Help with guitar recording frequencies

romanianreaper

Well-known member
I use Reaper for recording and was hoping you guys could give me some "rule of thumb" frequencies to use for polished recordings. I am not one of those people that beats things to death as far as tones because I'm not in a professional studio and doing this for money, etc. I just like doing recordings and letting friends listen, etc. Don't get me wrong, I want them to sound polished and professional but don't want to spend a ton of money, etc. I get pretty good results but want to do everything I can do get a good sound.

I already understand the low frequencies and cut the low end to avoid muddy recordings and to let the guitars fit in with the bass, etc. I'm really trying to focus more on the high frequencies. I want the guitars to pop out but not to sound harsh. I record a guitar part and pan it left and then record another and pan it right. I was curious if you guys try to match the EQ fixes so both guitar parts are in the same areas of the EQ?

Anyway, any tips would be great. Like I said, nothing too detailed or over the top just trying to get some polish into the tones. Thanks gents!!
 
it’s really hard to say without hearing it. It’s always about balance. If you like a lot of low end then you need to add high end to balance it.
 
slyym":377snkyw said:
it’s really hard to say without hearing it. It’s always about balance. If you like a lot of low end then you need to add high end to balance it.

Thanks man! I looked up a few articles and vids and seems like there are certain frequencies that make a mix sound dull, bland, honky, etc. if they are dropped or boosted. They were mentioning that 300 khz needs a dip sometimes, 200-250 khz is a good place to slightly boost, etc. It is not one of those automatic things but they talked about how it helps the recording breathe.
 
Don't ever boost or cut something because you read it in an article or watched it in a video. I learned that shit the hard way. KNOW what you boosting or cutting because you actually Hear it in your mix. Ultimately to be a good at mixing you have to develop your ears and that takes a minute. There isn't any generic frequencies that u can always cut or boost. Sorry, lol!!!
 
slyym":2n2ai3b6 said:
Send me your reaper project and I'll make it sound good and you can see what I did.

Thanks! Yeah let me throw together something and I'll try to send soon. Do you have Reaper? Just wondering what parts I need to send.
 
Plugins often have presets and that can be a good place to start. For example, my eq plugin has a preset for rhythm guitar which includes lo and hi pass. If the guitars are too fizzy or the bass guitar is not coming through or if the overall mix is too boomy/muddy I make adjustments as needed.
 
Tone Monster":v0ojrsk8 said:
Cutting is always bettter than boosting unless you have really high end gear

Thanks, I was actually reading about that yesterday! They were talking about cutting frequencies to clean things up and keeping boosting to minimal amounts
 
Tronald Dump":10y0e1d3 said:
Plugins often have presets and that can be a good place to start. For example, my eq plugin has a preset for rhythm guitar which includes lo and hi pass. If the guitars are too fizzy or the bass guitar is not coming through or if the overall mix is too boomy/muddy I make adjustments as needed.

Good point! There is a great plugin that has "bass", "marshall type amp", etc. and like you said, good base to start from.
 
6k seems to be a magic number. Give or take.

Play with the drums master bus as well as guitar. Sometimes cutting a notch on the drums or boosting guitar around there does good things.
 
Those are some of my goto EQ's
(I use reaper btw)

I like to high pass at 100hz,
lowpass from 5.5khz to 7khz. 5.5khz is low, but it's not a right angle EQ, it's a slope. The frequencies will be a bit attenuated a lot less in the lower frequencies.
You can shelf a bit at 200hz to lower the bass to be able to merge more the bass and the guitar.
You can add at 70-80hz pretty high to add thump. Weird I know I lowpassed but it works

I don't really like the 6khz. Cut
A "brighter" sound is a light boost with a wide Q at 4khz
A light cut at 300hz

Solo I boost the 600hz with a pretty wide Q

A saturation after all the eq's is great to round off the some highs. It distort the high ending into a more smoother one.. I like Kazrog True Iron and JS. Saturation
Those rounded high's can be brought back, better, with a -light- exciter. JS:Exciter (maybe 10-20% harmonic)
You can also highlight the bass and the highs with a widener by centering the bass and widening the highs. JS:Stereo Enhancer (let's say 80% bass, 130% highs) on the master mix)

Last, two different guitar sounds who sucks by themselves can make magic when played together. That's a tough one to accept ;)

Don't use too much gain and effects,
If you want you can quadtrack guitar. (100% 80% 80% 100%)
I don't like hard panned guitar (when using two tracks). I would pan them 80% each.

Room reverb. A bit. i really help remove the "ear stuck to the grill" effect of most speaker IRs. I would recommand valhalla room. Studio alpha preset

PS : I wasted numerous YEARS mxing on a home stereo set to "flat" with generic home entertainement speakers. Don't do that.
Use some real monitors. It's an eye opening experience.
I use iLoud micro monitors. I love them. I would say it's the single best gear purchase I ever made.
 
romanianreaper":263eh85p said:
slyym":263eh85p said:
Send me your reaper project and I'll make it sound good and you can see what I did.

