How Many Plugins do I Need?

HI All
 
These days I play my guitar over pre recorded backing tracks,but I have a problem tryng to make
the guitar sound like it was part of the recording and not an afterthought,it does not sit right in the mix.
 
I have just bought Expanded and got all the toys that come with it,but now there are
the Softube plugins that look great.
 
I used to play mainly Shadows type stuff,now I play anything that sounds good as an instrumental.
 
I have also seen the Abbey Road Plugins,but know nothing about them.
 
I need some guidance from more experienced mixers and masterers,so can someone help with
my problem please?
 
Thanks
 
Alan
 

try sending the guitar to a buss and use a wee bit more compression,use the 4k buss compressor, or any other comp thats suited to buss duties, but dont over do it, try and get the mix to glue together,,,, i mean theres not really a set way, just a matter of getting it sounding right to your self, no doubt you'll get some more detailed stuff posted in this thread, but thats wat i would do, buss it,, can i also recomend starting the mix from scratch, set your busses up for different instruments, and mix into the busses with compression !!!

wats the content of the backing track ?? is it a stem or individual files

A large part of what you need to do is figure out the sound or tone of the backing tracks and match that to your guitar.  Putting karoke leads over an established song is harder than it looks - certainly harder than singing karoke at 1 am to a drunk audience.

Another thing - what is your recording method.  Do you amp and mic the guitar or DI.  W/ Producer, you have guitar rig etc.   Running a DI'ed guitar through that can help establish some air to the guitar, which should help.  It works on mic'ed guitar too, depending.

If your guitar still sticks out like a sore thumb, EQ, EQ, EQ.  Amps by their nature compress and filter the sound, so rolling off the bottoms and some high can help fit a guitar in.  If the backing tracks are well done, there should be some room in their for guitar.  But you can still find a frequency for your guitar and pull that out of the backing mix.  Then there is compression - esp. if your guitar bounces around in volume.  Automate it for general levels w/in the song, then compress the track.  You can add reverb, too, and then send it out a bus before the master and add another slight level of compression.

Hopefully, you can find a place to squeeze the guitar in.

@

Might be partly a case of experimenting with different reverbs to find one that doesn't make your guitar sound like it's in another room from the rest of the music. 

less is more when it comes to vst plugins... daws.. and audio software in general.  there is way too much out there, to ever learn it thoroughly...

what you want is a small kit, of high end tools, that you have learned to use.

How Many Plugins do I Need?

This has never entered Bapu's mind.

How many?
 
Hmm... I love to experiment with different plugins and buy them just to have fun with.  I think you could do fine with just the included Sonar plugs if it came down to it.  I have a ton of them and here are a few of my favorites:
Kush UBK
Slate VCC
Slate FGX
UAD2 Neve collection
UAD2 Manley Massive
UAD2 EMT 140 and 250
Waves Vocal Rider
Voxengo.... I have virtually all of them and they are all darn good.
 
I use the Sonar Vintage Channel on my acoustic guitar tracks all the time and use the Channel Tools plug as well. Their tube limiter is nice too.
 
The Sonnitus plugs that CW includes are  cool.
You mentioned the Softube Plugs... The current CW deal for these is a stunning no-brainer. These all are simply outstanding.
Enjoy!

Listen carefully to the backing track, especially during pauses (if there are any) - try and get an idea of what reverb(s) are being applied, then try and set up one up as identical as possible to what you're hearing and apply it to your guitar track.

Be careful with the send amount, you don't want to overdo it, but it might help to blend the guitar in with the backing track.

I don't think you need any plug-ins to fix that issue. 

A couple of suggestions: 

Pan the guitar so that it is positioned in the mix as if it were being played on stage. Either left or right depending what else is on that side. 

Use reverb to move the guitar from the front to the back of the stage or wherever you want it to sound like its coming from. 

Use EQ to narrow the bandwidth so that the guitar doesn't hog all the frequencies and mask the other parts. 

And, as Frank Zappa once said, "a little bit of distortion goes a long way in a mix". So go easy on it. 

Jonesey and I are on the same track... Great minds think alike