How To Play Good Guitar Sounds In The Background

Many people underestimate the importance of the electrical guitar in a mix.

They can make your mix thick, powerful, and heady. When mixed properly, they add a nifty deal of emotion to the vocal.

But when they're mixed incorrect, they tin can take up a ton of space. Rather than making a vocal more emotional, they can make it blander. More flat. More muddy.

This is especially true if you have several guitar tracks happening at once. It'due south piece of cake to take too many passengers crowding the train car!

To help you avert all of these problems, here are 7 tips for mixing guitars that you tin can use today to make your mixes sound separate, clear, and exciting.

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Guitar Mixing Tip #1: Never Solo.

Never. Never e'er.

A common misconception is that an instrument has to sound beautiful by itself to sound cute in a mix. Makes logical sense, correct? Why would something that sounds bad on its ain make a mix meliorate?

Just that'due south not actually how information technology works.

Think of it like cooking a dish. On their own, the ingredients might not sense of taste that special. Simply when combined in just the correct fashion, they enhance each other's flavors.

The dish is, as the old saying goes, "greater than the sum of its parts."

A mix is the same style! It's more important that the element you add enhances the overall mix rather than the chemical element sounding gorgeous on its own.

Remember: your listeners are never going to hear the guitar by itself. Just you will do that. All they'll e'er hear is the song itself.

So make your mixing decisions in context of the rest of the song. Don't solo the rails and utilize guitar EQ or compression by itself. It may make the instrument sound great, simply it'll bring the rest of the track down.

Now, of course, the obvious counter is this. "What if I tin't hear that instrument? I don't want to be mixing bullheaded."

And yous're absolutely right to say this.

When yous're mixing guitars and y'all can't hear them well…

…rather than soloing, just plough it upwards. When yous're done, turn information technology back down.

You will still exist able to hear the rest of the mix, so you lot'll exist making the right decisions in terms of the mix. Information technology's the all-time of both worlds.

To brand this easier, whenever I start a mix, I'll put a gain plugin with a +5dB boost on each of my tracks. When I need an instrument I'm working on to be louder, I just appoint that plugin. When I'm done, I bypass it again.

This allows you to temporarily alter the book of the track, even if you already have automation written in.

Make certain you put the gain plugin at the Terminate of your plugin chain, though. You want your effects to stay the same one time you lot've turned the volume back down. Otherwise, all those mix decisions will become pointless.

Bonus tip: Learn to use gain automation. Your mixes will audio even more consistent.

Guitar Mixing Tip #ii: If You Don't Need Information technology, Mute It.

A lot of people get carried away with overdubbing electric guitar chords.

The thought is that they will make the guitar sound thicker and heavier. But the more you overdub, the muddier it gets.

Separation is important with guitars. Separating 5 dissimilar electric guitar parts all stacked on top of each other is a difficult task.

Truth be told, you lot will actually lose aggression and intensity if you record too many guitar tracks. They start to fade into each other and audio messy and undefined.

And then don't be afraid to mute extra parts if they aren't adding annihilation.

This tip rings truthful for stereo-miked guitar parts as well. Y'all don't take to keep every mic! That tin can actually become more than of a problem. Audition each mic, and get rid of the ones you lot don't need.

For thick choruses, having two guitar tracks is all you need. Try panning i rhythm guitar hard left and panning another hard right.

Guitar Mixing Tip #three: Residue is Key.

Before y'all reach for your EQ'southward and compressors, get your guitars to sit well in the mix.

Back in the days before analog effects (pre-1950's), Audio Engineers were actually called Balance Engineers. Their entire job was merely to balance the loudness of the instruments that had been recorded.

It'south the MOST of import office of the mix, but it'southward as well the about disregarded.

Your guitars are never going to enhance the mix if they aren't balanced with the rest of the instruments. Earlier you commencement putting on any effects, have your time to play with the volume. Find the exact spot they should be sitting. Then get started on your processing.

Even though this tip will take yous more fourth dimension in the short term, it will save you twice as much in the long term. Your processing will never sound adept if the musical instrument is too loud or too soft.

Make your chore easier, and be a Remainder Engineer.

Guitar Mixing Tip #4: Bussing is Best.

Bussing is the 8th wonder of the world.