Thanks! Yeah let me throw together something and I'll try to send soon. Do you have Reaper? Just wondering what parts I need to send.
Just zip up the whole project folder. I’ll show you how simple it really is to make
Something sound good.
 
frthib":n49nzoj6 said:
Those are some of my goto EQ's
(I use reaper btw)

I like to high pass at 100hz,
lowpass from 5.5khz to 7khz. 5.5khz is low, but it's not a right angle EQ, it's a slope. The frequencies will be a bit attenuated a lot less in the lower frequencies.
You can shelf a bit at 200hz to lower the bass to be able to merge more the bass and the guitar.
You can add at 70-80hz pretty high to add thump. Weird I know I lowpassed but it works

I don't really like the 6khz. Cut
A "brighter" sound is a light boost with a wide Q at 4khz
A light cut at 300hz

Solo I boost the 600hz with a pretty wide Q

A saturation after all the eq's is great to round off the some highs. It distort the high ending into a more smoother one.. I like Kazrog True Iron and JS. Saturation
Those rounded high's can be brought back, better, with a -light- exciter. JS:Exciter (maybe 10-20% harmonic)
You can also highlight the bass and the highs with a widener by centering the bass and widening the highs. JS:Stereo Enhancer (let's say 80% bass, 130% highs) on the master mix)

Last, two different guitar sounds who sucks by themselves can make magic when played together. That's a tough one to accept ;)

Don't use too much gain and effects,
If you want you can quadtrack guitar. (100% 80% 80% 100%)
I don't like hard panned guitar (when using two tracks). I would pan them 80% each.

Room reverb. A bit. i really help remove the "ear stuck to the grill" effect of most speaker IRs. I would recommand valhalla room. Studio alpha preset

PS : I wasted numerous YEARS mxing on a home stereo set to "flat" with generic home entertainement speakers. Don't do that.
Use some real monitors. It's an eye opening experience.

I use iLoud micro monitors. I love them. I would say it's the single best gear purchase I ever made.

Agreed!

:cheers:
 
Yeah, I have seen TONS and TONS of people, literally everyone online saying to pan 100% like it is mandatory. Yet, every single pro recording I have heard does not do that. I can always hear a little bit of the left guitar in the right speaker and vice versa. Plus IMO I have done the 80% or 84% and it sounds better and wider to me.
 
I like quad-tracked rythm guitars with a pair hard panned, and another pair 3dB lower and panned 90%. 80 I feel is too narrow, but each to his own.

I like to low pass at 12K. I do like some fizz up top. I feel it makes the guitars more airy and 3D.

I also feel high passing at 100 Hz is too high considering the low E's fundamental is eighty something, and that's if you're tuned to standard E.

I wouldn't dream of using reverb on rythm guitars either, but I do like the upfront in-your-face sound of close mic'd speakers.

Then again, I play metal, and I like contemporary polished mixes.
 
Rex Rocker":6g02ktlt said:
I like quad-tracked rythm guitars with a pair hard panned, and another pair 3dB lower and panned 90%. 80 I feel is too narrow, but each to his own.

I like to low pass at 12K. I do like some fizz up top. I feel it makes the guitars more airy and 3D.

I also feel high passing at 100 Hz is too high considering the low E's fundamental is eighty something, and that's if you're tuned to standard E.

I wouldn't dream of using reverb on rythm guitars either, but I do like the upfront in-your-face sound of close mic'd speakers.

Then again, I play metal, and I like contemporary polished mixes.

Good points. The preset on my eq plugin is lo pass at 16k and high pass as 100hz. I often slide those back to 12k and 90hz. Maybe 8-10k lo pass when using modelers.
 
Yes, it is material dependent but there are places to start

80 is where the Kick drums lives. You could tweak that down to 71 for deeper tatse, but you get the idea. Keep everything else out of here!
Bass guitar should be cut there and accented below and above that

GUITAR
low cut anywhere from 80-100
160: Ride the Lightning low boost (narrow Q)
400: DMoll mid cut (good for high gain chainsaw rhythm)
400: boost here for cool vocal-ish lead tones (got this from Pete Turley Recto Orange switch on mts)
500: cut here for Mark type scoop (I usually choose the 400 cut instead)
1.4 narrow boost: djenty quack (I don't like too much of this but others might, got this from a Merrow patch)

Digital trick that works on any guitar track: take a High Q and boost it up, sweep around the high range and find annoying sounds- that is where you can cut
you can do this on one or two frequencies and it will really polish up and smooth out the high end. Don't cut too much as somehow these annoying frequencies are sometimes essential

:rock:
 
Thanks everyone for the replies and tips! I really appreciate it and taking it all in. I know things are relative in a sense due to different pickups, amps, personal preferences, etc. but I also know there are certain things like cutting low end that everyone can agree on due to how they can muddy recordings.

All great tips from everyone!
 
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