Any tips on how to make rythm guitars sound huge?

[androidkaita]

I feel like my guitar tracks are lacking that 'huge' sound to them that you would hear in something like Hacktivist for example. Just wondering if there were any tips or tricks you guys would share on how to help achieve that.

Here's a sample of what my guitar sounds like at the moment. Just two rythm guitars tracked 100% left/right, and drums, and center panned bass.

https://soundcloud.com/galactic-pegasus/thall-test-2

Guitar is an Ibanez RG7321, with Crunchlab/liquifire installed. POD Farm for tone, muted the cabinet and used redwirez to load an Orange impulse. Then added some eq and CLA guitar on top of it to get what you hear above. Bass tone is just pod farm plus some eq

 

[Blasphemer]

Quad tracking can help, with a L&R each panned hard, and then another L&R panned about 75% with a little less volume in the mix.

 

[J7string]

You have to be careful when quad tracking. It sounds amazing when you record, but when performing you have to make up for it. If you do perform, make sure your bass player has a boost of some type.

 

[Xiphos68]

Maybe this could help?




You could also add Chorus to certain chords to make the guitars sound "huge" like Alex Lifeson and John Petrucci do.

 

[Larcher]

is there a bass in this mix? I don't hear one, that's something that will give a bigger feel to your mix. I slap on a stereo enhancer on my bass, but I don't slam it in the ground either

 

[androidkaita]

is there a bass in this mix? I don't hear one, that's something that will give a bigger feel to your mix. I slap on a stereo enhancer on my bass, but I don't slam it in the ground either

Yeah there is bass, I can hear it pretty clearly through my speakers :/

I also just tried quad tracking and it barely made a difference, it's still sounding for the most part the same

 

[devolutionary]

I tend to dual-track with a tiny little amount of chorus on one side. Pan about 20-25% each side.

 

[redstone]

Hey, first I'd like to point that you lack some top end. Also, your midrange have to be cleaned up. Look at your guitar tracks via a spectrum analyzer, there surely are lot of unwanted peaks that need to be removed between 400 and 4Khz. Once done your guitars will sound wider and more tridimentional.

 

[BTFStan]

guitars should be a little lower in the mix, really make the kick sit behind the bass, and the bass right behind the guitars. Your sounds aren't bad, they just aren't gelling together very well.

 

[in-pursuit]

Yeah there is bass, I can hear it pretty clearly through my speakers :/

it's definitely there but it's pretty quiet. it sounds to me like your guitar tone is having a party and only the mids are on the door list. I'd boost the bass track to fill in the low end and make some selective cuts to the mids then see where you're at.

 

[N1h1l1ty]

Agree with everyone above, but I think a lot of it stems from the bass sounding fairly mid-range heavy (at least to me).

You want to work on filling it out, maybe add a "distorted" bass track if you don't have one to fill in the low end, and then EQ EQ EQ.

 

[VacantPlanet]

Agreed. If you listen to most recorded guitars, by themselves they sound somewhat tiny. A good relationship between the bass and the guitar is what makes them huge. I tend to split the bass between two channelsne clean and one dirt. The clean will contain most of the bass's low end while the dirt will contain the bass's high-mid/treble. Then, do a high pass on the guitars. You'll want to play around with the eq for that. Then you mix volume levels to taste. The idea is to let the bass do most of the "grunt work" for the low end, and the distorted bass sound can blend with the guitars top-end. Go on youtube and look for Ola Englund's tutorials on this. They're a great place to start.

 

[KingAenarion]

1) Bass and guitar well "carved" to fit together.

2) Clear mids (not over the top mids)

3) Guitars treated well. Notches on nasty boosts, very gently compressed at the bus (-2dB at the max), maybe a tiny amount of saturation and/or reverb to smooth out the transients in a pleasant manner that brings out the whole sound.

4) Parallel compression on the guitars will bring them out.

5) Well played guitars that are really tight will help.

6) The lowest gain possible to make them fat.

7) Different reamps with different sounds helps you get control of the spectrum as well.

I am too tired to think of more right now.

 

[Speculum Speculorum]

I'd lower the gain a bit, fix some EQ nasties (it might be a bit too far scooped in my little opinion), bus to a very light compressor or add some tape saturation (I love, LOVE, LOVE Slate VTM)

People have alluded to it with very light chorusing, but another nifty trick is using the Haas Effect. Google it.

 

[kamello]

guitars should be a little lower in the mix, really make the kick sit behind the bass, and the bass right behind the guitars. Your sounds aren't bad, they just aren't gelling together very well.

this, also, there is no bottom end!, try boosting the bass EQ of the guitar (or around 200 to 500 Hz maybe?) and the bass itself (see the Ola Englund Bass Tutorial for some tips) , also try adding a bit of overall compression to the Mix

 

[androidkaita]

This is what I came up with after messing around a lot more, I think it's a pretty big improvement

https://soundcloud.com/galactic-pegasus-2/troubles-cease-new-mix-test-1

 

[Batsinthebelltower]

This is what I came up with after messing around a lot more, I think it's a pretty big improvement

https://soundcloud.com/galactic-pegasus-2/troubles-cease-new-mix-test-1

your first post has to be trolling in comparison to this track , i take it this was the punchline

sick track

 

[androidkaita]

your first post has to be trolling in comparison to this track , i take it this was the punchline

sick track

hahahaha, it's really THAT much better? shit, haha I wasn't trolling

 

[niffnoff]

I still feel there is some bass lacking, like it isn't well defined. Your guitars are there and present and huger than anything.

 

[Rick]

Just fyi, Andrew, Josh Travis recorded Danza IIII with one track left and one track right. The guy who engineered it, Nick Scott, just recently joined as a member, you should talk to him. His posts are in the "Danza IV" thread.