Guitar perfectness

GearMan2point0

GearMan2point0

Musician/Engineer
Feb 13, 2011
550
0
16
How does Joey get his guitars to sound perfectly in tune? I record my guitars and they sound great in tone, but they seem a little phasy compared to what Joey produces. I notice mostly when the guitar rings open in his mix's and they are perfectly in tune. Does he possibly autotune or something?
 
alot of it is how you go about tracking guitar and knowing how to play the stuff in tune. But as for post processing it could be Melodyne DNA I know Cameron from chango studios uses it for every guitar chord in a song
 
It's not Melodyne. Atleast I remember him sayin he doesn't even own Melodyne anymore. But maybe its autotune? IDK if you can even use autotune o guitars.
 
Tune your guitars well & as much as possible.
After every take.
It's also been mentioned in the past that tuning individual chords can help. Especially in the more melodic guitar parts.
 
I tune every chord aswell. Melodyne DNA causes major phase issues if you use it to tune guitars though (And thats even on DI's) Their tutorial is misleading, then again they advertise the product with a recorded nylon string guitar.
Maybe theres a way to make a chord follow the same sustain of pink/white noise.....mmmmmmmm, coz thats super solid! I must look into this i rate
 
When you have the timeframe that some of the bands have (Prada, a month or close to for Zombie EP. And I am pretty sure I have seen other bands go in for 6 weeks instead of the typical month because of the extensive synth stuff) is it really so hard to believe that they would take an extra 5 minutes out of the tracking to make sure that one ring-out sounds perfectly in tune?
That actually goes for most of the stuff, singing, guitars, gang vocals, ect ect. I would say most of the people on here only take half the time that is actually needed to record an album or EP. And I think WAYYY too many up and comers think the "we will fix it in the mix" is a good thing or an OK fallback. When you have to say that something is really wrong and you should fix it with a new take. (I still scold myself for doing this as well)

just my .02 guys!
 
Seth Munson said:
(I still scold myself for doing this as well)
Click to expand...

+1 to all of that but especially this... it takes some SERIOUS discipline to do this shit right especially when you are working with less than talented people. you really gotta keep your eye on the prize.
 
[UEAK]Clowd;9784288 said:
+1 to all of that but especially this... it takes some SERIOUS discipline to do this shit right especially when you are working with less than talented people. you really gotta keep your eye on the prize.
Click to expand...

exactly, especially when it so easy to fix these things with some of the plugs we have today. "Eye on the prize" I need to paint this on the window in between the control and tracking room.
 
when I record my own stuff it's usually like 7-8 hours for a 4-5 minute song, punch in everytime i go up/down the neck, tune every chord and then slip edit everything to death.
some clients I've had though... "PUNCH IN? wtf is that?", I explain and they go "that's fucking cheating, I'm a tight player.."
you'd probably brush your teeth before banging a princess, I mean.. it's only about making the music sound it's best, and it does so without mistakes and rough edges

but I fucking LOVE this new wave of kids though! they come to me and say "we want to sound like Miss May I, no matter what", and I tell them how the recording is going down.
"alright guys, it doesn't really matter how you perform, all you are providing is raw material for the software and me to refine. no pressure, here's a click, play to it"
"yeah, sure, if it'll make us sound like MMI I'll do anything, but I've never even played to a cl... *DIP DOP DOP DOP DIP DOP DOP DOP* *the guy plays some weird groove lars ulrich's 5 year old son could do better* WTF, I wasn't ready, it wasn't tight le's do it 10 more times just to be su... *the drum groove is played back perfectly quantized 100% slate sample replaced* OMG, I MUST BE.. NO! I AM A GOD!"
then a guy comes in carrying his crappy solid state amp on his shoulder, "hey! where do I set up? what mics are we using? heard one of those 50-somethings are pretty geewd"
*load pod farm with diamond plate and hand the guy a cable* "here, try this.."
then some cool dude with a hip haircut steps up to my precious SM7B and try to put an upper harmony on a melody that was already 2 octaves out of his vocal range. it sounds like a guinea pig on fire, overdubbed with the sound of a baby bird falling out of it's nest. then he goes "that was OK right?", and I gently lower my face into my palms, swallow all my pride and supress an impulse to hurl a 16 lbs KRK RP5 monitor at his face and say, "y-yeah.. sure". VocAlign the crap together, tune it R2D2-style and play it back to him. he smiles with pride and I die a little inside.

BUT IT'S FUCKING EASY, SO THANKS JOEY! REMIND ME TO KISS YOU WHEN I GET THE CHANCE
 
Haha, those stories brought a smile to my face.

I think we can all agree the most important aspect in music is writing good songs. Sadly that seems to be a concept that's fading away with my generation!
 
