A Beginner's Guide to Mixing Metal at Home - Episode 3 pt. 1 (Guitars)

In this episode I attempt to cover mixing guitars. Everyone into metal has an opinion on guitars, it's probably the hardest thing to write a tutorial on as there's just so many possibilities. So rather than simply show you "use these settings" to get 'my' sound, I've tried to explain what thought processes and preparation you need to go through to make sure the sound you want or create will work well when the rest of the band is also playing.
Useful Links:
Impulses/Convolution Reverb: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution_reverb#Real_space_simulation

Alain Lepou Free VSTs- http://lepouplugins.blogspot.com/2010/02/lextac.html

Voxengo Boogex - http://www.voxengo.com/press/82/

Welcome to my new series on mixing heavy metal using your DAW or home computer. When I was looking online for a lot of this information I often came across a very unhelpful answer to reasonable questions -
Q: "how should I eq my kick?"
A: "There's no set template for EQ you fool, every project is different.

Whilst these 'experts' are fundamentally correct, it doesn't help the person who has no idea where to begin. My settings and my methods won't work for everyone, but at least if you have an understanding of how I go about things then it will help you to find a good starting point for your own stuff.
Episode 1: Drums
Episode 2: Bass.
Episode 3: Guitars (2 parts)
Episode 4 will follow soon and cover vocals

I own all rights to the music used in this series.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• heavy metal
• metal
• home recording
• cubase
• mixing guitars
• mixing metal
• mixing bass
• how to record heavy metal
• recording drums
• compressing audio tracks
• mixing and EQ for metal
• DAW
• using VST
• Guitar Cabinet Impulses

[OhSoInsane]

the synth in your intro sounds a LOT like "The code is veronica" theme from Resident Evil Code Veronica X, watch?v=79u36lbB0Yk

[Jamesmsv]

@OhSoInsane I'll take that as a compliment, that game has got to be in the top 3 ever released for the PS2!

[fuseunison]

GREAT video!!! Does anyone know where to get a copy of the Voxengo Boogex vst. The link above seems to be dead, and Google didn't help. =(

[Jamesmsv]

That's strange... still, your wish is my command. If you google 'voxengo boogex' it should come up - I can't write web addresses in comments any more so I'll pm you....

[Tombking2]

I was soooooo disappointed off the guitar sound, after all the playing around, when i heard it, it sounded so dry and muddy in my ears

[Jamesmsv]

@Tombking2 That's one reason I stayed away from saying 'use this eq setting and this impulse" - even if you copied mine exactly it wouldn't sound the same because you would use a different guitar, different pickups, different compressor etc. it all has an effect. The only thing I can say is that finding a great guitar tone is never easy, just keep trying different things until you find something that works for you. Also, remember one dry muddy guitar might sound great if layered with another.

[Jamesmsv]

@darkstonecastle That's not a bad idea. I have 2 more episodes to do in the Beginner's Guide series (Vocals, final mix), then I was looking for another subject to cover. Everyone seems to want more on guitars so this would be a good place to start.

[OhSoInsane]

@Jamesmsv yeah but its entirely similar well, from the first 12 seconds or so atleast of this video

[FleuryTheGreat]

very helpful

[TJVOLTAGE]

This tutorial is awesome. Definitely. Thank you very much for that. It´s helpful for all people trying to understand how to mix their own records. Thank you again.

[Tombking2]

Good stuff, good review, very helpful, though i wish you could have gotten to hear the music, sound tests, how it sounds when you play around with settings, it would help even more