How can you stop overusing EQ when mixing metal guitars?
As you might know, it’s extremely easy to fall down the never-ending EQ rabbit hole.
When you listen to your guitars in isolation, it’s so tempting to try and notch out every little offending frequency range that we zero in on.
As a matter of fact, it’s easy to cut so many frequencies that you’re (more or less) just turning your guitar track down. What’s the point of that??
How do pro mixers mix so quickly without ever getting too caught up in this trap?
In my latest tutorial, I reveal my favorite mixing techniques. I use it whenever I find myself getting too caught up in stuff that really doesn’t matter.
This is exactly how I stop overusing EQ when mixing metal guitars.
Also, be sure to download my FREE guitar cab impulse response. It’s an IR of my all-time favorite Mesa cab (with V30 speakers) out of my studio.
2 Responses
Hi Bobby,
first of all thank you for all what you share. Absolutely love your approach, keeping things simple and focused on what really matters, getting a well tracked source etc. Already helps me to improve.
I have two questions related to the mixing of heavily distorted rhythm guitars.
1. In case you mix miced distorted guitars (i.e. not using ampsim with impulse), do you sometimes use a blend of multiple mikes or just one? To specify – I mean hard panned gtrs. And if you blend more mics, what is your approach, used mikes and mic placement you found to be useful? The thing is – just when I stopped to try blending double miked tracks (like “one darker, one brighter…”) and intentionally chosen the one I considered to be already closer to the desired sound, I found myself using WAY less EQ to reach what I wanted and reached much more “natural” sound. Would be curious to know your experience.
2. Hard-panning of distorted rhythm guitars switched to mono (solo or whole mix) – despite tracked individually L and R, when switched to mono I notice significant decrease of volume. To say – even when I intentionally tried to do this on some pro metal records, I notice this as well but not that extent. What helped was to make also an aux track where L+R gtrs are switched to mono, panned to center, EQd bit differently than L+R and “mixed to taste”. This has not affected the perceived width of the mix any bad way and the mix works much better in mono. However – I am still in starting points of making a metal record of our band (made one full album of our band which however was not too much of metal) so what I feel now “OK” can still develop 🙂 Have you ever come through and over such a situation? If so, what was your solution?
Thanks and have a nice day,
Jan
Hello Jan!
I usually don’t blend mics when recording my guitars. Sometimes I’ll use a different mic placement on the left and right sides, but I don’t blend the mics within the same performance. Some guys really like doing it…others find that it doesn’t really add much. I never really liked the results, myself.
I don’t worry about what the mix sounds like in mono. I’ve heard so many killer pro records where the guitars absolutely disappear in mono. It’s pretty hard to avoid, so I don’t even worry about it to be honest.