4 Simple Shortcuts to Grooving Guitar Tracks
If you’re looking for new arrangement ideas for guitar, check out my 4 ways to a groovier guitar production.
1. Find the Sweet Spot
The sweet spot is where the instrument sounds the best. Usually this is a pretty subjective sound, but there are some guidelines to go by.
- Acoustic Guitar – The sweet spot is usually where the neck meets the body, around the 12th fret. This is where you get a balanced sound, or a good combination of highs and lows.
- Electric Guitar – When talking about electric guitars, we’re usually talking about the amplifiers. The sweet spot on an amplifier is where the dust-cap(the center cap) of the cone meets the cone itself. It usually gives you a smooth sound, without the harsh attack of the center of the rounded tone of the edge.
2. Double Track Your Guitars
Double-tracking guitar can be overlooked. You might not have the time to do it, or just can’t seem to make it sound right. When done well, double-tracked guitars really thicken up the guitar sound and make a strummy acoustic track sound lush and wide and a rock guitar sound thick and powerful.
- Acoustic Guitar – If you want a different take on double-tracking acoustic guitars, try different chord voicings with a capo. Check out How to Create a Wall of Acoustic Guitars for more information.
- Electric Guitar – Double-tracked rock guitars are tricky. You need to have a tightly recorded double in order for them to sound good together. Check out
3. Find a Space
If you have a lot of guitar tracks, chances are they are all fighting for the same frequencies. You can’t make all your guitars sit on the same frequency. They’ll get in the way of each other and it will create a cluttered mess out of your guitar sound.
Create a space for each guitar track with EQ. If you’re boosting one frequency on a particular guitar track, cut it on the other. Give each guitar track an individual EQ curve, so that each guitar has their own space. This makes each guitar stand out on its own, giving you better definition and clarity in your guitars.
4. Smooth out the Edges
Sometimes you need to smooth out your guitar sound. They can sound a little rough around the edges. Your acoustic guitar might have a clangy string sound or your electric might have too much distorted hiss.
- Acoustic Guitar – Are you dealing with an acoustic guitar that sounds brittle and hars? This “cheap-o” sound of an acoustic guitar can be mellowed out with EQ. Reducing the mids, around 800 Hz mellows out the brittle string sound and increases the warmth.
- Electric Guitar – Noisy hiss from distorted guitars can really ruin an otherwise great take. Use a low-pass filter to take out all the unnecessary highs you don’t need. If that doesn’t work, try cutting in the high mids. Too much of 4 – 8 kHz can really bring a guitar sound down with too much hiss.
Learn to Produce and Record Electric Guitar Like a Badass
If you need to enhance your electric guitar tracks, it seems to be you have three options:
First, you could keep browsing Youtube videos for bite-sized pieces of the puzzle, learning disjointed topics on producing that all contradict each other, waste time watching the ads in front of the videos and cry yourself to sleep from accidentally venturing into the comments section.
Second, you could suck it up, shrug and do absolutely nothing. This is the easiest solution, although not a very productive one. Your guitar tracks will stay the same quality and you can accept that your guitar production skills are never going to improve.
Or third, give Producing & Electric Guitar with Mark Marshall a try and prepare to crank out amazing guitar sounds.
Of those three options, what’s going to be easier for you?
Most people pick option three and start making powerful guitar productions as early as tomorrow. They’ve realized that they’ve got nothing to lose because their decision is backed by a 100% Money-Back Guarantee.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
- Increase your confidence in creating great guitar tones from scratch
- Learn about popular mics, amps and guitar recording techniques
- Learn essential EQ, Compression and gain staging techniques
- Discover specific processing chains used in various styles of music
- Learn the hardware and software variables that affect your guitar tone
- Explore the sonic and technical differences between various effects
- Learn tips and tricks for getting the most out of software & amp simulators
- Learn how to get classic guitar tones by The Beatles, Bowie & more
- Confidently choose the best guitar, amp and effects depending on your goal
- Explore the differences between various guitars, bridges, capos & more
- Learn tips, tools and tricks for getting a wide range of different guitar tones
Just one more thing before I forget. Once you’ve grabbed Producing & Recording Electric Guitar, you can send me your receipt and I’ll forward you my two bonus videos:
- Acoustic Guitar Strategies: A crash course in how to capture a brilliant acoustic guitar recording, with both mono and stereo miking techniques.
- Quick Guitar Tips for a Cooler Guitar Production Using EQ, Modulation Effects, Reverb and Delay
To get these exclusive bonuses for free, get your copy of the Producing & Recording Electric Guitar through my link before tonight, and then email me your receipt.
How would you feel if you knew all the tricks to crank out killer electric guitar recordings with ease?
If impressing your fans with your awesome guitar tones sounds like a good feeling, all you need to do is grab Producing & Electric Guitar right now.
Enjoy the course!
Björgvin
Image by: MightyBoyBrian
Home Studio, Music Mixing, Recording Tips
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