Balancing Question

I'm trying to balance all the sounds in my songs. When I was told that the guitars needed to be louder the only way I could do that was add reverb, when I did so it worked but other parts of my song like the verse were too loud now and got annoying. I think this is because in the chorus there were a lot of other sounds involved and it masked the guitar. I was wondering if I could get help on balancing sounds out or get some tips. Also, the drum kit I use doesnt get loud enough to hear because of all the other sounds and I turn them up they get in the red zone...I just need some tips on how to balance my songs out. Thanks

hmm alright thats a good suggestion. is it good to reverb other sounds besides the vocals? and if you do, do you always need compression with it?

ORIGINAL: Clydewinder
if you are recording crunch/distorted guitars you probably don't need any compression... distortion is a pretty effective compressor as it is.

With all due respect to your considerably greater experience, Clyde: even with crunch guitar, I like to use mild compression to make the tracks a bit brighter, give them a little more presence in the mix. Granted, I've only recorded four songs, and just began learning to use compression about 6 weeks ago. Perhaps the right EQ would do the trick. But I definitely agree about keeping the playback levels low. Discovering that helped a lot in regards to keeping everything balanced.
Mark

Well, that could be a point right there: I usually play through my Toneport rather than micing an amp, which I must try to get that warmth of the tube amp. I can see how that might make a difference regarding the use of compression. What surprised me was the disparity in the resulting sound using various compressors. I.e., the Cakewalk compression sounds different than, say, digitalfishphone's endorphin or Voxengo's polysquasher. And it's worth trying each one under different circumstances.
Mark

Hi

Right few thoughts in terms of mixing

I always think of mixing as a 3d box. The horizontal axis is width, the vertical = volume and the depth axis is distance from the listener.

The idea with a mix is to have all the elements occupy there own place in this 3dimensinoal space, 1) so they don't get in each others way and 2) so that it sounds really rich. (remeber you odn't have to go to the extremse either, you may decide that your furthest pan will only be 30% becuase you want a tight focused sound, just make sure that all the different elements of the mix have slightly different pan settings. within those self imposed parameters.

Now you can groups the tools at your disposal into these three groups in roughly the following

Width = Pan, and stereo based effects such as chorus

Vertical = Volume, COmpression and Dynamics effects

Depth = Reverb and delay based effects.(plus volume as well, complicated eh)

COuple of other things its worth considering, EQ as an effect and EQ for placement. You may eq a guitar part to make its sound like you want it to, much like you would wit h a guitar amp, you may then apply compressoin reverb other bits and bobs to get to a sound you really like aestetically, and then there is no reason why you cannot apply a final eq that is used merely to position this final sound in the mix. Ie you may use a plugin eq for sound shaping, and the sonitus eq for positioning the element in the mix.

Also side chaining, this does not technically exist in Sonar, (lets not start this argument) but this is where you get the dynamics from one source (kick drum) to trigger the compressor on another source (bass) meaning that when the kick hits the bass is compresed so they don't trip over each other. THis technique can be used on any complementary sources ie a vocal that has a guitar solo sat underneath it.

There are many threads on ways of achieving side chaining in Sonar, do a search.

Hope some of this helps, or at least inspires you to experiment.

G