What post processing do you do on your guitars?

[abbated]

Just curious what most of you do to your guitar tracks AFTER recording them? I just want to try everything to get the best tone I can. I know there is LOTS of additional processing that must be done with ampsims to get them "right" in the mix, but what I'd really like to know is what typically is added to REAL amps.

I know that 90% of the tone is accomplished BEFORE it's recorded to disk but there's honestly A LOT in that remaining 10% too.

I am FAR from experienced but as things are now I mainly do:

Quad Tracked 100 - 80 - 80 - 100 as usual.

I usually add a REN EQ or Q10 (or Whatever I have as I'm still learning the different nuances of the various EQ's and there's a SHIT TON of them out there).

Then I route all 4 guitars to a "Guitar Buss" where I add another EQ and add VERY SLIGHT bumps to compensate for anything that might need it in the overall picture.

It's very minimalist I know, but every time I insert another plug I generally end up ruining my tone due to my lack of experience with the plug... which I am constantly working on.

What do you all do?

 

[slayercannibalsuffohead]

Minimalistic is the right word for me, although I have not been doing this long, I got caught in the trap of using plug ins because they were there. I think the 90% source part is spot on. (Shit in = shit out). I now save at least 2 copies of my stuff. The raw, unprocessed song and the processed to the Hilton song, and when I go back to the raw it almost always sounds better.

I think getting a great bass sound helps a lot to. Achieving good levels also helps tremendously. Another trap I got caught in early was to add treble eq to things that were not loud enough and in the end, ended up with these sizzling bacon mixes that sounded like arse! Now my mixes still sound like arse, but a nice little schoolgirl petite kinda arse, so I am on the right track.

Hang in there mate, cause there's always a great looking arse out there thats wanting to be .............................................

 

[abbated]

Right on the money... I have been caught in the "treble eq" thing lately too and my last two mixes were ABSOLUTELY "sizzling bacon." Nice to have you confirm that too. Luckily I have recorded ALL guitar and Bass parts with my countryman direct box so I still have the direct signal to reamp with. I just haven't done it. Thanks so much for the input slayercannibalsuffohead I really appreciate it.

 

[Ermz]

Usually waves upon waves of EQ to compensate for the poor tracking. There is absolutely no substitute for getting it right at the source. Provided all things go well I'll usually de-fizz the guitars using either the Q10 or the Sonnox EQ, and band-pass them at around 60 to 100Hz and 11 to 13kHz. I will more often than not use the fabled C4 on the midbass as guitar cabs tend to be resonant around those areas. Then I'll listen to how well the guitars sit, and if I'm not totally happy I'll hit them a bit with the L1 until they back off and stop moving.

 

[xMannequiNx]

psp vintage warmer is excellent

+4 drive +10% knee +50% speed really warms up the sound while compressing it.

 

[punkrockacademyfightsong]

very little, usually I bus all guitars and put an EQ on it, highpass around 80 Hz, lowpass around 13 kHz, sometimes a small wide scoop around 400 Hz and usually a small little notch around 3 kHz to get rid of some fizz if it's too much.

 

[gabriel g.]

1. Cleaning up the guitar tracks:
Some space for the bass, bassdrum, snare, toms.
For this I´m using colourless eqs like : logic channel eq, waves q10, waves phase linear eq....

2. sometimes a comp, with very short attack and release time. L1, L2, or L3-LL can do this job as well

3. Some very colourfull eq to "pimp" the tracks. Like Waves V-series Eq or api, sometimes the waves SSL eq do the job too.

With the colourfull EQ I´m usually boosting a little highs around 4-9khz...

 

[greyskull]

depends really,
if its big chugga chugga woop guitars, and i tracked it, a bit of sonnox eq setting one for hi/lopass filters at around 80/12k ish, a maybe a notch at the frequency that makes you go ARGHHHHHHHHH MY EARS (normally around 2 k somewhere)

Then i use a uad pultec or 1073 afterwards for any little boosts to help cut through.

Clean guitar or more lo-fi hardcore convergey type sounds the first two steps still ,apply,
but i may spank it a bit with an LA2A set to limit doing about 2 db reduction. nice

 

[crillemannen]

If you do it right in the recording chain you wont have to do that much editing eq etc.
Keep struggling with your recording before you put 3layers of q10 to try to get those guitars right.

If they are recorded perfectly then you dont have to put more then -3-10db eq total
Cheers

 

[Sacha]

A little bit of EQ and occasionally some multiband, that's aboot it.

 

[Jevil]

If needed, harmonic exciters are very helpful.

 

[ahjteam]

If they are recorded perfectly then you dont have to put more then -0.5-3db eq total

fixed

edit: and maybe a highpass/lopass filter

 

[Machinated]

i agree with you for general boosts/cuts but 3db isnt going to be enough to notch out any annoying frequencies.

 

[Deadstar]

what about guitar sims? Am I the only one making surgical cuts between the 3/6k area? I'd like to know how d'u work with soloc in terms of postprocessing

 

[ahjteam]

what about guitar sims? Am I the only one making surgical cuts between the 3/6k area? I'd like to know how d'u work with soloc in terms of postprocessing

Make a song around it first and see how it fits, then fix accordingly

 

[crillemannen]

I wrote up to +/-10db not 3 . I've got some raw tracks from Studio Fredman in my own studio, and i can asure you that they dont need much eq. Perhaps add some body and some at 3-6khz and thats it.
No annoing fizz in those guitars to be cut out. Just perfectly dialed heads and miced cabs.

People seems to think that Fredrik and Andy does something magical in the mix, but they just have really good ears, and you cant make a bad sound good in the mixing process, we cant do magic

Cheers

 

[abbated]

F'in A what a GREAT bunch of responses. I'm so glad to hear that the majority of you all take (basically) the same minimalist approach that I am currently using. Thank you so much for the info, I'll continue to work and rework the guitars until I'm satisfied (is that even possible).

 

[MegaMustaine]

Lately I've been using Voxengo Curve EQ, Waves L2, and the PSP Vintage Warmer on my guitar tracks. Cleans them up pretty nicely, but I'm still toying with my plugins and finding the right balance.

 

[LeviathanMetal]

2. sometimes a comp, with very short attack and release time. L1, L2, or L3-LL can do this job as well

.

Sometimes?!?!... have to say and im sure all will agree its normally a necessaty for this style of music haha

 

[John_C]

Sometimes?!?!... have to say and im sure all will agree its normally a necessaty for this style of music haha

urm no

there's a whole thread here somewhere about compressing guitars, some people do a bit, some really don't at all

the amount of gain in metal guitar sounds compresses them hugely anyway, so any more is for the purposes of tweaking and smoothing and helping them to sit easier in the mix