My tip to double track guitars is: never listening the "first" recording at the same time when you recording the "second" due to you might fool you self and think you nail it, but instead you've be listening to your first when recording the second. Always mute the first recording when you record the second.
Iv done recording as a bedroom player for 16 years and iv learned a great deal over time via trial and error: 1. When you are recording metal guitars and went a super beefy full sound, record your track twice and pan one 80 percent left the other 80 percent right. Don't use multitrack recording it won't sound the same. I tried using multitrack recording and it doesn't sound as full. 2. Take your time with EQ'ing, iv made some real pieces of trash sound amazing just by spending a few extra minutes EQ'ing as well as properly compressing it. 3. Label your tracks as you make them. It will make it easier to keep things organized you will know what is where. 4. If you have neighbors get you a pair of studio monitors headphones. These things really helped with my mixes. I wasn't even aware how bad my tone was until I got a pair of audio technica mx30's I think is the model number or something around there I didn't buy them I just paid the bill. I was blown away how much better my stuff came out simply by switching headphones. I could go on and on and on but that's enough for now unless someone actually wants more.
I'm gonna second your numbers 2, 3 & 4 Justin. 2. Absolutely. I'll add a part B. This can be done limitlessly after the track is recorded. Don't delete tracks that are played even half bad cos they can be used. They can sound fantastic once manipulated. 3. Mandatory! Absolutely. Otherwise you're creating a puzzle for yourself rather than a system. Especially if you record drunk, drugged or with someone else. 4. I took my daughter to an electronic music making school holiday event. The kids sat through a presentation then were let loose on vintage synths and drum machines. The headphones knocked my socks off. I thought they must have been very expensive. They were AT M20X. When I googled them they were very inexpensive. I picked up a pair and have used them for at least three hours every day for years. I bought a more expensive AT headphones two years later. They're so shit. I used them for maybe one hour. I thought there was something wrong with them. They sound under water. Later I went to a high end hifi store and listened to some multi thousand dollar audiophile phones. Earbleed.
The most important trick for recording guitar: Play your guitar! Dont over focus on tones and not play as much, having fun playing guitar should be the first priority
This is an awesome video. Good IRs are the key to a good sound as Scott says, some suit some amps better than others. It is also worth noting not all IRs are the same, while commonly we talk about bit rate, ie 24 bit, ands sampling rate ie 48K, you need to also note if you are mixing IRs from different companies the length in ms of each IR. There is no standard here, so you can easily end up with weird phase like issues, or completely destroy the sound. The other item worth getting if you have the money is STL Libra because you can add up to 8 IRs and mix them together to create your own customer IRs. Lets face it if everyone uses the same IRs and the same Amp Sims everything will sound the same.
One thing I learned: Fredman is like an instant-usable tone. You can get a clamp for two 57s online for like 20 Bucks (JUST MAKE SURE IT'S 55 DEGREES) and it is super easy to Set Up and gives you a lot of Insight into recording as well, as the two mics will sound MASSIVELY different though they pick up the same source
I always go back and try to watch as many tutorials as I can (even the beginner ones) because there's always a chance that there's something I've missed and could learn or learn a better technique for certain mix flows. Thanks for this!
i use the same technique to record the guitars, riff after riff, but the difference is ... when i record lets say riff A, and then i want to record riff B, what i would do i actually record a little bit of the end of riff A ... go through riff B .... and a little bit of the beginning of riff C ... then cut the excess of both riff A & C , that way for me it would sounds more glued toghter.