Many people underestimate the importance of the electric guitar in a mix. They can make your mix thick, powerful, and exciting. When mixed properly, they add together a bully deal of emotion to the vocal. Only when they're mixed wrong, they tin can take up a ton of space. Rather than making a song more emotional,

For those unfamiliar, bussing is when you ship all of the recordings of a single instrument to one aux channel. From in that location, whatsoever plugin you add affects every one of those recordings.

Not only does it help "glue" your tracks together, but it massively cuts downwards on the amount of plugins you have to utilise to finish a mix.

For instance, if you have half-dozen electrical guitar tracks, you lot would usually have to shrink each i (if they demand it). But with an electric guitar buss, y'all simply have to use 1 compressor for the entire agglomeration.

This saves you on CPU, then your projects will be less likely to crash as your mix gets big. It'll as well save yous massive amounts of time.

Bussing your guitars together makes you think virtually where you want them to sit in the frequency spectrum. Do y'all desire them to be prominent in the low-mids? The upper-mids?

Your processing will exist spread across all of your guitar tracks, so you are more probable to brand a improve, more than intentional selection.

Guitar Mixing Tip #5: Don't Exist Afraid to Cutting.

Electric guitars are like a loaf of breadstuff.

Stay with me hither…

The worst parts of any bread loaf are the heels. They're all crust, no fluff. Chewy and sometimes even a petty bitter.

I usually just throw them away later on I become dorsum from the market.

The same is truthful for your guitars. The ends are just unnecessary.

So throw them away.

The electric guitar is a very mid-range heavy musical instrument. You don't demand the depression terminate, because the bass and boot volition fill in that cease of the spectrum. And you lot don't demand the summit finish, because in that location'due south inappreciably any of it.

By using filters to remove the low and top ends, you are opening upward space in the mix for everything else. The cymbals and vocals can shine in the top stop, and the boot and bass tin shine in the bottom terminate.

I tend to cutting higher up vi-10 kHz, and below fourscore-200 Hz. The exact numbers depend on the guitar part, of course. The rule of thumb is to motility your filter up until the sound starts to get weaker, then take information technology back just a bit.

Cutting the superlative end gives the added benefit of pushing the guitars dorsum in the mix, which creates depth. Our ears translate sounds with less high frequency content as beingness further away. This is a great pull a fast one on to use on any instrument (or effect) you are trying to push back in the mix.

It's slap-up to use if you lot have a rhythm guitar function and a lead guitar office. Cut more the top finish of the rhythm guitar function, and your lead guitar will smoothen through.

Guitar Mixing Tip #half dozen: Guitar EQ and Boosting the Upper-Mids

Okay, at this point we're diving deeper into how to EQ guitar. In one case you've cut the top and lesser end, you're left with the meat of the guitar: the mids.

One of the most important things you tin practice with EQ is to pick certain areas in the frequency spectrum for each instrument, then boost those frequencies to make the instrument "pop."

For electrical guitars, the area that tends to exist the most effective is the upper mids. Check between 2kHz and 6kHz and encounter if anything makes the guitars naturally stick out of the mix.

This allows you to put the guitars lower in the mix without actually losing them. This will create infinite for other instruments.

A few words of warning:

Again, don't do this in solo! Y'all want the guitars to "pop" in relation to the other instruments, not just sound better.
The upper mids is too where the vocals tend to exist the nigh strong. Don't boost in an area that you have already allocated to your vocal. If your boost covers up the vocal, maybe reconsider your frequency choice.
Yous don't Have to boost your guitars. Don't heave simply because you think you lot have to. Boost because your ears tell yous that you need to.
Boosting in the upper mids carries the danger of making your guitars audio more than brittle, more fragile. Sometimes, a cutting near that boost will help to recoup for this.

If yous demand help remembering where to heave while you lot're mixing guitars, check out this costless cheat sheet. Information technology'southward a nifty reference.

Guitar Mixing Tip #7: Option Your Bounds (and Don't Overstep Them).

Range allocation will help you add together separation between guitar parts.

Many people underestimate the importance of the electrical guitar in a mix. They can make your mix thick, powerful, and exciting. When mixed properly, they add a great bargain of emotion to the vocal. But when they're mixed wrong, they tin can accept upward a ton of space. Rather than making a vocal more than emotional,

Permit's say that you lot overdubbed a guitar part. Power chords, slightly distorted, panning them hard left and hard correct.

Probably sounds great, right?

But every bit soon as your song gets summed into mono (which information technology will in the real earth – retrieve phones, cafe speakers, clubs), those guitars are going to sound mushy and undefined.

