Make Guitars that POP out of your speakers

We’ll break this down into 3 main sections: Performance, Amp & Tone and Processing.

Performance:

Guitar Voicing: You don’t need to play every string on the guitar. Be selective about what space you’re taking up sonically and let that inform what voicing you should play on the guitar. It allows you to layer guitars more easily giving you a bigger sound and more guitars that can POP out of the speakers,

Don’t play as hard as you think: Soften your grip. Don’t strangle the guitar… seriously. Loosening your grip reduces fret buzz, problematic intonation and allows your hand to move freely around the neck. It also takes a lot of strain off your hand meaning you can play for longer…

Amp & Tone

Use a cleaner tone than you think: Just trust me on this. In my opinion, a cleaner guitar tone with some nice saturation sits way better in a mix than an overdriven guitar amp from your DAW because let’s face it, sometimes the sounds are questionable.

Change the amp tone for different guitar parts: different amps mean more separation which is an absolute must if you want a wide mix full of clarity - try it.

Processing

Get as close to the sound you want in the amp: Don’t rely on the array of plugins I’m sure you may or may be thinking about accumulating. Most amp simulations have pedals that replicate these effect, use them and dive into a nice world of pedals galore!

Use a gate: Don’t underestimate the power of this small tool. An aggressive gate with a quick release can tidy up loose playing, and makes your guitar sound a whole lot more punchy. This works so well. it also eliminates fret noise and fumbling. The equivalent of mouth noise from a vocalist.

Inverse EQ your guitars: If you boost 400hz but 2db on guitar one, cut away 2db at 400hz on guitar 2… this will create a 4db difference between the frequency bands and do this across the frequency spectrum 2-3 times. This is not a corrective EQ but more a creative EQ - The sole intention of doing this is create more separation. Give it a try next time. Works wonders.

Thanks again for dropping, as always, have a good one and I’ll see you next time.