I am using Cubase, too. I started with Logic, but it kept on crashing with my sessions. Turned out I was a noob back then... :D My biggest mistakes were using too many plugins on each channel instead of using FX channels. The second big mistake was to have 3 guitars in the main riffs (one hard left, one hard right, one copy of either left or right in the middle slightly brought in). It thickens up the tone but it also takes too much space from your instruments that are supposed to live in the middle such as vocals or maybe the bass. :D
This is super amazing and super generous of you Scott! Thank you super super much! I'm about to start recording my guitar at home soon. And this guide will help me to understand how to record my guitar the best way I can. Thank you so much for all of your hard and wonderful work! You super duper Rock my friend! Wishing you only the Best! 😈🤘🔥🔥🔥
That song has those super low 7 or 8 string guitars and I think it sounds like crap. It's too muddy and the guitars were too loud. You could barely hear the drums especially the kick drum. I use EZ drummer 2 for drums and I record my guitar using a shure sm57. The bass I use a plug in amp on Cakewalk for the "amp". I have a bass just for my recordings but I'm not a bassist. I did learn how important bass is in a song though. I used to think it really didn't matter but it makes so much different. I always pan the guitars hard left and hard right and you need to mute the first track when you're recording the second track cause you'll get lost and it'll sound like crap. You always wanna record two separate tracks for your guitar, never copy and paste them. Some people even do 4 tracks. 2 on the left and 2 on the right. So pan the guitars, bass goes in the middle, the bass and the bass drum can sometimes get in each others way so I usually turn one of them a little to the left or a little to the right. Those are some tips that I can think of at the moment. I'm still a newbie really but I can get a decent mix.
Scott I have same interface and using mac and I see your latency input and output is similar. I have with buffer 64 output around 2.7ms and input 8ms. Any idea why ??
I don't remember the RU-vidr that I picked this trick up from ... But in reaper some times I will have an amp sim on my guitar folder,arm the two child tracks, turn on the reapeat, and record two passes. Then if good enough,which because I do suck,rarely happens lol, I will be able to pick between the two takes and throw them on the guitar child tracks. It's a little faster sometimes than arming one at a time.
One question - should I always record through my interface entirely clean? Then add distortion and effects after? Via plugins etc? Because sometimes I record the plug-in with my guitar and get the tone that way.
Thanks Scott for the Guide and usefull info on the video. I tried to record some stuff a few years ago at a home studio. I was happy with some of the results at the time but looking back I feel there is a lot to improve so I think this info will help a lot. I would appreciate if some of you could check them out. Tried some stuff at the time including building a home booth to record guitars to isolate external noise and be able to crank up the volume. I used a sm77 mic and line6 ux1 audio interface. I found them a bit dry and not very flexible in the mixing.
You have made recording a lot less of a mystery to me. I recently got Cakewalk setup like your work flow and it cleared so much up for me. I really dig your intro videos to a concept. I use Neural DSP's Soldano for my tone and effects which hasn't caused any issues yet in my tracks.
I use Cakewalk too. It's free and has everything the other expensive ones has. It might not have "everything" but it for sure has enough to record, mix and master songs easily.
You ever noticed the more you rewind it and try to replay the part over again you start hearing very detailed nuances in your playing and each time you attempt it it gets even more precise? At first you thought you had the part down but after trying to record it perfectly, and nail the part you realize you didn't have it down as well as you thought you did to begin with. Every palm mute and every pick stroke becomes very nuanced.
This is a great video full of useful info, but the best part is that you left in the retakes; because that's the very real, and frustrating, and unglamorous part of recording and I think seeing that will help a beginner realize it's not just them and to keep working
Loved the part where you where tracking your takes. I quite literally do the exact same thing as you 😅 "fuck i forgot to unmute the drums" "forgot metronome" "i missed a note" "didnt come in on time" I do it so much I say it out loud and everything lol
I highly recommend scheps omni channel strip for zero latency EQ, comp, saturation, gate and gain staging. It really as good if not better than any channel strip.
Man, if there is a Thank you which is the size of the universe, then it's for you !!!! This is so generous and so much needed. I really like that you take into consideration that people may use different DAWs. I am starting to upskill in Studio One 5 and cannot wait to apply what you shared. 🤘🏻
Hey Scott & metal recording people. I have a big fat comment. But read on, this is pretty interesting: The other day, me and friend submitted a song to Glenn Fricker's "submit your mix" so that Glen (and others in the comments) can critique our mix. The feedback we got was SO confusing! Glenn says the guitars sound "thin" What does that mean? Also, he was really annoyed that I got rid of the low end.... but I don't feel like I did too much. He suggested that I take Scott's course on metal guitar tone mastery to make it better. Guess what though? The only reason this track sounds the way it does, is because I TOOK SCOTT'S COURSE! Scott's tips changed the game for me. That course is pretty much where our sound is coming from (Emissary amp), along with some Glenn & Ola Englund tips. I don't expect to impress everyone with some amazing tone, but seriously, what gives? Is the feedback on that channel just dweebs hating/bullshitting? Below is a link to the song we sent to Glenn. Feel free to crucify us constructively. I'll bet I'm doing something the wrong way. Who can tell me what it is? Is the low end "gone" As they say? Are these "thin" guitars? Does the bass guitar sound "muddy"? drive.google.com/file/d/158l0nhabyiZy-MRl1tihzOac4I_USdMw/view?usp=drivesdk
Hey, are you in the Discord? You will have an invitation link in the course files. Come and join us there so we can give some more feedback about this.
