitar and things like cymbals and rides and sometimes even snares dont jump out as much..rookie mistake? I hear records like Periphery or Oceano and I love how heavy the guitars sound, yet i can still hear everything in the mix, every little ride hit or ghost note on the snare comes through. Tips?

Please dont bash me, i'm still learning..hehe
oh and btw, thanks for all the replys to my past posts.
 
I usually cut some of these:

80hz-100hz high pass filter

180-400hz to rid off some mud/muffled sound

700-1000hz if it's too honky and kinda nasally nasty.

2000-5000hz there is usually at least one or two nasty KHHH spikes that I cut with an über narrow eq. usually 2-4dB.

Hope this helps!
 
have you tryed referenciing your tracks against Peripherys? shove one of their tracks in your DAW (Send to a differant OUT if your mixing through compressors and what not) and keep switchin between, focusing on only one element at a time etc. guitar, kick and bass cut off points and the levels within that lower spectrum. just mess about loads with your EQ's and you'll soon find a good solid bottom end. do this all over the spectrum. just keep refencing and messing about!!! Fastest way to learn i feel
Sorry if this doesnt help much lol
 
Here's some advice from a true Master Of The Universe... it has helped me I don't know how many times...

"I usually find when mixing that i nearly always put a stereo Massenberg GML 8200 EQ across the rhythm guitars, if the sound has been recorded cleanly ie no strange fizz or bottom end boom, then the same type of frequencies tend to be boosted on most of my mixes. Frequency wise it's usually around ...

8-10 khz for the air
4-6 khz for the bite area
usually 1.5 khz for the in your face effect
400 hz for the note of the guitar
and around 70-100 hz to pick out the weight of the cab.

The boost amount just depends on what has been recorded, just turn it till it sounds good. This method has worked on many albums i have worked on including Heartwork Carcass, Burn my eyes Machine Head, Chimaira self titled, Bullet for my valentine, The Poison. -Colin Richardson"

:kickass:
 
If things are sounding muddy and cloudy then you probably need to tame the low mid's of your mix.

Unfortunately no-one can tell you how to eq your tracks without hearing them.

Make sure to eq in the context of the mix, rather than solo'ing tracks. Also cut instead of boosting, by boosting with eq you're making the signal louder and you automatically will think it sounds better even when it doesn't.
 
Tommy Gun said:
Here's some advice from a true Master Of The Universe... it has helped me I don't know how many times...

"I usually find when mixing that i nearly always put a stereo Massenberg GML 8200 EQ across the rhythm guitars, if the sound has been recorded cleanly ie no strange fizz or bottom end boom, then the same type of frequencies tend to be boosted on most of my mixes. Frequency wise it's usually around ...

8-10 khz for the air
4-6 khz for the bite area
usually 1.5 khz for the in your face effect
400 hz for the note of the guitar
and around 70-100 hz to pick out the weight of the cab.

The boost amount just depends on what has been recorded, just turn it till it sounds good. This method has worked on many albums i have worked on including Heartwork Carcass, Burn my eyes Machine Head, Chimaira self titled, Bullet for my valentine, The Poison. -Colin Richardson"

:kickass:
Click to expand...

nice dude, thanks for the advice...this sounds like what I need to try out.:headbang:
 
I usually Hi-shelf after around 15.5k hz and do slight low mid cuts...however sometimes it's actually GOOD to add to those same frequencies instead. The guitar can be a fickle beast.

More often than not, I find the best tones come from getting it right before it hits the DAW. Before I got serious about recording I spent 4 years trying to make tones sound good with EQ and compression and whatever I could find. I had some okay tones, but I really hit paydirt when I started working on everything I could with mic placement and amp settings.
 
I tend to make my guitars too loud.. and my bass too loud :S

Anyways, distort your bass tone somewhat and maybe raise it a bit in the mix (although it depends.. some of Sneap's work eg. Chimaira has the bass pretty damn low in the mix), and maybe put the guitars softer. If they're struggling to be heard then, maybe raise the mids a touch.

You said it yourself.. the guitars are clouding the mix and obscuring everything else. Simple fix - turn them down :)
 
i used to be struggling with the same thing man (and sometimes still do so)....and what i found out so far is that it's really down to the recorded tone. a tone that sounds ripping by itself, but you still think it *should* fit in with the mix might not do so at all....been in surprise land more than once over here *gg* so it's really trial and error on that side...

anyways, come mixing phase, there are a few points that i found out to be helpful for that very problem:

-hipass filter around 60-100hz....this is an obvious one, but it's really important! depending on your mix you might want to go as high as 100hz, in flames style, but usually around 70hz does the trick for me.
- low pass filter, around 10-15khz.....this is a not so obvious one though, but helps me immensely with getting the cymbals to cut through. when adjusting this filter listen for the clarity of the cymbals mainly....10 and 15 khz are the extremes, and depending on the mix around 12-13khz is usually just right.
-multiband comp around 160-250hz....another sneap classic, but a damn good one. with the high and low pass filters you determine how much space your guitars take in the mix, and with the multiband comp you can push them even more in their own pocket so they're not stepping on other important things in the mix. keep in mind, some mixes do NOT need the multiband comp, so only use it if you feel like the hi/low pass filters alone don't quite cut it.

another point.....if you feel like you're loosing some neccessary brightness with the lowpass, gently boost around 8-10khz with a wide q.
other than that, don't use much if any eq on the guitars other than some gentle dips if neccessary. i found that for some reason guitars do not take eq as well as e.g. drums or bass...you think you gained something by doing boosts and cuts all over the place, but it's so easy to loose the character of the tone...imho of course.
 
@Deathofdeadday:
There has been a topic on parallel compression on guitar (I assume that's what you're talking about) before already.
Use the search function, don't expect others to do the work for you.
We give you the advice, but it's up to you to put in the effort.
 
parralel compresion yeah no problem, its jus someone mentioned on parralel eq on commenting on my mix
thought someone someone could help
thanks for being so nice Petrovsk Mizinski.
 
Keessi said:
I usually cut some of these:

80hz-100hz high pass filter

180-400hz to rid off some mud/muffled sound

700-1000hz if it's too honky and kinda nasally nasty.

2000-5000hz there is usually at least one or two nasty KHHH spikes that I cut with an über narrow eq. usually 2-4dB.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Thats pretty much what i do.
I also boost after cutting with a different eq. Uad 1073 or pultec usually boos around 3.2 or 5 k
 
i hear a lot about parallel compression. I usually just do a high pass and low pass to get rid of the 'oomf' and fizz. Then a little bit of reverb. And i always watch your sig all the way through everytime i see one of your threads, its the most amazing thing ever created.
 
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