Minimising Pick Attack During Solos & Leads

[kev]

Hey guys, just wonder how if ever you tend to deal with this? Blame the player or are there any plugins or patches to be recommended to minimise this? Ive tried doing some cuts here and there after frequency analysis but i can never seem to eradicate it without destroying too much of the sound...

 

[ParsonsMatt]

Turn the gain and bass down

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

Smaller pick.

 

[Tym_ex]

It's all in the technique I think... for the biggest part.

 

[greyskull]

turn the gain down and thicker pick

 

[Matt Smith]

If it's already tracked and you're trying to fix it in the mix, you might have luck with a de-esser set just right. I do that on bass sometimes.

 

[Flat Fifth Fury]

Pick attack is effected largely by technique: using the flat of the pick rather than angled on the string and further up the neck reduces attack as does picking less hard. Also a softer pick material, rounder pick and a less bright pickup/guitar into a spongy amp also reduces pick attack. So a player who picks hard with the a sharp ended cellulose pick at an angle picking close to the bridge with a maple bodied guitar and EMG81 into a Soldano SLO100 with have much more pick attack than a player using the round end of a nylon pick, picking with the round end parallel to the string in a mahogany bodied, neck PAF into a Boogie Mark series.

After the fact, I'm not sure if there is anything that you can do.

 

[Tachy]

I think reduc the gain and thin picks, but like the other guys says it's all in your hand man...good luck

 

[kev]

Cheers for the advice guys, there are a few nice points in there for sure.

 

[James Murphy]

why would you want to reduce a strong pick attack?

 

[Tachy]

James: infact, I don't know why Kev want to redice the attack....

 

[kev]

why would you want to reduce a strong pick attack?

The sound of the Pick hitting the strings in solo passages - can get highly annoying- maybe its paranoia!

 

[everybody's x]

I'd like to hear a sample, I can't understand why you wouldn't want the articulation, unless it's just over the top crazy or something

 

[cobhc]

Take Kill 'Em All by Metallica, when Kirk plays notes in quick succession on that album, you get lots of squeak behind the notes, I think this is what Kev is meaning by pick attack, should have said pick noise maybe. To answer your question, this might be somewhat of a tone thing, a smoother tone will reduce this imo, also more rounded picks the neck pickup, and maybe a different picking style will help as well.

 

[James Murphy]

the sound of the pick hitting the strings? it's annoying? i don't understand. it sounds like you don't like the sound of guitar being played... at least not with a pick.. but i'm sure you don't meant that... you'd have to clarify a little better.

i usually find myself struggling to get players to play with a stronger attack... not a weaker one.

 

[everybody's x]

I will spend an hour telling a guy to fucking DIG INTO the guitar so I can hear the pick attack. crazy

 

[cobhc]

Pay close attention to the way I retermed it in my post, pick noise, not pick attack, you want the articulation, but not the noise you sometimes get behind notes which make the lead feel less fluid and can sometimes muddy the actual attack.

 

[Nebulous]

Yeah, I think he means the scrape/ noise rather than the actuall attack/ articulation.

 

[ThatGuitarGuy]

Yeah...Chevelle totally had that going on their first big CD "Wonder What's Next" Everytime the dude was palm muting and chugging at the string you couldn't hear the note that well over the SCRAPE SCRAPE SCRAPE noise. It drove me insane...

luckily some producer probably told him to stop picking perpendicular to the string on their latest CD....

 

[JBroll]

The click tends to be a lot more noticeable solo than it is in the mix, so I doubt that's as much of a problem as what you might have with squeaks and scratches. I usually find that (excessive!) squeaks and scratches come from improper picking technique.

Strong attack, however, in terms of articulation when soloing and punch in rhythm, seem like the kind of thing that people need MORE of in records - but that's just from my preference and experience from playing with twits who don't understand why heavy chugging sounds more ballsy than feather-light alternate picking over the neck pickup.

Jeff