Again a new tutorial inspired by numerous newcomers asking question "is this guitar tone good". Then they post a clip with just the guitar, or the guitar and drums. Well, if you play in a band, you usually have a bass player and vocalist there too, right? Why aren't they in the clip? :Smug:
First of all, I would like to point out few things before I start with this tutorial:
- I am not going very indepth or detailed with this tutorial, as many things in all this depends on the elements in the mix
- These ain't nearly the best tones possible, but since this is just a tutorial they will have to do
- I ain't a musician, so please ignore the sloppy guitar and bass playing
- I made a short 12 bar example with generic thrash riffage for this tutorial and some strum chords. The first 6 bars are with bass and latter 6 bars are without. I mixed it with headphones as it was like 4AM at the time, so it might sound a bit bad on monitors, but I would like to give a big thank you to Ermz for giving me pointers with the mix. The example would've sucked (even more) without you
PHASE 1: Out of context
This section could also be name "fuck solo-button", but I decided that was more appropiate title. Before you go "whoa, I want one big guitar tone too!", hold on a second listen to a single guitar soloed, out of context:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338211/tut/loop_v7_gtr_only.mp3
Not so big really, right? Sounds actually super thin. Then the bass must be really fucking good sounding, right?
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338211/tut/loop_v7_bass_only.mp3
Not really, eh? Sloppy, boomy and buzzy and all the what the mother fuck you usually don't want from your bass tone.
But how about the mix then? Must suck some nasty red rooster too.
PHASE 2: In context
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338211/tut/loop_v7.mp3
Well, atleast I think it sounds decent and quite big, eh? Atleast when the bass guitar is there and you clearly can hear when it goes away, it pretty much takes the whole bottom from the guitar tone.
Since the single elements sound like shit, what is the secret that the mix doesn't sound like shit? It's context. If you have an army, would you consider 200 men or 1 twenty feet tall giant a big army? Making music is a puzzle that usually consists of small pieces that forms a big whole and the thing is to make them fit together. In my opinion the glueing is usually the hardest part and in rock music it usually is the bass guitar. It is both rhythm and string instrument and it glues the drums and guitar together.
For example what I did with the bass and guitar is that I gave them their own space in the frequency spectrum. The percussive elements (not in the picture) are louder but also shorter and reach way above the string instruments (1-20khz), so they poke thru nicely.
pink is bass, orange is guitar
PHASE 3: Buildup
The biggest problems when honing your tone alone, say in front of an amp, is buildup, and especially the low end buildup (Sometimes I even wonder why the bass knob on some amps go above 3). Even if you are a trio with just drums, bass, guitar and vocals playing live, the low end buildup is still many times a really big problem.
Well then, what is buildup? It is caused by layering (for example doubling and quadtracking) and when you start to layer the takes, it is the effect you might hear. Overgained guitars can turn into unintelligible fuzzy mess and low end buildup can make low endreally wobbly, cause phase cancellation and you can lose a lot of headroom resulting in a muddy and quiet sounding overall mix. And if you start to go Devin Townsend and put 167 layers of synths, it might be cool and all, but if you don't really narrow down the low end bandwith on the layers, you will kill your headroom fast.
The lack of buildup causes that you have no sense of feel when enough is enough. For example if you have no context and not enough experience to tell for example when say you have too much bass or too much gain for the mix.
The easiest solution to low end buildup is more easy than you might think: Highpass filter. That's it, the low cut switch on most EQ:s. Put it on every track, set the frequency as high as possible, when the tone starts to clearly thin down, back down 10-20hz and you're set.
PHASE 4: Summa Summarum
What did we learn today? The thing is that it doesn't matter how things sound soloed, but how they sound in the mix. Add ALL the instruments (and preferrably vocals too) and then start tweaking. If you are mixing a full session, record a "training song", similiar to the clip I posted; Short 4-16 bar clip with the kind of riffage you will do and then see how all the elements sit together. If you double/quadtrack guitars, try slightly undergained guitars first, then quadtrack a short riff and then slowly bring up the gain as long as the gain doesn't interfere with clarity too much.
