How to make a drone guitar fit in the background

[kylendm]

I don't really have much to show what I'm trying to say but in some of my songs we have a guitar in the background of really fast riffs just playing a note or two.

When I try and mix it together the guitar in the background always sounds really off and not with the mix at all. It's always lower than the other guitars. Any tips for this kind of stuff? It's the kind of stuff meshuggah and those other bands do with just playing a few lead notes in the background.

 

[bryan_kilco]

Sometimes I filter out a LOT of high and low end. HP hard and LP hard, maybe not so hard on the LP. It'll make the tone "smaller" but sometimes that works to fit right in something dense.

 

[kylendm]

Good call. Here's the midi to the song my band wrote. I'm finally recording it but this will give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Just the guitar in the background. Like even guitar pro somehow does a better job of making it cut but sit well in the mix.

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/kylendm/silence2/s-yJ8LY[/SOUNDCLOUD]

 

[Igor Samurovic]

Kill the presence range on the background guitar (really, experiment with the 1.2-5khz range). It is also advised to increase 1000hz, if you want to bring it front a bit.

 

[infectdsniper]

yea i normally kill some of the 3k-6k area and add some reverb or delay to make it more ambient. just play with it also listen to some the acacia strain they almost always have some type of ambient wash guitars in the background to keep all the breakdowns from being boring.

 

[Mikaël-ange]

For put a track in the background (3D mixing) you need to try different thing...
Filtering is a good start (sound closer to you are generally brighter). Ad any kind of opto compresor in the chain (opto tend to dark thing) will add to that.
Phoenix dark essence also help pushing element on the back.

If you have a yamaha spx90 pair, put those across your track in bypass. Instant roll off...

The spx trick work great on reverb and fx return for the same reason btw (but don't tell anyone about that).

Hope that help and good luck.

 

[Fandus]

Filter to hp 500hz, lp 8khz.

boost 7khz, cut 600-1000hz.

pan hard left

send to an aux/buss and apply a 100% wet reverb. pan this hard right.

thin them out and make them sound spacious = win.

 

[AntonioPetrole]

I don't really have much to show what I'm trying to say but in some of my songs we have a guitar in the background of really fast riffs just playing a note or two.

When I try and mix it together the guitar in the background always sounds really off and not with the mix at all. It's always lower than the other guitars. Any tips for this kind of stuff? It's the kind of stuff meshuggah and those other bands do with just playing a few lead notes in the background.

If you want me to reamp it send me a PM dude

 

[kylendm]

Thanks for the help guys. I think it's still cutting a bit too much but here's something to give you an idea of what I'm working with. I'm not digging the guitars too much but they are sloppy anyway so I'm going to redo them soon.

[SOUNDCLOUD]https://soundcloud.com/kylendm/silence/s-S4XXx[/SOUNDCLOUD]