Self-recording guitar players usually want better-sounding mixes, but often mess up in the following ways:
1. Amp Sims
Endlessly trying and tweaking different amp sims is a colossal waste of time. If your tone isn’t great and easy to dial in within a few minutes, you’re probably using the wrong IR. Amazing guitar tones can be achieved with even the free amp sims available today as long as they’re paired with a quality impulse response.
2. Quad Tracking
If you want “bigger” sounding guitar tracks, avoid recording unnecessary layers. Recording more than one well-tracked rhythm guitar per side will often make your mixes sound cluttered and less clear.
3. Panning
Guitars are one of the easiest instruments to sit into a mix. The trick is to NOT overcomplicate things like the panning of your guitar tracks. Pan your rhythms 100% L & R and call it a day. Panning them inwards will only make your mixes sound smaller.
4. Input Levels
Here’s all you need to know about input levels: Don’t clip on the way into your interface when recording. There you go…that’s all you need to know. Overcomplicating this process is 100% unnecessary.
