Mixing Music_Part # 14_Guitars



E Pluribus Unum …Out of many, one.

In mixing music, you run into contradictions to physics; when it comes to guitars in a musical recording More does not mean Bigger. More actually means Less. There will be less airspace in the mix for other instruments to shine tonally. Many guitarist have been surprised when Out of the many guitar parts they play in a song; it just becomes One small sounding jangly mess.

Mix engineers are tasked with using the limits of the airspace presented to them to its maximum level of efficiency (which is actually a limit of our body’s abilities to decipher what we hear).
As more components share aural airspace of the show (song), a greater diligence is placed on the mix engineer to ensure as open sounding a mix as is possible is delivered.
Open mixes sound great. You can aurally step inside them. This act alone allows the audience member some ownership …air guitar players are the perfect example.

There is an art to recording guitars which is a different topic but must be briefly discussed here. The biggest bane to a mix engineer is poorly recorded guitars. Poorly recorded guitars are what drive most guitar players to record multi-layer guitar parts. 
When recording guitars notice how the guitar amp/speaker is set in relation to the guitar players ears. Oh yeah. So ...either get the guitar player to lay on the floor with the speaker and microphone or ...tilt the speaker if possible. Back to the drum rule ...if it doesn't sound good at the mic ... Also notice how the guitar player changes their tone once they hear how the speaker actually sounds ...that or put the mic by the player's ear.


Guitar players are great at achieving their desired tone but unless they are mixdown engineers they are not strong at setting those tones or reverbs to play well with others. Reverb is an upcoming topic. Most artificial reverb coming from guitar players is them wanting to add some depth to their sound. Most of it, especially spring reverb, can only be achieved by the player and is not only a key component of their sound, but of the part they are playing as well ...they will play differently without it.

Basically, as a mix engineer you just need to shut up and "deal with it". Most of your mix issues will most likely come between keyboards and guitars. They require a lot of the same air space.
Al Ciner knew exactly what sound he wanted ... it was our job to capture it ... Al smiled.



Up Next_Keyboards

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