Alright, so post your techniques involving guitar mixing.

Mine:

Guitar:
Panning - If you have a rhythmic guitar set for a chorus, and then a lead, pan one guitar to the left, and make another recording of the same rhythm for the right, and pan it to the right -- no alternations. 90% to the L and R should do. Make sure to leave the lead centered. This should produce a BIG sound for rock.

Feedback - If you're leading into a loud chorus, that you think would scare the crap out of anyone who listens to it, I'd suggest putting a little bit of feedback slightly before it gets loud, so they can expect the loudness. It's what I did. Works great for me.

Bass:
Volume - Most of the time when I record, my bass is way to loud and starts clipping the track. My solution, bring the bass down to -2.0, maybe -3.0 if necessary, also, EQ it a bit, maybe that'll help the clipping.




Post yours.

For bass...

I know this is somewhat subjective, but getting the kick drum and the bass to work well together is so important. I like to think of it as one needs to be "on top" of the other. If it's a fatter, rounder sounded kick drum, I will try to complement it with maybe a punchier bass tone. If it's more of a sharp attack kick sound, I may go with a rounder, fatter bass sound. I think some people make the mistake when they want a real fat sounding low end, they go for the fat kick drum and the fat bass guitar, which ends up just creating mud.

I generally have less control over the kick drum sound since I often use loops. On the bass, I like to put more focus on getting the right tone up front so less has to be done with EQ later. This includes the right bass, the right pickup and EQ settings on the bass, and pre-amp settings.

After I've got a good tone and a recording I'm happy with, I almost always add some EQ with a HPF around 34Hz or so to remove any rumble or low end noise. I may end up doing a slight boost around 400 or 800 for definition but ideally I won't have to do this if I got a good tone up front. I will then add a compressor plug-in and usually set my threshhold settings to where the compressor is normally not triggering except maybe 20% of the time or less when I may have hit a note too hard.

Obviously there are a lot of variables based on the equipment, the style of music, etc. - but this is the basic process I go through when tracking and mixing. I know you can get a lot fancier with guitar mixing, but to me with bass for the most part I like to get just a good tone out of the bass and process it as little as possible.

On my Soundclick link below, the bass on "Deep Down Blues" and "No Mas Muerte" were some of my better bass tones where followed this process if you want to check them out. "Deep Down Blues" had a deeper bass sound "underneath" a brighter kick drum and "No Mas Muerte" is the opposite, with a deeper kick drum so a punchier bass sound "on top" of it.

Dave

www.soundclick.com/steakbone

keep bass in the center of the mix....

panning the guitars R & L is OK..... however .... 90% is a bit extreme and will be uncomfortable to most listeners... I would recommend panning about 25% to 40% for guitars. especially is it's a solo lead guitar. IF you have a twin lead thing happening...like I tend to do in alot of my songs... to go 60% is fine... just keep the levels balanced... because the further to the limit you go the more critical the balance becomes.

I like to put rhythm guitar and keys on opposite sides of the mix..... usually at 25% or so.

Whatever you do on one side of the mix.... you need to counterbalance with something on the opposite side of the mix.

However... all this is subjective and relative..... mix the way you want it to sound....

people will give you feedback on their opinion.....take it or leave it.

ORIGINAL: Guitarhacker

keep bass in the center of the mix....

I agree with this. However, sometimes when you're having problems with the bass guitar and the kick drum competing with each other, a useful tip is moving the bass just like 2-4% panned one way or the other. It still sounds centered but can make a surprising difference in the separation of the two...

Dave

www.soundclick.com/steakbone

I agree with this. However, sometimes when you're having problems with the bass guitar and the kick drum competing with each other, a useful tip is moving the bass just like 2-4% panned one way or the other. It still sounds centered but can make a surprising difference in the separation of the two...

Good tip Dave - I'm going to try that out on my bass tracks.

For electric guitar I tend to play at least two rhythms, with one 50L and the other 70R (or sometimes 70L and 80R). For an even fuller sound, I'll add a third rhythm at 70L or 80L (maybe just bring it in for the chorus and breaks). Maybe I'll have two tracks processed and one clean, but it it all depends on the song. Lots of potential variations.

I can never get a bass track to work in anything because I have to use synth bass and I can never get the synth to tune up perfectly to my acoustic guitar, so it always sounds weird. Plus, I find making up bass parts really hard...they always seem to intrude on the song and clutter the hell out of it.

Most of the time when I record, my bass is way to loud and starts clipping the track. My solution, bring the bass down to -2.0, maybe -3.0 if necessary, also, EQ it a bit, maybe that'll help the clipping.

Doing anyhting after the fact wont help if your recoridng signal is clipping. Turn you gain stage down for the bass. Read up on complimetary EQ'ing techniques. Google has allot of info about this. Then youll see a picture of whjat is needed for the kick and bass. Aslo, do what sounds good to you and do what helps the song.

I almost always add some EQ with a LPF around 34kHz or so to remove any rumble or low end noise

Dave that doesn't sound right mate.

Do you mean using a HPF @ 34Hz????


If I've gotten something hopefully wrong, feel free to correct me (oo er mrs)

ORIGINAL: Bristol_Jonesey

I almost always add some EQ with a LPF around 34kHz or so to remove any rumble or low end noise

Dave that doesn't sound right mate.

Do you mean using a HPF @ 34Hz????

Doh! Yes you're right! Sorry bout that...

ORIGINAL: dlogan

ORIGINAL: Guitarhacker

keep bass in the center of the mix....

I agree with this. However, sometimes when you're having problems with the bass guitar and the kick drum competing with each other, a useful tip is moving the bass just like 2-4% panned one way or the other. It still sounds centered but can make a surprising difference in the separation of the two...

Dave

www.soundclick.com/steakbone

Spot-on Dave. I find that bass can work OK anywhere between 10% L - 10% R. After all, the bass player doesn't usually stand right in front of the kick drum!