Listen, listen and then again listen - high pass mostly, and depending on the sound i aim for, use comp, dist, eq and all that, sometimes I side chain guitars with voice, not total but an important freq or a freq range again it depends on the sound
Nothing that should be repeated. Eveytime I mix my guitar tracks I think i should replace all my pickups. I shouldn't, they're fine. But the impulse is to throw money at the the problem. Thanks for another video filled with great advice though.
you are god sent for me..having no access to any engineering school to be able to know that you bear your heart out for your mission of educating us..lots and lots of gratitude..love from India.
Warren I can't thank you enough for these types of videos. I usually watch them several times over a week and find new things to try with each viewing. My roommate, who complained constantly about my "listening to 5 seconds of the same thing over and over" when I first started, now loves to hear the before and after mix when I am finished. Take good care. :)
Another excellent video. I need to remember the bit at 4:52, about how something might have to sound not-great in isolation in order to cut through in the mix.
Thanks so much for this. People always talk about struggling with the bass and kick drum in their mixes. But I actually find guitar to be the hardest thing to mix. Especially dirty guitars. They always sound way too muddy or too harsh to me.
I've found that you don't need nearly as much gain as what you initially think. On the front end going into the amp, Run your guitar into a treble boost (I like the Electro Harmonix LPB-1, because it's super cheap and effective,) then into some really mild overdrive/distortion like a tubescreamer of sorts set with the gain really low to saturate just enough on the way into the amp, then when finally adding that final level of overdrive/distortion it sits super comfortably in the mix with very low effort in post. The treble boost is going to simply take what your guitar does and boost it. It gives your guitar, itself, a bunch of energy pre-gain. The Tubescreamerish drive can then saturate the guitar, itself, just enough so that you can still clearly hear the guitar in equal parts to the overdrive or the amp. When you can really only hear the distorted amp or distorted pedal it's really hard to find a great way to place it in the mix. When you can still clearly hear equal parts guitar and amp it truly places itself. Then in post it's super easy to make sure frequencies don't interfere with each other from instrument to instrument, or even more importantly vocals. The treble boost still works great going into amp simulations so try it on everything. For the record these are not my original ideas. I learned this in my earliest days of guitar session work in Nashville. I try not to fix what isn't broken.
@@legacyShredder1 yeah, unfortunately there's no way I can mic an amp well in my current situation. So amp sims it is. For treble boost, I sometimes use a Electro Harmonix Soul Food. It sounds terrible when you turn up the gain, but if you have it all the way down it acts as a good high pass filter. I do have a nice DI box and mic pre. The DI box seems to add clarity and the mic pre adds color and harmonic saturation. I'm looking into getting other overdrive and boost pedals. I usually use "in the box" overdrive and it's not always the best. Thanks for the tips.
@@rome8180 Check out the boost I mentioned. It will only boost the guitar on the way in. Electro Harmonix LPB-1. It's like $40. If you have anything else that's a super mild distortion put it right after. Then use your DI.
This series is so cool because you get multiple viewpoints from great mixers! Can you try to incorporate more on the fly mixing so that we can see the thought process behind every decision
That is the most beautiful looking Les Paul that Mr Wagner is playing on the photo insert! I have never seen anything like it! I want one!!!!!!! Also great instructional video, Warren (as always). Love the song!
I’m probably at the point where I need to start doing all of these things but your videos have made my recordings sound like a record finally. Appreciate these vids man, changed my world.
@@Producelikeapro I’m not gonna bug you again lol cuz I’m small potatoes but I have to say this. I’ve been recording heavy on garage band for three years and it’s all horrible, you can’t even imagine. I bought a set of mixing headphones and started watching your vids, it had an immediate effect. I don’t even have mics. It’s live drums with quiet cymbals and heads, I’m recording with an iPhone 4, but they sound amazing. You changed my life man. Anyway, I got one close, it’s called drain on me and I parked it on my page. Maybe someone can tell me why my guitar solo doesn’t sit sit right lol Worth a shot 🔥 This is the only time I’ll ramble on, appreciated.
Along with British understatement (which I absolutely wish would replace American hyperbole on the Internet as a whole) I really rather love when you use somehow immediately decipherable sound terms like saying the acoustic is a bit “splatty.” Woofy, boxy, gluey. I have always said the pickup in my acoustic sounds too “splashy” live but “splatty” is more what I’m trying to say.
Great video! Thanks Warren, learned a lot with these great insights. Only thing I don’t like, is the acoustic sound of Bob Horn’s mix. I mean it’s a personal thing and he does a great job. That’s the modern sound of acoustic guitars. But I prefer the lush and smooth sound of the late 60’s/early 70’s. Anyway, a great video overall. Keep going!
Hey Warren, Great content as always! I have a question, though. A lot of tutorials always mention that when we use compressors that we need to match the output level to the input level. In your video you use the RVox and others with a boost coming out of them. When/how do you make the decision to boost coming out of a compressor vs level matching?
I don’t feel like the A/B EQ demo on the Abbey Road plug-in was fair since we didn’t compare the volumes at equal levels. That being said, I’m sure the mixer is beyond my talent and the plug-in is definitely the right tool for its purpose here, but just wanted to mention this anyway.
As I’m sure you’re aware the artists get the royalties. I know it’s fashionable to do rant videos about ads etc, however as an artist and proud er myself I believe that it’s important that artists make money from the music they’ve written and recorded.
This is a great series. I'd love to see more diversity among the guest engineers. These vids could be a great opportunity to platform some of the female/POC talent out there.