I paid for and use Reaper as my DAW, Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen USB Audio Interface and bam. I create massive and huge Death Metal songs!!! Most of the information I’ve learned over the past few years has been from Scott. Another great video for beginners.
I’m using studio one as my DAW with free plug ins and using an audient evo 4 interface and I usually run a noisegate, distortion pedal sim, amp sim and IR and EQ my tone is very muddy still and lacking that kinda sharp clear sound even when playing black metal which is typically lo fi it sounds terrible. If anyone has some tips and advice I’d greatly appreciate it. Also I’m using a schecter PT as my guitar which uses single coils and has a tele body I know single coils aren’t typically used for metal but it’s what I’m currently using my budget rn cannot afford another guitar
one generic Q on this one... now you have 1 IR one Cab as the outpt for left and right, where i thought/think you dont wnat both guitars to sound exactly the same, but a just a slight difference. in that case you cant route the DI guitarts to the same buss, but you need both amp simp's IR on the invididual tracks...... or how should this be dealt with?
That's correct. If you are wanting to use different IRs or amp simulators, you'll need to insert them on the individual tracks and then from there they can be bussed like how I showed in the video.
Question. I notice when I place the mic up to my amp speaker and start recording, the output us quite low. So low that I need to increase it's output to halfway via the apollo console. I am using a cheap old dynamic peavey mic. My tone actually sounds good. Just too low. Any insight is helpful.
If it’s a dynamic microphone you need plenty of volume. You can turn up the gain knob on your interface where the microphone is plugged in. If you have only a small power practice amp you will struggle to get lots of volume. Even on my 120W valve head the master needs to be up a fair way if I am only using a dynamic microphone. See how you go
Hi Scott. Great video!! While I am not new to recording and mixing I am definitely not a pro. I would say I'm not intermediate even. 🤣 Anyway... One thing I would stress everyone does from day one is to Learn Your DAW's Keybinds and Shortcuts. Write them down if you have to or create your own if your DAW allows it . The sooner you'll start using them the better and faster you'll get with your workflow.
It's cool, basic information is included in the PDF, but of course the usual thing is missing - how to deal with noise (RF Noise, Groundloop noise) in the signal. In short: airwindows DeHiss, NoiseKatana, Reaper FIR, Klevgrand Brusfri
This sounds like a ground loop... you'll need to start digging around to see if you have grounding problems with your house, or the room, the socket... any manner of things. Electronics are fun. Additionally, you can see about getting a DI Box that has a ground lift switch that you can use to connect into your interface.
Awesome video, man! By the way, I watched your Trey Azagthoth video recently... Do you know, if by now a decent JCM 900 PlugIn has been released? I don't get the free one working in my 64 bit Cubase setting... But I am an absolute Morbid Angel fan and would like to have the Covenant sound at home... Cheers from Germany
Even though ableton is more associated with live performances and electronic music, it automatically does almost all of the shit you had to spend 10 minutes switching your cubase settings.
I've heard people say its best to commit your guitar tracks to audio with just the raw tone, and then throw the plugins on the audio track instead of the Di track.. Do you normally do this, or does it not make any difference in your opinion?
When I record with one of my amps I don't take a DI signal and just record what I have and go from there. With amp simulators I don't really see the point to create an extra step to export the stems into audio. I could see if I had a computer that was struggling to handle the plugins but other than that my advice would be: fight the urge to keep tweaking. Make a decision and go with it.. if it doesn't work out, then you know :D
I really think people should look into actually buying these courses of yours that is if you're able too. They go on sale quite a bit and is a bit of a steep cost up front but DEFINATELY worth it and the price is a reflection of the quality information you get. You're the only person out there that actually describes what the VST does, what frequency were looking for and also WHY we need to get rid of these frequencies. This video is a great starting point and there are plenty of other vids to help add the nice little touch for it and but the amount of detail you go into with Guitar Tone Mastery is honestly amazing and couldn't think of a better way to spend the money for production lessons. \m/ Thank You Scott \m/
Very generous, i do know most of this stuff, mainly from watching you. IR user, free vst hunter, cubase for ages, now reaper, reason ableton. Nile, Meshuggah, Danza, Zappa and other wild things.
