Guitars low end

[Klosure]

Ive been messing around quite a bit not but you guys on here know your guitars.

Now I've started to get some better mixes recently by keeping it simple.

Heres what I want to know.

I listen to a lot of Katatonia but I am sure the same applies with guitar. What is it thats generating the low ends?

I would assume Cab sounds provide the lower end.

Can't be bass cause Ive tried messing using the bass to ass a low end but the stuff in Katatonia if you listen sounds to me like a combination of mics.

So I am assuming that as the use different mics on each cab one pics up the lower stuff, one the mids and another the hi's.

Ive heard a lot of suggestion stating the bass guitar is doing the work but I dont hear that, the bass sounds a lot lower, specially if you listen in the verse, in the chugs on the new album their is a fantastic sound of BOOM to the guitars.

So gurus suggestions on what I can do to improve a guitar tone, should I be using a multiple mic setup

 

[Klosure]

example:

 

[theRev]

Well... Listening to the song in the video you posted... Well to me seems like the good old story. The bass it's adding low end.

Definitely the bass...

 

[Mattayus]

Sorry to be the one to break it to you dude but... it is the bass. As for guitars, they have one of those tones where the mic is set a little way back from the cone, makes it sound "deeper" and more percussive, but it doesn't add anything frequency-wise. Try it. If you use impulses use the "stretch" function and it has the same effect. Other than that, the end really is coming from the bass.

EDIT: dammit someone beat me to it Ok, I hate to be the SECOND one to break it to you!

 

[Klosure]

Damb are you sure?

see I find if I try it my guitars end up sounding harsh and much louder or they loose defiition if I push em back.

so you are saying the feeling of depth is he way they are recorded.

If I was using a modeling pedal can this be achieved? I use a demonizor which simulates a 4x12 cab
with analog circuitory so it sounds nice.
I would love to nail a good tone though.

Whats this stretch function??

 

[Mattayus]

It's like downsampling, kind of detunes the impulse in a way, makes it sound like you're walking away from it. It's hard to explain but fuck around with it and you'll see what i mean. I would post some examples but i'm about to go to bed!

 

[HCL]

Damb are you sure?

see I find if I try it my guitars end up sounding harsh and much louder or they loose defiition if I push em back.

so you are saying the feeling of depth is he way they are recorded.

If I was using a modeling pedal can this be achieved? I use a demonizor which simulates a 4x12 cab
with analog circuitory so it sounds nice.
I would love to nail a good tone though.

Whats this stretch function??

Taking the bass out removes clarity?

 

[Klosure]

Taking the bass out removes clarity?

I never said that

 

[HCL]

I never said that

see I find if I try it my guitars end up sounding harsh and much louder or they loose defiition if I push em back.

When I say bass, I mean the bass end of the guitars.

 

[krokit]

You could try multing the guitar track and then low pass the mult to say100/120hz. Then sweep the mult with a eq set to a tight bandwidth. Your looking for the bottom end of the cab. When you find it, boost this frequency quite a lot and then smash it with a limiter. Bring the fader up on this mult track whilst listening to the main guitar track. You wont need very much, just enough untill you can hear a bit of weight on the guitar.

This is kinda the same thing that Bob Rock has done when mixing the guitars in Metallica. He mics the back of the cab with a 421, smashes it with a comp, inverts the phase and then mixes it under the main guitar track.




www.ascapestudios.com

 

[visceral]

dude...use impulses with the demonizer. Much better results! The cab sim on the demonizer is bleh.

Its a cool pedal though (I recently sold one)

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Another one saying thats all bass. If you listen carefully you can hear when the bass is sustaining and the guitars are palm muting a rhythm that the guitars sound extremely tinny even for metal standards. The combination of the bass and kick are really adding the low end in that mix.

 

[Klosure]

sorry to raise this up again, but now I am getting better results with SD2 for drums I wanted to come back to bass.

I find the bass guitars when raised up loud become prominent and very obvious, what is it that makes the bass guitars not draw attention to themselves yet retain that bottom end.

When I say draw attention they seem to stick out too much when I mix them.

(thnks for the impulse suggestion with the demonizer, glad you agree although i have had some resonable results recently)

 

[AHChris]

sorry to raise this up again, but now I am getting better results with SD2 for drums I wanted to come back to bass.

I find the bass guitars when raised up loud become prominent and very obvious, what is it that makes the bass guitars not draw attention to themselves yet retain that bottom end.

When I say draw attention they seem to stick out too much when I mix them.

(thnks for the impulse suggestion with the demonizer, glad you agree although i have had some resonable results recently)

Try this: Send guitars and bass do a bus and compress them (very gentle) together.

 

[arv_foh]

sorry to raise this up again, but now I am getting better results with SD2 for drums I wanted to come back to bass.

I find the bass guitars when raised up loud become prominent and very obvious, what is it that makes the bass guitars not draw attention to themselves yet retain that bottom end.

When I say draw attention they seem to stick out too much when I mix them.

(thnks for the impulse suggestion with the demonizer, glad you agree although i have had some resonable results recently)

I high pass the bass until it leaves enough room for the kick to breathe but still fills out the rest of the mix that the guitars don't cover

 

[iHate]

Here's a tip to guitar reference some of your favorite mixes:

Create one stereo track and one mono track. Insert your favorite song into each track and mute/solo the tracks as you playback through your DAW. The mono track will allow you to hear the kick/bass extremely well and when you flip back to the stereo track you will be able to hear what the guitars are doing in the low end.

You can also flip the phase of one side of the track, insert it into a mono track, and you can hear the guitars very well with relatively little bass and drums.

 

[Klosure]

Try this: Send guitars and bass do a bus and compress them (very gentle) together.

Interesting technique..

I've read and tried the old sidechaining bass, problem I find with it that to get t to work in rock you need to be very careful not to overdo it, I cant really find the sweet spot like Jen Brogren does.

 

[AHChris]

Here's a tip to guitar reference some of your favorite mixes:

Create one stereo track and one mono track. Insert your favorite song into each track and mute/solo the tracks as you playback through your DAW. The mono track will allow you to hear the kick/bass extremely well and when you flip back to the stereo track you will be able to hear what the guitars are doing in the low end.

You can also flip the phase of one side of the track, insert it into a mono track, and you can hear the guitars very well with relatively little bass and drums.

Now this is an awesome idea!

I have another technique I use sometimes. Does not work on every amp / sound but it can help with a muddy guitar low end. Try this:

- remove the muddy rumbling low end from your guitar tracks generously.
- create two effect channels with a eq and octaver plugin per channel.
- send your left and right guitar tracks to the channels.
- isolate the punchy bass/low mids you like about your sound with the eq plugin (high and low pass) probably around 120 hz upwards.
- now tune this low end one octave down with the octaver plugin.
- mix this with your thin sounding original guitars.

--> Tadaaa punchy sounding low end