Backe said:
when I record my own stuff it's usually like 7-8 hours for a 4-5 minute song, punch in everytime i go up/down the neck, tune every chord and then slip edit everything to death.
some clients I've had though... "PUNCH IN? wtf is that?", I explain and they go "that's fucking cheating, I'm a tight player.."
you'd probably brush your teeth before banging a princess, I mean.. it's only about making the music sound it's best, and it does so without mistakes and rough edges

but I fucking LOVE this new wave of kids though! they come to me and say "we want to sound like Miss May I, no matter what", and I tell them how the recording is going down.
"alright guys, it doesn't really matter how you perform, all you are providing is raw material for the software and me to refine. no pressure, here's a click, play to it"
"yeah, sure, if it'll make us sound like MMI I'll do anything, but I've never even played to a cl... *DIP DOP DOP DOP DIP DOP DOP DOP* *the guy plays some weird groove lars ulrich's 5 year son could do better* WTF, I wasn't ready, it wasn't tight le's do it 10 more times just to be su... *the drum groove is played back perfectly quantized 100% slate sample replaced* OMG, I MUST BE.. NO! I AM A GOD!"
then a guy comes in carrying his crappy solid state amp on his shoulder, "hey! where do I set up? what mics are we using? heard one of those 50-somethings are pretty geewd"
*load pod farm with diamond plate and hand the guy a cable* "here, try this.."
then some cool dude with a hip haircut steps up to my precious SM7B and try to put an upper harmony on a melody that was already 2 octaves out of his vocal range. it sounds like a guinea pig on fire, overdubbed with the sound of a baby bird falling out of it's nest. then he goes "that was OK right?", and I gently lower my face into my palms, swallow all my pride and supress an impulse to hurl a 16 lbs KRK RP5 monitor at his face and say, "y-yeah.. sure". VocAlign the crap together, tune it R2D2-style and play it back to him. he smiles with pride and I die a little inside.

BUT IT'S FUCKING EASY, SO THANKS JOEY! REMIND ME TO KISS YOU WHEN I GET THE CHANCE
Click to expand...

+1 to everything!!!!!
That was me all day yeasterday
 
Guitar setup - intonation has to be perfect, recent strings and decent neck/pu adjustment. A solid guitar helps - Larrivee RS4 for example one the best ever to staying in tune while playing.
 
string guage is also very important.

nothing worse than a 50 guage in drop a!

I use a 70 in a# and it might be considered a bit on the chunky side, but i find there is way less wobble and makes double/quad tracking much easier. In the past when i have recorded bands playing in low tunings with strings made for standard it just turns to shit very quickly.
 
Backe said:
when I record my own stuff it's usually like 7-8 hours for a 4-5 minute song, punch in everytime i go up/down the neck, tune every chord and then slip edit everything to death.
some clients I've had though... "PUNCH IN? wtf is that?", I explain and they go "that's fucking cheating, I'm a tight player.."
you'd probably brush your teeth before banging a princess, I mean.. it's only about making the music sound it's best, and it does so without mistakes and rough edges

but I fucking LOVE this new wave of kids though! they come to me and say "we want to sound like Miss May I, no matter what", and I tell them how the recording is going down.
"alright guys, it doesn't really matter how you perform, all you are providing is raw material for the software and me to refine. no pressure, here's a click, play to it"
"yeah, sure, if it'll make us sound like MMI I'll do anything, but I've never even played to a cl... *DIP DOP DOP DOP DIP DOP DOP DOP* *the guy plays some weird groove lars ulrich's 5 year old son could do better* WTF, I wasn't ready, it wasn't tight le's do it 10 more times just to be su... *the drum groove is played back perfectly quantized 100% slate sample replaced* OMG, I MUST BE.. NO! I AM A GOD!"
then a guy comes in carrying his crappy solid state amp on his shoulder, "hey! where do I set up? what mics are we using? heard one of those 50-somethings are pretty geewd"
*load pod farm with diamond plate and hand the guy a cable* "here, try this.."
then some cool dude with a hip haircut steps up to my precious SM7B and try to put an upper harmony on a melody that was already 2 octaves out of his vocal range. it sounds like a guinea pig on fire, overdubbed with the sound of a baby bird falling out of it's nest. then he goes "that was OK right?", and I gently lower my face into my palms, swallow all my pride and supress an impulse to hurl a 16 lbs KRK RP5 monitor at his face and say, "y-yeah.. sure". VocAlign the crap together, tune it R2D2-style and play it back to him. he smiles with pride and I die a little inside.

BUT IT'S FUCKING EASY, SO THANKS JOEY! REMIND ME TO KISS YOU WHEN I GET THE CHANCE
Click to expand...


Backe sometimes i hate but for reasons like this i absolutely adore you hahah
 
Fandus said:
string guage is also very important.

nothing worse than a 50 guage in drop a!

I use a 70 in a# and it might be considered a bit on the chunky side, but i find there is way less wobble and makes double/quad tracking much easier. In the past when i have recorded bands playing in low tunings with strings made for standard it just turns to shit very quickly.
Click to expand...

the only issue with this is the di's are extremely bass heavy
 
Conspiracy theory:

After the band leaves Foundation Studios, Sturgis creates a flawless MIDI track that guides every single note played by the guitar in the song.

Doubt it.

But it's a surefire way to coordinate it using Melodyne or something. I've done it with chords that ring out to get that 'perfect' sound.
 
jimwilbourne said:
Tune your guitars well & as much as possible.
After every take.
It's also been mentioned in the past that tuning individual chords can help. Especially in the more melodic guitar parts.
Click to expand...

^ +1 for that, I make sure my guitar player tunes after every measure or so and the tracks turn out very well.

Eric
 
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