Hey man! Thanks for the video. It reaffirms how I go about tracking recently. Do you have a video on editing guitars? Couldn't find any vids that I'm satisfied with.
Thanks for this! Watched this video a few times already. I really like the idea of using the amp sim on a stereo bus. Has anyone gotten this to work with BIAS FX? If I put BIAS on both guitars and hard pan, then that is reflected in the guitar bus. If I put BIAS on the guitar bus instead, the bus is now only mono.
If I have one regret in recording it's that I attempted to do way too much at too high a level too early. If you can, start with simple projects and make sure you gradually learn more and more about the DAW, mic technique and EQ, compression and reverb. Ask for feedback from people who are more experienced and whose ears you trust and let the first mixes suck a little bit. I was the idiot who started with the 80+ minute prog/black metal concept record with 30 tracks on every song, and I didn't learn much from it expect for that studio work can be really grinding and boring when you do way too much of it and hold yourself to nearly impossible standards for no good reason. Now I'm doing one song at a time, and I'm saving my 20 minute orchestral epic for another day when I know more.
Great video!!! I use Cubase as well, not because it is better than other DAWs, I am just used to it. My work flow is a lot different tho, but I do it as a hobby, nothing more. I feel you pain when it comes to pain in you wrists, I have carpal tunnel in both of my wrists. I worked hard all my life, my body is really feeling it. Keep up the great work. Cheers! Слава Україні!
It seems that if you want to record guitar well, always be doing exactly that. Merely practicing guitar, even with a click, seems less valuable than recording yourself, even in chunks. Personally, I've noticed my tracking/"session" skills get a tad tighter when I'm forcing myself to finish a project for days on end. I daresay that it might even be more valuable than merely practicing. Thanks for a great video. I'm eating humble pie as we speak because I often write music that surpasses my playing ability.
Nice Video. I love your process and the just do it over and over until you get it right. The old school studio recording studio with the Ampex 456 16-track tapes were not as forgiving. If you made a mistake and didn't want to scrap the whole take, you would have to play along with that section on an unused track. I guess you could do the same here, but I like that you didn't do a bunch of editing, you just played each section. This would work great for getting riffs arranged where you want it. Thanks.
Are the in the plugins in the 'inserts' like a chain? So the first one feeds into the second, and so on? or are they just having like a compiled effect?
Hey there, pretty much like this, yes, sometimes it doesn't matter, but if you wnat to EQ before compressor, you would put the EQ first and then the compressor, so the EQ would be above it, etc.
Question: I used to double track guitars. Now theres amp sims like the Otto Audio that have a Stereo-Mode. It sounds really fat and full. Would you guys think thats enough to put on a demo, or the songs I want to release? And, how would I add a second guitar without them both taking the same space? Like a solo or harmony part?
Also Cubase users, Freeze or print your midi instruments( drums/bass etc). Use constrain delay compensation usually found in the lower left hand corner the icon looks like a clock. It turn off the cpu intensive plugins and give you lower latency.
I’m using logic and my tip is to use insert silence at cycle to insert stuff between parts rather than cutting and pasting because it preserves time signatures and tempo changes. My question for you Scott is why punch in each riff? I do it too but I try to play through as much as possible and only punch in if I made a mistake. I was always under the impression that it made the riffs flow better but I am just an amateur. Also love that tip about putting the play head back at the beginning after hitting space. That will save me a ton of time! 😎
Here's my tip from way too many years of trial and error: Recording amps doesn't have to be hard! When I was young and starting out on zero budget and using whatever my parents had bought me, I'd take whatever random mic I had access to and put it in front of my crappy little practice amp (which I couldn't even perceive how average it sounded at the time), turned down to a bedroom level and I'd be frustrated at how terrible my guitar tracks sound. This sounds like the most obvious thing but if you take an amp that sounds good in the room, play it at gigging level and put an SM57 in the centre of the speaker cone, it's gonna just work. I always knew that on an intellectual level but I actually started believing it when I heard the results I got from my own home studio.
