Treating guitar as a lead instrument. Thoughts & Tips?

[kev]

Hi guys,

Something i've always struggled with is treating lead guitar. For instance, covering tunes by Vai or Satriani, or even just solos in metal pieces.

I was wondering if anybody has any tips on how to do this well? Post recording effects to Eq i guess, anything at all!

Here's a practical example. Planning to put a lead over this synthy thing, but it always tends to sound dry and stuck out from the remainder of the mix.

www.omissiononline.com/TranQuility.mp3

Im thinking some sort of atmospheric guitar, low in the mix - perhaps similar to the style of the way the guitar sits on Bullet for my emos's "Intro", perhaps even something like an updated "fade to black" sound.


Cheers if you can advise,

Kev

 

[chadsxe]

Think of it as a vocal track. I usually cut a fair amount of the low end and find the sweet spot in the mids.

 

[kev]

thanks Chad, never recorded a vocal yet

 

[chadsxe]

Haha...well then its about time you learn.

 

[AStacy2]

A little bit of delay

 

[smy1]

Hey Kev,

what I like to do is set up 2-3 different reverbs with different settings and send the leads to them. I just add a little bit of each reverb as to not drown. I feel that helps a lot in tieing the lead in with the track.

Another trick: EQ the backing track while the lead is playing. Solo the background guitars/synths and the lead and sweep a cut through the frequency bands. You will most likely find a spot where the lead seems to immediately "gel" with the backing track. VERY often it's at a totally different frequency than you would expect, tho.

But who cares if it sounds good?

 

[brandy]

Think of it as a vocal track. I usually cut a fair amount of the low end and find the sweet spot in the mids.

That's a great advice!

It is often difficult to "gel" the leads while having them cut through the same time.

Most important is the composition at that point - if you listen to great leads/solos you might notice that the "rest of the band" is playing not to offensive. The playing itself is important as well, sometimes i have no problem to mix cool leads, sometimes it is a PITA.

Be carefull not to cut of too much in the lower area bacause you might loose the impact of the attack and the deeper notes. Most likely the HP is little hígher than the on the rhythms. For example @ 140Hz or something like that. Sucking out a little in the 200-300hz area could be a good idea as well (it depends...)

I often had good results when compressing the leads quite hefty, sometimes i do not copmpress them.

People tend to use too much gain for leads.

brandy

 

[kev]

Hey Guys, thanks for the tips! I will look into them and see what results come out

 

[greyskull]

yeah definatly go easy on the bottom and boost some 2-3 k and up