Fuck solo-button. Mix in context.
First of all, I would like to point out few things before I start with this tutorial:
- I am not going very indepth or detailed with this tutorial, as many things in all this depends on the elements in the mix
- These ain't nearly the best tones possible, but since this is just a tutorial they will have to do
- I ain't a musician, so please ignore the sloppy guitar and bass playing
- I made a short 12 bar example with generic thrash riffage for this tutorial and some strum chords. The first 6 bars are with bass and latter 6 bars are without. I mixed it with headphones as it was like 4AM at the time, so it might sound a bit bad on monitors, but I would like to give a big thank you to Ermz for giving me pointers with the mix. The example would've sucked (even more) without you
PHASE 1: Out of context
This section could also be name "fuck solo-button", but I decided that was more appropiate title. Before you go "whoa, I want one big guitar tone too!", hold on a second listen to a single guitar soloed, out of context:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338211/tut/loop_v7_gtr_only.mp3
Not so big really, right? Sounds actually super thin. Then the bass must be really fucking good sounding, right?
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338211/tut/loop_v7_bass_only.mp3
Not really, eh? Sloppy, boomy and buzzy and all the what the mother fuck you usually don't want from your bass tone.
But how about the mix then? Must suck some nasty red rooster too.
PHASE 2: In context
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1338211/tut/loop_v7.mp3
Well, atleast I think it sounds decent and quite big, eh? Atleast when the bass guitar is there and you clearly can hear when it goes away, it pretty much takes the whole bottom from the guitar tone.
Since the single elements sound like shit, what is the secret that the mix doesn't sound like shit? It's context. If you have an army, would you consider 200 men or 1 twenty feet tall giant a big army? Making music is a puzzle that usually consists of small pieces that forms a big whole and the thing is to make them fit together. In my opinion the glueing is usually the hardest part and in rock music it usually is the bass guitar. It is both rhythm and string instrument and it glues the drums and guitar together.
For example what I did with the bass and guitar is that I gave them their own space in the frequency spectrum. The percussive elements (not in the picture) are louder but also shorter and reach way above the string instruments (1-20khz), so they poke thru nicely.
pink is bass, orange is guitar
PHASE 3: Buildup
The biggest problems when honing your tone alone, say in front of an amp, is buildup, and especially the low end buildup (Sometimes I even wonder why the bass knob on some amps go above 3). Even if you are a trio with just drums, bass, guitar and vocals playing live, the low end buildup is still many times a really big problem.
Well then, what is buildup? It is caused by layering (for example doubling and quadtracking) and when you start to layer the takes, it is the effect you might hear. Overgained guitars can turn into unintelligible fuzzy mess and low end buildup can make low endreally wobbly, cause phase cancellation and you can lose a lot of headroom resulting in a muddy and quiet sounding overall mix. And if you start to go Devin Townsend and put 167 layers of synths, it might be cool and all, but if you don't really narrow down the low end bandwith on the layers, you will kill your headroom fast.
The lack of buildup causes that you have no sense of feel when enough is enough. For example if you have no context and not enough experience to tell for example when say you have too much bass or too much gain for the mix.
The easiest solution to low end buildup is more easy than you might think: Highpass filter. That's it, the low cut switch on most EQ:s. Put it on every track, set the frequency as high as possible, when the tone starts to clearly thin down, back down 10-20hz and you're set.
PHASE 4: Summa Summarum
What did we learn today? The thing is that it doesn't matter how things sound soloed, but how they sound in the mix. Add ALL the instruments (and preferrably vocals too) and then start tweaking. If you are mixing a full session, record a "training song", similiar to the clip I posted; Short 4-16 bar clip with the kind of riffage you will do and then see how all the elements sit together. If you double/quadtrack guitars, try slightly undergained guitars first, then quadtrack a short riff and then slowly bring up the gain as long as the gain doesn't interfere with clarity too much.
Fuck solo-button. Mix in context.