(Cubase specific) If you hit Zero (0) on your keyboard key pad it will take you back to where your cursor was before you stopped. This will based on where you last clicked the cursor or where you last started playback/recording from.
I use Logic Pro X. Picked up a couple tips in this vid. To share back, here is my tip... When recording I do input monitoring externally like on the audio interface or quad cortex. This removes the noticeable round trip delay.
numb pad commands for cubase are crucial, you could and should do an entire video on METAL MACROS in cubase, its so easy to create exactly what you want best daw out there
Hi Scott!! Really good video, as allways. I got the guitar tone mastery years ago and it's amazingly good.. I just recomend averyone interested in getting awesome guitars. Go on rocking!!🤘🤘🤘🤘
Sometimes when I have problems with latency using guitar plugins (and if the take I have to play is easy) I mute the guitar and I just listen to the drums/metronome so that I can concentrate on the timing of my pick attack.
Hey man I have a tip for you, instead of using a limiter, and using as much digital gain that causes the white noise in the high end, try using a boss CS-1 compressor pedal. It will squash the signal from spiking and also saturate the guitar tone so you have more sustain and analog distortion. I have a short video on my channel about this
How would you go about recording guitars. When there is 2 guitarist. Say for instance with harmonies and when a riff keeps playing but second guitarist is hitting chugs. Lets use Killswitch engage for example. When the harmonies are down the centre. My setup is. (Gtr group 1) >> gtr 1 L >> gtr 1 R (Gtr group 2) >> gtr 2 L >>gtr 2 R Is this too much.
Nope, that's not too much at all! You're basically quad tracking. I also separate each pair of guitars out when I want to do different guitar tones, so the layout looks pretty normal to me!
That’s pretty similar to how I record guitars. I don’t put any amp sims on until after I record everything though. Another good tip that I don’t think enough beginners think about is make sure the guitar is in tune. I recorded a couple of friends once and their stuff was unlistenable because they weren’t in tune
Hey man love your channel, just one thing that gets me every time is the fire burning sound under the intro music.. Takes away from the vibe and reminds me of the digital clipping i had when i was new.
Dude you are the man! Love your studio name! thank you for helping reduce the learning curve for the next guy. You record however you want an F the haters
I would recommend using something like a Pod Go to record guitars. It has been a game changer for me. Using the pod go as your interface you can record both the processed amp signal as well as the di at the same time. As well as Monitor yourself with very little to no latency while recording. Recording while monitoring in daw through plugins (neural plugins can be cpu hogs) can have quite a bit of latency depending on your computer/interface setup. Also it allows for easy reamping. Probably could do this with other modelers as well.
It depends on your needs. The only downside is you can't record vocals with the pod go( guess you could if using a dynamic mic but it wouldn't yield the best results) I program my drums and bass so I don't need a lot of ins/and outs. So I would say if your only recording guitar/bass the Pod Go would be the best way to go. Even then I would still say if your recording vocals and everything else I would still use the Pod go for guitar/bass and something like a Scarlet 2i2 for recording vocals and mixing.
Also I feel it is essential to have a di box when recording guitar into an interface. It's will preserve the guitar's signal much better than the built in instrument inputs on budget usb interfaces.
I thought about getting it Evertune Bridge a bunch of times but I worry about what gauge of string those things can handle. What gauge are you using? I use 70 through 10 for drop A tuning on my LTD Buzz 7. But it does get old having to tune up a Floyd Rose after each take. I got the PDF too thanks a lot
Actually you can use even thinner strings to make it easier, and the Evertune automatically keeps the correct tension. This is the only reason I can play this guitar due to my hand injury. It's really comfortable to play! I imagine it could handle any type of strings you throw at it.
ii have guitar tone mastery. its great and i really recommend it. i use reaper. try and record guitar to midi drums rather than a metronome, when possible. its going to give the recordings a feel and definition that adds to certain parts of a song. f.eks. when you record a breakdown, you are automatically going to play "heavier" when you hear the drums that fits the part, rather than if you used a metronome.
