Guitar mix tone

[steve trusty]

I’ve been mixing/mastering my latest song. One of my biggest struggles these days is getting a solid guitar tone on my albums. When I get it sounding to my likes, I preview it on different systems - car, phone, Bluetooth/aux speakers. It ends up sounding very mid driven and boxy. While the tone isn’t too bad, it’s not... ever the sound I want. So I settle. 

Im reaching out today in hopes someone will listen to my track and tell me how to basically fix my sound to more of a modern rock/metal guitar sound. I’ve eq’d the “hisses” and useless frequencies,  but I end up with a very mid boxy sound. If I fix the boxy-ness it gets thin or too bright.. I’ve tried and tried eqing it out but for the life of me can’t pin point where to scoop or add. 

Heads up this isn’t the finished product. Merely a rough master. Esp the vocals. 

Also I say boxy but someone else may describe it differently 

I’m no beginner and I’ve article after article on how to fix this or that, just never translates 

Hopefully you have google drive. Suppose if need be I can upload to YouTube with a link only.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OR6I4jKeCHgHXb72rH6hsIQsxDvwEBsd/view?usp=drivesdk

Edited June 20, 2019 by TryMyTones

[Mesh]

I'm by no means qualified to give any advice on the mix, but have always had issues with getting good tones out of amp sims (generally too thin or boomy and lots of EQing needed). 

Then I got IK's Axe I/O which made a huge difference in getting good solid tones (at the initial gain stage). Now my amp sims sound like they're supposed to. I highly recommend it if you're a guitarist or a bass player....it's the closest thing to a real amp.

Hopefully, someone will chime in on the mix.

 

[Michael Grathwohl]

Imported the file and played with the eq a bit, this seemed to lessen the honk to my ears at least. It's obviously affecting the whole mix and it's all subjective anyway so take it with a grain of salt.

[steve trusty]

Agreed man, it’s a challenge. I bought neural dsp and tonal stl I think it was called.. while neural sounds really good stand alone, it does not translate well to mixing.. so much harshness when you really get down to it.. 

i appreciate the advice. I just may check into that one as well.. I look at amp sims like pedals these days.. can’t ever have too many. I looked into them a while back and for whatever reason I didn’t get it.. at this point though, frustration in the studio will drive me to spend more money!! Lol 

I wish someone would chim in! I posted in 2 forums on here. It’s hard to describe the sound I’m getting stuck with without actually hearing it, or comparing it.. 

Thanks again! \m/ 

[steve trusty]

I’ll have to give that a shot! Just seeing your reply after replying to the last post. Is that h hybrid plugin? Can’t think of the name.. Either way, I have that eq so I’ll definitely give it a shot when I get home. 

Thanks man! I appreciate it a lot. 

[Michael Grathwohl]

Np, hope it helps! That's just the waves SSL E channel.

[Mesh]

18 hours ago, TryMyTones said:

Agreed man, it’s a challenge. I bought neural dsp and tonal stl I think it was called.. while neural sounds really good stand alone, it does not translate well to mixing.. so much harshness when you really get down to it.. 

i appreciate the advice. I just may check into that one as well.. I look at amp sims like pedals these days.. can’t ever have too many. I looked into them a while back and for whatever reason I didn’t get it.. at this point though, frustration in the studio will drive me to spend more money!! Lol 

I wish someone would chim in! I posted in 2 forums on here. It’s hard to describe the sound I’m getting stuck with without actually hearing it, or comparing it.. 

Thanks again! \m/ 

In case you might be interested, I posted a thread just before I got the Axe I/O here:

 

[steve trusty]

Just a heads up that I haven’t been able to get to my computer as I wanted yet. But will refer to this forum soon as I do and try some ideas!! I appreciate everyone’s input! 

[Tezza]

That's just a little honk on the guitars, not much though, what are you using to monitor? should be able to pinpoint it and remove, probably around the 300 to 500k range. Should be able to find it with a parametric eq and medium/narrow Q. If your losing meat when you EQ just make the Q narrower.

I thought a bigger issue with the song was the drums, didn't have the bigger reverb stadium type sound normally associated with that style of music, in my opinion of course. Sounds good though!!

 

[Michael Grathwohl]

Took another listen to it with fresh ears. The honk seems to be sitting around 700hz. Kinda sounds like a cocked wah pedal.

The best advice I can give in my very limited experience, so please forgive me if you've already tried it, is try to find an IR or blend of IR's that sounds the closest to what you want from the start. If you think you'll have to notch a bunch of freqs, skip it. I've tried to EQ-shoehorn IRs into what I wanted and it just sounded *****.

And take a lot of breaks to let your ears reset. Some tones I spent quite a while trying to get, thought they sounded great only to come back the next day, again, sounded *****.

[Jim Roseberry]

I'd start at the source:

• Guitar
• Preamp
• AmpSim

If you get the sound pretty close "up front", it's a whole lot easier to mix.

A little high-pass filter on the bottom end (to keep from competing with the kick/bass)... and maybe a minor EQ boost/cut.

If you're EQ'ing the guitar heavily at mix, the signal (up front) isn't right.

 

A quality DI can make a huge difference in the final result using software based AmpSims.

Something like the Neve Shelford channel (albeit expensive) can make a massive difference in guitar/bass recordings. 

I was just talking about this on The Gear Page.

The Shelford channel combines a world-class Neve DI/preamp, EQ, and versatile compressor.

If you've ever tracked a passive Fender bass thru a cheap DI, it sounds weak/anemic.

That same passive Fender P or J bass sounds great straight off the Shelford channel's preamp. 

If you've ever compared playing a real amp vs. playing thru software AmpSims, the real amp responds much more smoothly to transients.

The Shelford channel's compressor can be used to smooth out the transients... making the AmpSim respond/sound more like a real amp.

• I know Craig Anderton has written about this subject (using a compressor before AmpSim) in numerous articles.
• He's also the reason why Gibson Les Paul Standard HP models have the dip switch position to reduce these transients.

Finally, there's the EQ section... which is perfect for tone-shaping on the way into the AmpSim.

Dial up your favorite Marshall tone.  Now, engage the Shelford's Mid band and give a slight boost at the 1.8k setting.

Perfect for that "pushed Mid" Marshall tone.

 

Running out and getting a world-class channel-strip isn't practical for every situation... but it's one of the few things that can make a very significant difference.

 

As with all things recording, get the sound as close to "right" as possible... up-front (at the source).