Guitar sound treatment advice

spark240 · February 2015

My mate asked me to record this for him, it was all done in a couple of hours so no real time spent yet but Im not sure about the guitar sound, it seems a bit middly / muddy...there is a dry signal panned slightly left and a mic'd signal right.

Any EQ advice?

He writes some odd stuff but I got to like it after a few takes !

steamabacus · February 2015

There's on old eq trick I often use that involves a parametric eq.

Set your eq to a high q (narrow bandwidth) and maximum boost/gain. Then, while playing the track, sweep it through the frequency range until you home in on the frequency (or frequencies, you may want to do a couple of passes) which sounds the WORST. Once you've found an ugly frequency, set the gain to zero and then start CUTTING that frequency until the offending frequencies are reduced sufficiently. You may well want to WIDEN the q slightly as well.

I find this a very effective technique which allows you to identify the problem frequencies by exaggerating them until they are obvious.

PolarityMan · February 2015

I used to do this but after reading "The Systematic Mixing Guide" I stopped doing it, basically the point being that if you boost the crap out of a narrow frequency there is always going to be one that sticks out. tbh these days I basically hi pass then cut small notches for each bass and guitar and thats basically it unless something sounds awful.

I think before when I was focussed on this sort of technique I really over processed and killed a lot of the meat of the guitars.

Listening to this piece I kinda see what the OP means...it doesnt sounds quite present enough and some of the thump from the picking hand is being lost. I reckon a condensor on the 12th fret and possible another about 6 inches back from the soundhole would capture this kind of piece really well then blend to taste.

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Guitar sound treatment advice

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