Mixing Multiple Guitar Parts

[j$]

OK I have written two guitar parts for an acoustic guitar song. One is fairly chunky rhythym, playing chords, and the other is showy plucking (well, showy for me). It sounds great BUT a little busy when played together. I really don't want to change either part but I want them to sound distinguished from each other without sounding too much like two seperate guitars playing.

I tried panning them apart but it still sounds busy. Any other tips - tonal or stereo wise, that I might try to make the distinction sharper without over-doing it?

Long-shot for sure, but if you don't ask ...

[ken]

OK I have written two guitar parts for an acoustic guitar song.

Any other tips - tonal or stereo wise, that I might try to make the distinction sharper without over-doing it?

I have two ideas, and neither of them may work. The first is a recording trick, record the rhythm part with the mic fairly far away. This will give the part a distant sound. Mic the picked part up close. Perhaps this will help. Second, Eq the parts differently, cut one and boost the other on the same frequency. I suggest something about the rhythm being the low end and the picking being the top end. With vocals this works well at 1500, cut the backing vocal and boost the lead. You'll have to find a good frequency for the guitars.

Good Luck.

Be well,
ken

[Adam!]

I frequently have the same problem mixing two electrics. My solution is give the rhythm guitar a stereo delay <17ms, so the right channel is a little out of phase with the left channel. Then mix in the original un-delayed track to taste. I find a stereo delay around 11ms a) fattens up the rhythm track b) distinguishes it psychoacousticly from the lead guitar, which is not delayed in this manner, and c) can help mask minor timing issues.

Also find an important frequency band that makes both guitar tracks jump out at the listener (I'd try 3khz). Boost that band by 1-3 db in the picking track, and cut it by the same amount in the rhythm track. <i>EDIT: Yeah, what Ken said.</i>

If it's still too busy it sounds like the dynamics of each track are fighting with each other. I'd say compress the hell out of the rhythm guitar so that it acts as a bed for the picking part. If you really want to get crazy you could use a side-chain compressor/expander to force the dynamics of the rhythm part to conform to the dynamics of the picking part, but that might sound like total ass.

Consider any number in here a variable and experiment with its value.

[fluffy]

Even a stereo delay of 1ms can make a pretty big impact, from the way that the brain processes stereo information (in turn due to how speed moves at about 1 foot per millisecond). For a realistic pan you should always add a stereo delay anyway, like if it's panned hard left then add 1ms on the right, and vice-versa (and for non-hard pans reduce it accordingly, i.e. 50% left pan means 0.5ms delay on the right, and so on). This will make the instrument sound like it's placed in front of you, and not moving through your head, particularly if you're listening on headphones.

Good 5.1-channel mixing environments (like Cubase SX and Logic Pro) will do this for you automatically when you mix down from 5.1 to stereo (and will also apply various other EQing to make the effect that much more realistic). Of course, 5.1-channel mixing environments are way more expensive than that copy of Audition you warezed, and you also typically need to do it as a 5.1 mix from the get-go, not as a stereo mix.

[c hack]

Couldn't hurt to record the chord-guitar part with a different, complimentary, instrument. Like a Rhodes or something. I think it's probably in general not a good idea to have another guitar around if one is fingerpicking.

That said, I'm sure I can think of some professionals who've done it and done it well. Best thing to do is copy the way someone else did it -- I'll look over my mp3s when I get home. Excpet, I'll be out watching the Sox and getting drunk, so it'll probably have to wait till tomorrow

[jb]

I split the last few posts here off into a new thread. In order to make the Help thread as useful as possible, especially for people doing searches, let's really try to keep threads focused on a particular subject.

When you can't think of a specific subject for your threads, I'll try to make one as the discussion goes on.

jb

[j$]

Thanks everyone - I will try these techniques tonight and see where it ends up.

And thanks for the rename JB; I was concerned that I didn't have an audio example to hand which is why i went vague. But the new title is so straight forward it makes me wonder whY i didn't think of it in the first place.

j$