They don't compliment each other, because they don't have whatever separation.

To compensate for that, you can heave and cut each function at different points.

This can exist done BEFORE and Subsequently you've recorded your parts.

When tracking, brand sure each new guitar part you record has a different tone. Modify the tone settings on the amplifier, change the pickup choice, or fifty-fifty change the guitar itself.

The fact that each runway will have a different frequency "fingerprint" means that that there will be ameliorate separation.

When mixing, you tin can utilise range allocation to make certain frequency areas in the two parts fit together like puzzle pieces.

BONUS GUITAR TIP: Amp Sims

If you don't have an amplifier to record your electric guitar, an amp simulator might be your next all-time choice. Technology has advanced to the signal where these amp sims are pretty close to the real thing.

What we've covered in the guitar tips above still apply to these DI guitars. However, they have their own set of new challenges and techniques.

Here'due south your rapid-burn list of tips for the all-time sounding amp sim possible.

1 – Use a proper DI box. An electrical guitar isn't the same equally a microphone. To get the all-time sound, start with a DI box that you tin plug into, then route it into your audio interface. For some interfaces, this is a necessity, as they don't have a guitar cablevision input. For other interfaces that Do have a guitar cable input, having a DI box will improve the quality of your audio. Information technology's worth having at least ane in the studio.

2 – Record with your actual pedals. Your guitar pedals volition yet audio bully going into a DI box. Utilize the same pedal chain that you would employ when performing alive. Engage the effects as you usually would during the song. If you desire to use virtual pedals, you can – just make sure you place them Earlier the amp sim in your signal chain for an authentic audio.

iii – Gain stage your recordings. When it'south time to mix, utilise a gain plugin to turn the average level of the guitar rail to -18dBFS . That's the "digital sweetness spot." This is important, because the corporeality of gain going into your amp sim will determine how much it is driven.

4 – Focus on your tone controls. Don't just throw a preset on. Make sure the tone on the amp sim fits the mix. It'due south e'er better to fix your tone at the source than to fix it later with EQ.

five – Use dissimilar settings for overdubs. The tip from above withal applies hither. Make certain your overdubs audio unlike to create separation betwixt them. With an amp sim, this can be washed by finding the tone you want on the atomic number 82 guitar, then copying that plugin over to the rhythm guitar and irresolute the tone settings.

vi – Use a low pass filter. This is fifty-fifty more important with an amp sim. Oftentimes, digital distortion tin audio unpleasant in the high frequencies. Cut the highs to avoid this.

7 – Try adding saturation. Calculation some warm saturation can help to brand the digital betoken sound more than real. I'm a fan of the "keep low" setting of the Softube Saturation Knob (which is free!). "Neutral" also works if you're looking for a brighter tone.

viii – Create a Infinite. Considering amp sims are digital, they don't have the room sound that often accompanies a recording of an actual amplifier. For more modern music, this is fine. Simply for other, more "natural" styles, this tin can be problematic. To fix this, either move dorsum the microphone position within of the amp sim (if that feature is available), or use a brusk room reverb on an aux bus. The reverb shouldn't be able to exist actively heard in the mix – it'southward but at that place to be felt. Beginning with the fader at zero and movement information technology upwardly until you can hear it, and so dorsum off a fleck.

UPDATE: Check out this video on getting a Big sound for your guitars:

Many people underestimate the importance of the electrical guitar in a mix. They can make your mix thick, powerful, and exciting. When mixed properly, they add a corking bargain of emotion to the song. But when they're mixed wrong, they can have up a ton of space. Rather than making a song more emotional,

Utilise These Guitar Mixing Tips

Let's summarize all the guitar tips we just discussed!

Never use solo. Instead, just bring up the book to hear your changes. If you do solo and information technology sounds bad, don't let that put yous off.
Mute whatsoever unnecessary parts or microphones that aren't adding to the music or the mix.
Focus on getting the right volume balance before y'all start using EQ or compression.
Do your processing on the group buss.
Cutting the lows and the highs to make room for the bass, kick, and vocals.
Try boosting the upper mids, considering that'due south an ideal frequency area for the guitars to sit in.
Focus on range allocation for your guitars, both during the recording and the mixing phase.

That'southward it for mixing guitars – I hope yous find this useful, and cheers for reading!

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Songwriter and producer. Writer at Musician on a Mission. I'm hither to assist people make music that lasts.